Phakpoom Tippakoon

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
While the majority of open innovation literature focuses on established firms, this study extends the existing literature by examining young and newly market-entrant firms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of two open search strategies – search breadth and search depth – on the product innovation of young firms. The study focuses on the manufacturing industry due to its higher propensity for product innovation compared to the service sector. The data were collected via a postal survey of manufacturing firms in Thailand, conducted between March and August 2021. Respondents consisted exclusively of CEOs or senior managers, yielding a final sample of 423 firms for analysis. The analysis employed Negative Binomial Regression (NBR), a statistical method suitable for data violating the mean-variance equality assumption inherent in this dataset. The results reveal that search breadth exerts a statistically significant positive influence on product innovation. An inverted U-shaped relationship between search breadth and product innovation is not statistically significant. Search depth has a statistically significant negative effect on product innovation. Finally, an inverted U-shaped relationship between search depth and product innovation is statistically significant, indicating that greater search depth corresponds to diminished innovation. In summary, the findings suggest that search breadth benefits product innovation in young firms, whereas search depth hurts their product innovation.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The primary objective of this study is to examine how public support moderates the effect of external knowledge sourcing on firms’ innovation performance. It contributes to the literature on external knowledge acquisition, as the moderating effect of public support on external knowledge sourcing for innovation has rarely been investigated. This study uses postal survey data from 423 manufacturing firms in Thailand, collected between March and August 2021, with key respondents including senior managers and firm owners. The Negative Binomial Regression is used for data analysis, as the dependent variable – the number of registered intellectual property rights – is a count variable with a non-normal distribution. The key findings reveal that public support has a positive direct effect on firms’ innovations. However, its interaction with external knowledge sourcing is negative to innovation performance. Thus, contrary to expectation, public support negatively moderates the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and innovation, suggesting that receiving more support weakens the effect of external knowledge sourcing on innovation performance. Moreover, public support does not positively moderate the inverted U-curve relationship between external knowledge sourcing and innovation by augmenting the optimal efficiency of firms’ knowledge sourcing activities. Instead, firms that receive more support tend to achieve optimal efficiency in knowledge sourcing faster than those that receive less. Therefore, rather than complementing external knowledge sourcing, public support appears to serve as a substitute for it: receiving public support reduces firms’ need to seek external knowledge to strengthen their innovative capabilities.