Exploration and firms’ innovative performance – How does this relationship work?

• Autor(a) principal: G. P. Moreira, Frederico
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: V. Torkomian, Ana Lúcia, J. C. C. Soares, Thiago
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng; por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Gestão de Negócios (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://rbgn.fecap.br/RBGN/article/view/2635
• topic: Exploration; Innovative performance; Patents; Absorptive capacity.; Exploration; desempenho inovador; patentes; capacidade de absorção.

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to analyze (1) therelationship between a firm’s exploration strategy and its innovativeperformance, and (2) whether its absorptive capacity (AC) moderatesthis relationship.Design/methodology/approach – We adopted an econometricapproach, using secondary data. We synchronized two databases –Compustat and USPTO –, from which we extracted common dataconcerning 275 biopharmaceutical firms for the period between 1990and 2003. We used negative binomial regression to analyze data.Findings – The exploration strategy positively influences firms’innovative performance. However, excessive emphasis on this strategycan diminish its benefits. Moreover, a firm’s AC will not positivelymoderate the curvilinear relationship between exploration and the firm’sinnovative performance in all contexts, contradicting our theoreticalpredictions. This is due to the existence of trade-offs between ACcharacteristics and other organizational factors.Originality/value – This paper extends the understanding of OpenInnovation and AC theories. Our results suggest that AC cannot beunderstood as a one-dimensional and autonomous capacity locatedexclusively in R&D departments. Aspects such as financial power, thebusiness model and the different dimensions of AC and their respectivelocations in the firm’s value chain should be considered whenever theinfluence of AC on exploration strategies is analyzed.