Determinants of innovation capability: the roles of transformational leadership, knowledge sharing and perceived organizational support

Abstract

Purpose The study aims to explore the differences in transformational leadership’s (TL’s) influences on each aspect of innovation capability, namely, product innovation and process innovation. It also deepens understanding of the pathways and conditions to improve specific aspects of innovation capability by assessing the mediating role of knowledge sharing (KS) and moderating mechanism of perceived organizational support (POS). Design/methodology/approach The paper utilized structural equation modeling and cross-sectional design to test hypotheses in the proposed research model based on using data collected from 394 participants at 88 Chinese firms. Findings The findings indicate that KS mediates TL’s effects on innovation capabilities. In addition, the influences of TL and KS on specific aspects of innovation capability are different and depend on the extent of employees’ POS. Research limitations/implications Future studies should test mediating roles of knowledge management’s constituents and/or investigate the moderating roles of firm ownership form to increase the understanding of potential factors or key conditions that may have significant influences on a firm’s innovation capability. Practical implications The paper significantly contributes to increasing the understanding of the link between TL and specific aspects of innovation capability by highlighting the important role of stimulating KS and enhancing POS. Originality/value The paper provides useful information and valuable initiatives to increase leadership outcomes and firm’s capability for innovation.

Building Competitive Advantage for Vietnamese Firms: The Roles of Knowledge Sharing and Innovation

“…The 21st century requires firms to focus on knowledge, information and innovation to development. The success of an organization mainly depends on employees' knowledge, experience, creative activity and firm's innovation capability (Urbancova, 2013;Le & Lei, 2019). Improving innovation capability is seen as one of the key solutions for firms to effectively respond to quickly change of business environment, and create competitive advantage in long term (Urbancova, 2013;Skinnarl et al, 2014;Le & Lei, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2019).…”

“…The success of an organization mainly depends on employees' knowledge, experience, creative activity and firm's innovation capability (Urbancova, 2013;Le & Lei, 2019). Improving innovation capability is seen as one of the key solutions for firms to effectively respond to quickly change of business environment, and create competitive advantage in long term (Urbancova, 2013;Skinnarl et al, 2014;Le & Lei, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2019). Innovation is widely recognized as a core dynamic capability which allows firms to achieve competitive advantage in many facets like market performance, production shortening, market share maintenance, and accelerating new products development (Tidd et al, 2006), operational efficiency and service quality (Hsueh & Tu, 2004;Parasuraman, 2010), developing new capabilities, and meeting customer's needs (Calantone et al, 2002;Sadikoglu & Zehir, 2010) compared with key competitors.…”

“…As a result, leaders and their organization are attempting to innovate (Hogan & Coote, 2014;Skinnarl et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2018). However, most of them is still imitators and are struggling to become innovators (Song, 2015;Le & Lei, 2019). Thus, exploring the potential factors that significantly enhance firms' innovation capability to develop firm's competitive advantage is very needful and meaningful.…”

“…First, KS and improving firm's innovation capability are the important topics that attracted great interested from scholars and practitioners today (Breznik & Hisrich, 2014;Leavy, 2015;Le & Lei, 2019). Although knowledge sharing-innovation relationship is shown clearly by prior researches, the understanding on the correlation among these factors is still needed to explore, especially in case of examining the effects of KS on specific aspects of innovation.…”

“…Consequently Anderson et al (2014) posed the question that: "What is the relationship between organizational resources and different types of organizational innovation?" Meanwhile, KS is popularly viewed as one of important resources of organization (Wang & Noe, 2010;Le & Lei, 2019). As a result, investigating the correlation between KS and two specific aspects of innovation namely innovation speed and innovation quality will positively address this issue.…”