Regional Importance of Mittelstand Firms and Innovation Performance

Berlemann, Michael; Jahn, Vera

doi:10.1080/00343404.2015.1058923

Cited by 40 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Family firms constitute a significant part of the economy in terms of creating new technologies, jobs and wealth (Berlemann and Jahn, ; IFERA, ). This depends on firms' ability to survive, in particular by adopting and implementing innovations, and thus by taking risks to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability and Environmental Behaviour in Family Firms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environment‐Related Activities, Innovation and Performance

2017

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Environmental behaviour plays an important role as concerns the public image and performance of firms, as well as for the achievement of sustainable development in society. This study investigates the behaviour of family firms regarding environment-related activities, innovation and performance. Opposing goals are found to impact environmental behaviour of family firms, in particular the trade-off between family firms' risk awareness and their aim of achieving socioeconomic wealth. We find that family firms initially lag regarding environment-related activities, beneficial product, process and organizational innovations and performance. Yet, family firms catch up and show overall less volatility compared with other firms. Overall, we thus observe a convergence process between family and non-family firms, which ultimately enables the two types of firm to achieve similar outcomes in terms of environment-related activities, beneficial innovations and performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability and Environmental Behaviour in Family Firms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environment‐Related Activities, Innovation and Performance

2017

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“…Furthermore, while innovative German non‐Mittelstand firms such as Siemens and Bosch have, on average, less than 10 patent applications per 1000 employees, this ratio is above 30 for German Mittelstand firms (Simon, , p. 200). Furthermore, in a cross‐sectional study of German regions, Berlemann and Jahn () find a positive relationship between the prevalence of Mittelstand firms (as a percentage of all firms) and patent activity in the region, pointing to the importance of the Mittelstand to the country's innovativeness.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors started by systematically searching online databases and articles on Mittelstand . They read all relevant articles (e.g., Audretsch and Elston, ; Berlemann and Jahn, ; Kraft, Dowling, and Helm, ) building on them and other material that was identified in a rather unsystematic way, when writing this perspective article. Given the lack of an established scholarly literature dedicated to the Mittelstand, the authors also reviewed the family business and SME literatures in search for arguments that could support specific aspects of their theoretical examination.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation with Limited Resources: Management Lessons from theGermanMittelstand

Massis¹,

Audretsch²,

Uhlaner³

et al. 2017

J of Product Innov Manag

312

275

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German Mittelstand firms are globally recognized for their innovation, especially regarding product, process, and service innovation. So what can scholars and managers across the globe learn from the success story of German Mittelstand innovation? Drawing on information collected on innovative Mittelstand firms and extant knowledge on innovation, the resource-based view, and family firm research, the authors investigate how these highly innovative firms flourish and achieve high innovation performance despite the severe financial and human capital resource constraints they face as compared with larger corporations. The authors then present a model identifying and integrating six salient traits of such firms that allow them to efficiently orchestrate their resources to innovate and outcompete their competitors in the global market, enabling those firms to overcome their resource-related weaknesses and turn them into strengths. Specifically, these traits are: niche focus and customer collaboration, globalization strategy, preference for self-financing, long-run mindset, superior employee relations, and community embeddedness. The power of this Mittelstand approach takes full effect only when all six traits operate in an integrated fashion, and the proposed resource-based model serves as a starting point for a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of firm ability to innovate and successfully compete within a specific context. The article outlines the implications of the model of German Mittelstand innovation for research conducted in different fields including innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy, dynamic capabilities, ecosystems, and family business. Finally, the article proposes a future research agenda aimed at improving current understanding of the German Mittelstand "innovation strategy" and its transferability to other contexts, and outlines practical implications for owners and managers worldwide wanting to emulate the German Mittelstand innovation model.

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“…While SMEs generally provide a very important role in economic development (Dumitrescu, 2014) and regional innovation performance (Berlemann and Jahn, 2015), they are even more important in Austria in relation to other nations within the EU. Austria belongs to the top nations among the 28 EU member states in terms of number of SMEs (together with Germany, Romania and Luxembourg) and generated turnover (together with Luxembourg and Latvia).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of social information system governance, utilization, and capabilities on absorptive capacity and innovation: A case of Austrian SMEs

Limaj

Bernroider

Choudrie

2016

Information & Management

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The aim of this study is to understand the influence of social information systems (SIS) on absorptive capacity (AC) and innovation in Austrian SMEs. For this purpose, a framework was developed and empirically tested using a nationwide, mixed-mode survey on a random sample of 138 SMEs of knowledge-intensive industries. The results show that the backbone of SIS utilization is SIS governance. SIS capabilities mediate the positive effects of SIS utilization on AC components, which build on each other and mediate the positive effects of SIS capabilities on innovation. Our findings provide a number of useful implications for research and industry.

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Regional Importance of Mittelstand Firms and Innovation Performance

Cited by 40 publications

References 54 publications

Sustainability and Environmental Behaviour in Family Firms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environment‐Related Activities, Innovation and Performance

Sustainability and Environmental Behaviour in Family Firms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environment‐Related Activities, Innovation and Performance

Innovation with Limited Resources: Management Lessons from theGermanMittelstand

The impact of social information system governance, utilization, and capabilities on absorptive capacity and innovation: A case of Austrian SMEs

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