Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Ashok, Mona
Author-Email: jd101820@reading.ac.uk
Author-workplace-name: Henley Business School
Author-Name: Narula, Rajneesh
Author-Email: r.narula@reading.ac.uk
Author-workplace-name: Henley Business School
Author-Name: Martinez-Noya, Andrea
Author-Email: noya@uniovi.es
Author-workplace-name: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
Title: How do collaboration and investments in knowledge management affect process innovation in services?
Abstract: Purpose: Despite the keen interest in radical and incremental innovation, few studies have tested the
	 varying impact of firm-level factors in service sectors. This paper analyses how collaboration with
	 existing and prospective users, and investments in knowledge management (KM) practices can be adapted to
	 maximise the outputs of radical and incremental process innovation in a Knowledge-Intensive Business
	 Service (KIBS) industry.
	 Methodology: Original survey data from 166 Information Technology Service (ITS) firms and interviews
	 with 13 executives provide the empirical evidence. PLS-SEM is used to analyse the data.
	 Findings: Collaboration with different types of users, and investments in KM practices affect radical
	 versus incremental process innovation differently. Collaboration with existing users influences incremental
	 process innovation directly, but not radical innovation; and prospective user collaboration matters for
	 radical, but not incremental innovation. Furthermore, for radical innovation, investments in KM practices
	 mediate the impact of prospective user collaboration on innovation.
	 Implications: While collaboration with existing users for incremental process innovations does not appear
	 to generate significant managerial challenges, to pursue radical innovations firms must engage in intensive
	 collaboration with prospective users. Higher involvement with prospective users requires higher investment
	 in KM practices to promote efficient intra- and inter-firm knowledge flows.
	 Originality: This study is based on a large-scale survey, together with management interviews. Radical and
	 incremental innovations require engagements with different kinds of users in the service industry, and
	 knowledge management tools.
Keywords: user collaboration, existing and prospective users, incremental innovation, radical process innovation,
	 KIBS firms, knowledge management, PLS-SEM
Classification-JEL: O32, M15, F23
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20160819
Number: 039
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2016/wp2016-039.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2016039