Knowledge search and firm innovation: The moderating role of organizational aspirations

Feng Guo; Lin Cui; Bo Zou; Jinyu Guo

doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2019.183

Knowledge search and firm innovation: The moderating role of organizational aspirations

Feng Guo, Lin Cui, Bo Zou^*, Jinyu Guo

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

In what way and under what conditions does knowledge search contribute to firm innovation? By integrating search theory with theories of organizational aspiration, we predict that the inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge search intensity and firm innovation performance is moderated by the behavioral and strategic decision-making factors of firms that shift the locus of their search behaviors. Specifically, organizational slack and managerial ambition motivate distant search which steepens the curvilinear effect of search on innovation, whereas organizational crisis and industry dynamics flatten it by motivating local search. Using multi-respondent survey data from a sample of 264 large Chinese high-tech firms, we find support for the hypothesized relationships. These findings have implications for rationalizing knowledge search intensity to maximize firm innovation performance.

Original language	English
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.183
Publication status	Published - 2019
Event	79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management: Understanding the Inclusive Organization, AOM 2019 - Boston, United States Duration: 9 Aug 2019 → 13 Aug 2019

Conference

Conference	79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management: Understanding the Inclusive Organization, AOM 2019
Country/Territory	United States
City	Boston
Period	9/08/19 → 13/08/19

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title = "Knowledge search and firm innovation: The moderating role of organizational aspirations",

abstract = "In what way and under what conditions does knowledge search contribute to firm innovation? By integrating search theory with theories of organizational aspiration, we predict that the inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge search intensity and firm innovation performance is moderated by the behavioral and strategic decision-making factors of firms that shift the locus of their search behaviors. Specifically, organizational slack and managerial ambition motivate distant search which steepens the curvilinear effect of search on innovation, whereas organizational crisis and industry dynamics flatten it by motivating local search. Using multi-respondent survey data from a sample of 264 large Chinese high-tech firms, we find support for the hypothesized relationships. These findings have implications for rationalizing knowledge search intensity to maximize firm innovation performance.",

author = "Feng Guo and Lin Cui and Bo Zou and Jinyu Guo",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.5465/AMBPP.2019.183",

language = "English",

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T2 - 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management: Understanding the Inclusive Organization, AOM 2019

AU - Guo, Feng

AU - Cui, Lin

AU - Zou, Bo

AU - Guo, Jinyu

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - In what way and under what conditions does knowledge search contribute to firm innovation? By integrating search theory with theories of organizational aspiration, we predict that the inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge search intensity and firm innovation performance is moderated by the behavioral and strategic decision-making factors of firms that shift the locus of their search behaviors. Specifically, organizational slack and managerial ambition motivate distant search which steepens the curvilinear effect of search on innovation, whereas organizational crisis and industry dynamics flatten it by motivating local search. Using multi-respondent survey data from a sample of 264 large Chinese high-tech firms, we find support for the hypothesized relationships. These findings have implications for rationalizing knowledge search intensity to maximize firm innovation performance.

AB - In what way and under what conditions does knowledge search contribute to firm innovation? By integrating search theory with theories of organizational aspiration, we predict that the inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge search intensity and firm innovation performance is moderated by the behavioral and strategic decision-making factors of firms that shift the locus of their search behaviors. Specifically, organizational slack and managerial ambition motivate distant search which steepens the curvilinear effect of search on innovation, whereas organizational crisis and industry dynamics flatten it by motivating local search. Using multi-respondent survey data from a sample of 264 large Chinese high-tech firms, we find support for the hypothesized relationships. These findings have implications for rationalizing knowledge search intensity to maximize firm innovation performance.

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DO - 10.5465/AMBPP.2019.183

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 9 August 2019 through 13 August 2019

ER -

Knowledge search and firm innovation: The moderating role of organizational aspirations

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