Purpose This paper aims to study the effects of knowledge acquisition on innovation performance and the moderating effects of human resource management (HRM), in terms of employee retention and HRM practices, on the above-mentioned relationship. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 129 firms operating in a wide array of sectors has been used to gather data through a standardized questionnaire for testing the hypotheses through ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models. Findings The results indicate that knowledge acquisition positively affects innovation performance and that HRM moderates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and innovation performance. Originality/value With the increasing proclivity towards engaging in open innovation, firms are likely to face some tensions and opportunities leading to a shift in the management of human resources. This starts from the assumption that the knowledge base of the firm resides in the people who work for the firm and that some HRM factors can influence innovation within firms. Despite this, there is a lack of research investigating the link between knowledge acquisition, HRM and innovation performance under the open innovation lens. This paper intends to fill this gap and nurture future research by assessing whether knowledge acquisition influences innovation performance and whether HRM moderates such a relationship.

Theoretical background The current knowledge economy requires companies to create new business structures and new concepts for the management of its resources to remain competitive. The latest approaches to strategic management (Ferreira et al., 2016) tend to consider strategic alliances (as sources of knowledge) and intellectual capital (human, structural and relational capital) as the main sources for a sustainable competitive advantage. In an increasingly globalized world, the survival of business management depends on their organizational intelligence, which is the result of information and knowledge systems they have, the skills of its employees and how they relate to its stakeholders (Durst and Edvardsson, 2012). Strategic knowledge management (SKM) relates to the processes and infrastructures organizations use to attain, create and share knowledge for formulating strategy and making strategic decisions (Zack, 2002). A knowledge strategy defines the overall approach an organization intents to take to align its knowledge resources and capabilities to the intellectual requirements of its strategy. A strategic attitude is necessary to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. From a practice perception, businesses are seeing the prominence of managing knowledge if they are to persist competitive and grow. Consequently, several firms everywhere are starting to dynamically manage their knowledge and innovation (Ferreira et al., 2015). Knowledge does matter, but the question is when, how and why? (Carayannis and Campbell, 2009). Today, knowledge matters further and in forms that are not always predictable or even controllable. Knowledge systems are so highly complex, dynamic and adaptive (Carayannis and Campbell, 2009). Numerous views on knowledge are discussed in several different scientific areas, such as strategy, management, organization theory literature and philosophy. Different views on knowledge lead to different conceptualizations of (strategic) knowledge management. Our starting point is knowledge as a strategic resource. This is in accordance with the business strategy theory, specifically the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. The main proposition of the RBV is that competitive advantage is based on valuable and unique internal resources and capabilities that are costly to imitate for competitors (Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991). We refer to SKM as a capability pertaining to knowledge creation, knowledge organization and storage, knowledge transfer and knowledge applications which enhances a firm's ability to gain and sustain a competitive advantage (Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Ferreira et al., 2016; Heisig et al., 2016). A knowledge-based view of the firm states that these resources and capabilities are knowledge-related and knowledge-intensive resources and capabilities (Grant, 1997). Some questions can be raised:

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decreases, improved customer satisfaction and eventually, higher profits (Hammer and Stanton, 1999;Vrontis et al., 2017).Nowadays, in times of ever-increasing competition and an extremely dynamic economic environment, the achievement of both efficiency and flexibility to maintain competitiveness is needed even more Ferraris et al., 2017), as much as the need to achieve better performance at the business process level (Zairi, 1997; Karimi et al., 2007). In this context, information technology (IT) capability, i.e. the provisioning of IT to sustain business processes (BP), has become increasingly vital and is acknowledged to contribute to both efficiency and flexibility (Del Giudice and Straub, 2011;Chen et al., 2014). However, firms usually have financial constraints on IT budgets and need to decide how to allocate money on efficiency-enhancing and flexibility-enhancing IT capabilities to support the execution of BP in the best possible way (Heckmann, 2015).BP are central to the conversion of IT investments into performance, but in the literature the impact of IT capabilities at the business process level is still under investigated. In this paper, we test the effect of explorative and exploitative business process IT (BPIT) capabilities on business process performances (BPP) and the positive moderator role of BPM capabilities. Thus, we aim at bringing greater conceptual clarity to the management of ambidexterity at the business process level and empirically validating it. So, based on a sample of 404 firms in the Italian hotel industry, we have examined and found empirical evidence of positive effects of explorative and exploitative IT capabilities on BPP and of the positive moderator effects of BPM capabilities.The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on ambidextrous IT capabilities, with a particular focus on the business process level. Section 3 proposes four hypotheses relating to the direct effects of explorative and exploitative IT capabilities on BPP and of the moderator effects of BPM capabilities. Section 4 explains the research design of this study, and Section 5 presents the OLS regression test of the hypotheses and the related results. The last section presents a concluding discussion, identifying managerial implications and issues for future research.

PurposeThe authors observe the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on innovation performance with the mediating role of interorganizational learning (IOL) in the Pakistani automotive industry. Besides, industrial Internet of things (IoT) technology is used as moderating variables between IOL and innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling (SEM) presents scholars with extra flexibility and enhanced research conclusions. SEM is described as a statistical methodology and the best tool used for hypothesis testing. The authors used partial least squares SEM for testing hypotheses. The simple random sampling technique followed to collect data from respondents, and 492 questionnaires were used for analysis.FindingsThe outcomes reveal that IC enhances innovation performance and IOL. Moreover, IOL increases innovation performance. IOL significantly mediates between IC and innovation performance. Industrial IoT technology improves innovation performance. Finally, industrial IoT technology strengthens the positive association between IOL and innovation performance.Practical implicationsThis study concentrates on the issue of how managers use IOL and industrial IoT technology to take higher advantage of IC that increases innovation performance.Originality/valueThis is the initial study that builds a theoretical framework to integrate IC, IOL, industrial IoT technology and innovation performance. Although prior researchers observe the association between IC and innovation performance, less concentration was paid to understand the role of interorganizational leadership and industrial IoT technology in leveraging organizational IC.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to enrich the scientific and managerial debate on intangibles by placing the concept of key money within the broader concept of Intellectual Capital, and by proposing an evaluation approach for a portion of the latter, focusing the analysis on fashion retailers.Design/methodology/approachThis research focuses on the fashion industry, given that key money gains particular significance and accounted for in fashion retailers' financial statements. A comparative case study is presented with regard to the application of two evaluation methods proposed to some fashion retailers operating in Italy.FindingsThis paper defines a suitable placement for key money within the vast structure of intellectual capital. The research shows that the two methods give “very close” key money values, thus laying the foundations for a theoretical articulation of interest to be further explored in future researches.Originality/valueThe document represents a first in-depth examination regarding the evaluation and inclusion of key money in the intellectual capital. A further element of originality lies in having interpreted the key money in a perspective closer to the world of intangibles and competitive strategies, to the detriment of the previous (meagre) settings that placed it within the real estate branches of study.

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