Knowledge Asset Performance in Innovation Firms: Empirical Evidence from Product Oriented Firms

Knowledge is considered a critical firm resource, an important factor in international performance not just of large multinational companies, but also for SMEs. We follow the lines of research that investigate the relationship between firm knowledge and international competitiveness. Most of these approaches are conceptual, exploratory, and/or case based. Many studies have been conducted that evaluate the impact that innovative activities have on the performance of production oriented firms. The inconsistencies are partly due to contextual factors (e.g., supply chain relationships, firm size), limited assessment of covariates (e.g., distinctive resource configurations in R&D and Operations, management capabilities), and varying measures of performance (e.g., each order or cumulative productive volume, short term vs. long term). To test the hypotheses, we employed a multi-case study methodology. The findings contribute to the intersection among operations management reengineering, and improvement of innovative practices in strictly industrial activities such as applied R&D and Operations.