• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.19-37
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to explore differences between small and medium-sized companies and large-sized companies in the impact of human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. Although learning orientation has long been considered as a key factor influencing good performance of a business, little research was devoted to exploring the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. In this study, it is investigated whether there is a synergy effect between innovative human workforce and learning orientation corporate culture, in addition to each by itself, to generate good business performance as well as a success of new innovations in the market. Research hypotheses were as follows, including H1) human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and interactions of HRI and LO(HRI-LO interaction) positively affect innovation effect, H2) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect between large-sized and small-sized companies, H3) HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect positively affect business performance, and H4) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, and innovation effect on business performance between large-sized and small-sized companies. Data were obtained from 479 practitioners through a web survey since the web survey is an efficient method to collect a national data at a variety of fields. A single respondent from a company was allowed to participate in the study after checking whether they have more than 5-year work experiences in the company. To check whether a common source bias is existed in the sample, additional data from a convenient sample of 97 companies were gathered through the traditional survey method, and were used to confirm correlations between research variables of the original sample and the additional sample. Data were divided into two groups according to company size, such as 352 small and medium-sized companies with less than 300 employees and 127 large-sized companies with 300 or more employees. Data were analyzed through t-test and regression analyses. HRI which is the innovativeness of human resources in the company was measured with 9 items assessing the innovativenss of practitioners in staff, manager, and executive-level positions. LO is the company's effort to encourage employees' development, sharing, and utilizing of knowledge through consistent learning. LO was measured by 18 items assessing commitment to learning, vision sharing, and open-mindedness. Innovation effect which assesses a success of new products/services in the market, was measured with 3 items. Business performance was measured by respondents' evaluations on profitability, sales increase, market share, and general business performance, compared to other companies in the same field. All items were measured by using 6-point Likert scales. Means of multiple items measuring a construct were used as variables based on acceptable reliability and validity. To reduce multi-collinearity problems generated on the regression analysis of interaction terms, centered data were used for HRI, LO, and Innovation effect on regression analyses. In group comparison, large-sized companies were superior on annual sales, annual net profit, the number of new products/services in the last 3 years, the number of new processes advanced in the last 3 years, and the number of R&D personnel, compared to small and medium-sized companies. Also, large-sized companies indicated a higher level of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect and business performance than did small and medium-sized companies. The results indicate that large-sized companies tend to have more innovative human resources and invest more on learning orientation than did small-sized companies, therefore, large-sized companies tend to have more success of a new product/service in the market, generating better business performance. In order to test research hypotheses, a series of multiple-regression analysis was conducted. In the regression analysis examining the impact on innovation effect, important results were generated as : 1) HRI, LO, and HRI-LO affected innovation effect, and 2) company size indicated a moderating effect. Based on the result, the impact of HRI on innovation effect would be greater in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies whereas the impact of LO on innovation effect would be greater in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. In other words, innovative workforce would be more important in making new products/services that would be successful in the market for small and medium-sized companies than for large-sized companies. Otherwise, learning orientation culture would be more effective in making successful products/services for large-sized companies than for small and medium-sized companies. Based on these results, research hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported. In the analysis of a regression examining the impact on business performance, important results were generated as : 1) innovation effect, LO, and HRI-LO affected business performance, 2) HRI by itself did not have a direct effect on business performance regardless of company size, and 3) company size indicated a moderating effect. Specifically, an effect of the HRI-LO interaction on business performance was stronger in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. It means that the synergy effect of innovative human resources and learning orientation culture tends to be stronger as company is larger. Referring to these result, research hypothesis 3 was partially supported whereas hypothesis 4 was supported. Based on research results, implications for companies were generated. Regardless of company size, companies need to develop the learning orientation corporate culture as well as human resources' innovativeness together in order to achieve successful development of innovative products and services as well as to improve sales and profits. However, the effectiveness of the HRI-LO interaction would be varied by company size. Specifically, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was stronger to make a success of new products/services in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies. However, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was more effective to increase business performance of large-sized companies than that of small and medium-sized companies. In the case of small and medium-sized companies, business performance was achieved more through the success of new products/services than much directly affected by HRI-LO. The most meaningful result of this study is that the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance was confirmed. It was often ignored in the previous research. Also, it was found that the innovativeness of human workforce would not directly influence in generating good business performance, however, innovative human resources would indirectly affect making good business performance by contributing to achieving the development of new products/services that would be successful in the market. These findings would provide valuable managerial implications specifically in regard to the development of corporate culture and education program of small and medium-sized as well as large-sized companies in a variety of fields.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-33
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• 2019

The small and medium sized enterprises (hereinafter SMEs) are already at a competitive disadvantaged when compared to large companies with more abundant resources. Manufacturing SMEs not only need a lot of information needed for new product development for sustainable growth and survival, but also seek networking to overcome the limitations of resources, but they are faced with limitations due to their size limitations. In a new era in which connectivity increases the complexity and uncertainty of the business environment, SMEs are increasingly urged to find information and solve networking problems. In order to solve these problems, the government funded research institutes plays an important role and duty to solve the information asymmetry problem of SMEs. The purpose of this study is to identify the differentiating characteristics of SMEs that utilize the public information support infrastructure provided by SMEs to enhance the innovation capacity of SMEs, and how they contribute to corporate performance. We argue that we need an infrastructure for providing information support to SMEs as part of this effort to strengthen of the role of government funded institutions; in this study, we specifically identify the target of such a policy and furthermore empirically demonstrate the effects of such policy-based efforts. Our goal is to help establish the strategies for building the information supporting infrastructure. To achieve this purpose, we first classified the characteristics of SMEs that have been found to utilize the information supporting infrastructure provided by government funded institutions. This allows us to verify whether selection bias appears in the analyzed group, which helps us clarify the interpretative limits of our study results. Next, we performed mediator and moderator effect analysis for multiple variables to analyze the process through which the use of information supporting infrastructure led to an improvement in external networking capabilities and resulted in enhancing product competitiveness. This analysis helps identify the key factors we should focus on when offering indirect support to SMEs through the information supporting infrastructure, which in turn helps us more efficiently manage research related to SME supporting policies implemented by government funded institutions. The results of this study showed the following. First, SMEs that used the information supporting infrastructure were found to have a significant difference in size in comparison to domestic R&D SMEs, but on the other hand, there was no significant difference in the cluster analysis that considered various variables. Based on these findings, we confirmed that SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure are superior in size, and had a relatively higher distribution of companies that transact to a greater degree with large companies, when compared to the SMEs composing the general group of SMEs. Also, we found that companies that already receive support from the information infrastructure have a high concentration of companies that need collaboration with government funded institution. Secondly, among the SMEs that use the information supporting infrastructure, we found that increasing external networking capabilities contributed to enhancing product competitiveness, and while this was no the effect of direct assistance, we also found that indirect contributions were made by increasing the open marketing capabilities: in other words, this was the result of an indirect-only mediator effect. Also, the number of times the company received additional support in this process through mentoring related to information utilization was found to have a mediated moderator effect on improving external networking capabilities and in turn strengthening product competitiveness. The results of this study provide several insights that will help establish policies. KISTI's information support infrastructure may lead to the conclusion that marketing is already well underway, but it intentionally supports groups that enable to achieve good performance. As a result, the government should provide clear priorities whether to support the companies in the underdevelopment or to aid better performance. Through our research, we have identified how public information infrastructure contributes to product competitiveness. Here, we can draw some policy implications. First, the public information support infrastructure should have the capability to enhance the ability to interact with or to find the expert that provides required information. Second, if the utilization of public information support (online) infrastructure is effective, it is not necessary to continuously provide informational mentoring, which is a parallel offline support. Rather, offline support such as mentoring should be used as an appropriate device for abnormal symptom monitoring. Third, it is required that SMEs should improve their ability to utilize, because the effect of enhancing networking capacity through public information support infrastructure and enhancing product competitiveness through such infrastructure appears in most types of companies rather than in specific SMEs.