Hidden costs of power: leaders’ knowledge hiding and innovation performance

Coopetition, digital innovation, and sustainable performance in international digital ventures: Moderating role of institutional environment

A market-focused RBV on green product innovation: Detailing the relationships between market responsiveness, green product innovation and new product performance

How does privacy protection affect the innovation performance of artificial intelligence corporations: empirical evidence from the personal information protection law

Innovation performance improvement path in scientific research teams: A perspective of network embeddedness

This paper explores a novel web-based indicator to examine how firms’ disclosure of university ties on their websites shapes their innovation performance. First, using data from the German Community Innovation Survey 2023 and the Tenders Electronic Daily database, combined with firms’ discloser of university ties on their website provided by ISTARI.AI, we investigate the indicator’s properties by comparing the most frequently disclosed types of university ties: innovation collaborations, university customers, and employee education, with firms’ survey responses and their procurement contracts. Second, we analyze how website disclosure of university ties relates to firms’ revenues from new or significantly improved products or services, applying Ordinary Least Squares, a Control Function, and Lewbel Instrumental Variable approach. In sum, the website disclosure of ties with universities is significantly associated with its related survey items and procurement contracts. Moreover, website disclosures show no consistent association with revenues from innovations new-to-the-firm. A consistent statistically significant relationship emerges only for small firms, where website disclosures are associated with higher revenues from market novelties. These findings suggest that our web-based indicator captures ties between firms and universities and that disclosing these ties on firms’ websites may influence the market success of their novel products. • We identify firms’ website mentions of universities, showing their potential as a granular, scalable indicator of firms’ different ties with universities. • Disclosed ties largely track firms’ actual engagement, but are used only by a small set of engaged firms. • Website mentions of university ties are conceptualized as low-cost, customer-facing signals. • There is no association between website disclosures and innovation revenues in general. • For small firms, website disclosures are positively associated with market-novelty revenues.

Environmental Regulation and Corporate Sustainability: A Review of Green Innovation Mechanisms and Performance Outcomes

Innovation-driven entrepreneurial design: examining the mediating effect of innovative culture on innovation capabilities and innovation performance

ABSTRACT Drawing upon the knowledge-based view (KBV) and the knowledge-based dynamic capabilities (KBDCs) perspective, this study examines the relationship between management innovation and hospital performance as well as the mediating role of organizational capital. Using data from 325 valid questionnaires completed by hospital HR managers in Taiwan, we conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping for analysis. Results show that management innovation fostered hospital performance, as measured according to the balanced-scorecard concept. Additionally, organizational capital mediated the relationship between management innovation and hospital performance, further indicating that the success of management innovation is determined by how such innovation is transformed into a knowledge-storage mechanism – that is, the organizational capital of a hospital.

ABSTRACT Building on the information-processing perspective and contingency theory, this study investigates how the complexity of green innovation influences performance. It also examines how aligning green innovation complexity with appropriate governance mechanisms can improve innovation outcomes. The empirical analysis reveals a curvilinear relationship between green innovation complexity and performance. Additionally, this study finds that administrative governance is more effective in boosting performance for low-complexity innovations, while relational governance works better for high-complexity innovations. This research provides theoretical contributions for future research on structural contingencies affecting innovation performance by developing a conceptual framework showing how different governance modes shape innovation outcomes. For practitioners, the findings highlight the importance of aligning governance with innovation complexity to maximise performance, offering practical steps to enhance green innovation and meet stakeholders’ sustainability expectations.

Purpose Australia’s innovation performance lags other advanced economies, highlighting the need to understand how boards can better support innovation. This study aims to examine the evolving representation of directors with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) expertise on Australian corporate boards and the extent to which this representation impacts innovation investment and firm value. Design/methodology/approach Hand-collected data on director backgrounds from the top 500 Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)-listed firms are used to assess changes in board STEM representation between 2007 and 2022. Regression analysis is then employed to examine the relationship between STEM director representation, innovation investment and firm value. Findings Despite a modest increase between 2007 and 2022, the representation of STEM directors on Australian corporate boards remains low. However, firms with greater STEM board expertise are associated with higher levels of innovation investment and firm value. These effects are strongest in firms without STEM CEOs and in industries with lower STEM representation. Practical implications As firms face increasing technological complexity and opportunities, appointing directors with STEM backgrounds may offer a competitive advantage. Policies and initiatives aimed at expanding the supply of STEM directors are therefore recommended. Originality/value While director expertise is known to influence firm outcomes, limited evidence exists on how STEM expertise at the board level shapes innovation and firm value, particularly in the Australian context. This study provides new evidence on how board STEM expertise contributes to both outcomes.

Digital transformation is a driving force in sustainable industrial development, yet evidence on the sustainable manufacturing outcomes of digital business initiatives remains incomplete. This systematic literature review (SLR) analyzed 70 empirical studies published between 2010 and January 2026 that examined digital transformation processes resulting in economic, environmental, and innovation performance outcomes. The research combined various digital transformation processes through which organizations achieved business success, using five principal mediator pathways that follow the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The study results showed that digital transformation does not directly enhance organizational performance; instead, it occurs through the development of organizational capabilities, the transformation of processes, the execution of innovation initiatives, and sustainability-focused activities. The research also shows that capability-based mechanisms are the most common pathways, followed by operational and innovation-mediated pathways. The research field shows a prevailing pattern of using cross-sectional survey methods, which create challenges for establishing causal relationships and evaluating enduring sustainability outcomes. The review shows that digital transformation needs to be better understood, as it plays a vital role in sustainable manufacturing transitions, according to established explanatory frameworks that link digital transformation to sustainable business results. The research study identifies three primary obstacles, which include conceptual fragmentation, measurement inconsistencies, and geographical concentration, while suggesting future research directions.

Prioritizing the development of regional innovation ecosystems (RIE) is essential for advancing China’s innovation-driven strategy. This study investigates how combinations of innovation elements, namely resources, services, achievements, and environment, affect regional innovation performance. Drawing on both innovation value-chain and ecosystem perspectives, we analyze the data from 31 Chinese provinces using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and artificial neural networks (ANN). Our findings identify five distinct configurations that lead to high innovation performance and three that result in low or medium performance. High performance configurations include: resource achievement dual drive, outcome driven, and resource driven. Low performance configurations include talent shortage type, service deficiency type, and resource service dual weakness type. These results illustrate the principle of equifinality, indicating that different regions can achieve similar innovation outcomes through different pathways, and they underscore both the substitutability of certain elements and the synergy among them. Theoretically, the study advances configurational approaches in innovation research by integrating ecological and value-chain perspectives. Practically, it provides differentiated policy insights, suggesting that regions should tailor their innovation strategies to leverage specific strengths and thereby foster high-performance outcomes. First published online 4 March 2026

Abstract This study analyzes how organizational emotional climates and human rights policies support social and environmental innovation in U.S. companies. We show that emotions are strategic assets with quantitative innovation returns using 2,657 firm-year observations (2016–2023). Positive emotional surroundings foster intrinsic drive and psychological safety, promoting innovation, according to our findings. More clearly, emotional tensions paradoxically boost innovation performance by compensatory mechanisms: organizations with scandals address legitimacy issues and strategically invest in innovation to regain credibility. This shows that tensions can be adaptive resources when controlled, expanding resource-based perspective frameworks. Human rights policies are meta-resources that conditionally change the emotional environment, increasing tension-driven creativity and decreasing rewards in supportive contexts. These results help entrepreneurial leaders use emotional dynamics to achieve sustained innovation in high-uncertainty situations by fusing firm-level resource perspectives with micro-level affective event theory.

This paper examines the relationship between innovation performance and international export competitiveness in four EU countries—Germany, Italy, Czechia, and Slovakia—during the period 2015–2024. The primary objective is to identify the relationship between the number of patent applications to the European Patent Office (EPO) and two key R&D input indicators: R&D expenditure per capita and the number of researchers and engineers per million inhabitants. Simultaneously, the study utilizes the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index to evaluate export specialization in medium-to-high innovation-intensive commodity groups. Although there are numerous studies on innovation, patents, or the significance of research and development, only rarely are these indicators linked to the competitiveness of countries according to comparative advantages in individual sectors. The results of the correlation analysis reveal significant national disparities: while a strong dependency was confirmed in Italy and Slovakia, the findings for Germany show a negative correlation, suggesting that German patenting activity is driven by factors beyond the examined R&D inputs. Panel regression also points out that simple correlation may not be able to clearly capture this relationship, as it may manifest itself with a time lag. From an absolute perspective, Germany maintains a leading position in all indicators, yet Italy demonstrates higher patent efficiency compared to Czechia despite having fewer researchers. The RCA analysis further highlights that while Germany and Italy maintain comparative advantages in high-innovation sectors, Czechia and Slovakia predominantly specialize in medium-innovation-intensive industries.

Environmental tax is a key market-based instrument for promoting sustainability and reshaping corporate strategy. Using the panel data of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2023, this study employs text mining to measure digital transformation and examines the impact of environmental tax on corporate digitalization. The results show that environmental tax significantly promotes digital transformation. The mechanism analyses reveal that green technology innovation and ESG performance serve as important transmission channels. Furthermore, the effect is positively moderated by regional marketization, environmental information disclosure, and low-carbon city policies. The heterogeneity analyses indicate stronger effects in economically developed regions and firms with greater resource endowments. The additional analysis demonstrates that environmental tax enhances both total factor productivity and green governance performance through accelerating digital transformation, achieving a synergistic green–digital transition. This study provides empirical evidence on how market-based environmental policies can foster corporate digital transformation as a pathway toward sustainable development.

Entrepreneurial innovation is increasingly recognised as a key strategic driver of marketing performance among small and medium hotel enterprises (SMHEs), particularly within highly competitive and dynamic hospitality environments. Despite a growing body of research, the literature remains fragmented and provides inconsistent evidence regarding the effects of different innovation forms on marketing-related outcomes. This study undertakes a systematic literature review to synthesise empirical findings on the relationship between entrepreneurial innovation and marketing performance in SMHEs. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2000 and 2025 were retrieved from major academic databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Emerald Insight. A total of 78 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analysed using thematic synthesis. The findings demonstrate that product, service, process, and digital innovations, when embedded within an entrepreneurial orientation, significantly enhance marketing performance through improved customer satisfaction, brand visibility, market responsiveness, and competitive positioning. However, the review also identifies persistent theoretical gaps, methodological limitations, and a pronounced contextual bias towards developed economies. By integrating fragmented insights across hospitality and entrepreneurship research, this study contributes to theory development and proposes a conceptual framework linking entrepreneurial innovation to marketing performance in SMHEs. The findings further provide practical implications for hotel owner-managers and policymakers and outline directions for future research.

Abstract The influence of neighboring councils on property tax reassessment regarding public sector innovation and administrative efficiency has not been adequately examined, particularly in terms of how one council may adopt the strategies of another. Thus, this study examines whether councils surrounded by others that have implemented reassessments experience greater innovation diffusion and better performance outcomes. To test this framework, data were collected through a survey of Malaysian local authority officers (support, management, and professional grades) using a quantitative approach to assess their views on relational capital, process innovation, and tax reassessment performance. Usable data from 154 responses were analyzed with SmartPLS 4 using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that the relational capital of local authorities toward process innovation is stronger when the influence of neighboring councils is greater. Councils in regions where reassessments are actively undertaken tend to utilize relational capital more effectively through process innovation, leading to higher reassessment performance, while councils in less active regions struggle to achieve similar results. This study contributes to research on public sector innovation and policy diffusion by highlighting the external environmental conditions that influence the effectiveness of relational capital in administrative performance.

The rapid advancement of digital technologies has fundamentally transformed financial management practices across global enterprises, necessitating a comprehensive examination of how technology innovation influences financial reporting quality. This study investigates the role of technology innovation in enhancing financial reporting quality within digital enterprises operating in Seychelles, a jurisdiction increasingly positioning itself as a hub for digital business operations. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks of digital transformation and financial management innovation, this research synthesizes empirical evidence from multiple studies examining the intersection of digital finance, technological innovation, and enterprise financial performance. The analysis reveals that technology innovation, encompassing blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data analytics, significantly improves the timeliness, security, reliability, and overall quality of financial reporting. Furthermore, the study identifies critical mediating mechanisms through which digital transformation enhances financial reporting, including the alleviation of financing constraints, optimization of resource allocation, and improvement of operational efficiency. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of digital transformation's impact on financial management while providing practical implications for digital enterprises in Seychelles seeking to leverage technology innovation for enhanced financial reporting quality.

Purpose This study aims to explore the mechanism through which explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) influences employees’ service innovation in the hospitality industry. Grounded in social cognitive theory (SCT), it develops a cognition-behavior-driven chain mediation model to uncover how XAI indirectly impacts employees’ service innovation through learning behavior, while examining the moderating role of growth mindset in this process. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 423 hospitality employees and 15 direct supervisors in China using a multiphase survey. Hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling. Findings The study reveals that XAI indirectly enhances service innovation performance by improving employees’ AI technology self-efficacy and reducing AI-related anxiety, which in turn stimulates their learning behavior. Furthermore, growth mindset significantly moderates the impact of XAI on AI anxiety. Practical implications This study offers strategic recommendations for hospitality managers to promote service innovation among frontline employees. These strategies include fostering employees’ understanding and trust in XAI creating an organizational environment supportive of innovation, and addressing individual differences by nurturing growth mindsets. Originality/value This study distinguishing it from previous studies that primarily emphasized the functional attributes of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Grounded in SCT, this study revealed the impact of XAI on service innovation through cognition and behavior of XAI. Moreover, it incorporated growth mindset as a moderating variable, thereby identifying the boundary conditions for its application within the hospitality industry. Overall, this study extends the application of SCT and offers a novel theoretical framework for understanding the dynamic interplay among technology, employees and innovation.