The role of IT practices in facilitating relational and trust capital for superior innovation performance: the case of Taiwanese companies
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-07-2019-0182 |
| Pages | 753-779 |
| Date | 18 May 2020 |
| Published date | 18 May 2020 |
| Author | Sladjana Cabrilo,Sven Dahms,Eugene Burgos Mutuc,Janita Marlin |
| Subject Matter | Knowledge management,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting,HR & organizational behaviour |
The role of IT practices in
facilitating relational and trust
capital for superior innovation
performance: the case of
Taiwanese companies
Sladjana Cabrilo
Department of International Business Administration, I-Shou University,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Sven Dahms
College of Business, Wenzhou Kean University, Wenzhou, China, and
Eugene Burgos Mutuc and Janita Marlin
Postgraduate Program (College of Management), I-Shou University,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to explore themoderating role of information technology (IT) practices
in the increase of organizational capacity for generating innovation performance from its relational (internal
and external) capital and trust capital.
Design/methodology/approach –Survey data has been collected from 102 publicly listed enterprises in
Taiwan and is analysed by using symmetric structural equation modelling–partial least squares (SEM–PLS)
and asymmetric fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) techniques.
Findings –The findings derived from SEM–PLS show that internal relationships and trust embedded in
firms’relationshipsplay a significant role in the innovation performance of Taiwanese enterprises, and reveal a
more closed approach to innovation. The results also confirm the important role of IT advancement in
amplifying the effect of internal and external relationships and trustformation on innovationperformance. One
more interesting note, the integration of fsQCA demonstrates several configurations that lead to superior
innovation performance.
Research limitations/implications –The study was limited to Taiwanese companies with at least 200
employees. It might well be that the economically significant small business sector has distinct relationships
with stakeholders, trust building strategies and IT practices, and that innovation performance depends on
other macroeconomic effects. This study combines symmetric (SEM–PLS) and asymmetric (fsQCA) techniques
to improve our understanding of the complementarities between relational and trust capital, and IT practices,
and identify configurations that could yield organizational benefits for innovation outcomes.
Practical implications –This study provides new knowledge about IT utilization in the workplace which
practitioners may use to capitalize on internal and external networks and enhance innovation performance.
Originality/value –Exploring together intellectual capital (IC) components and IT practices, this study
merges IC and knowledge management (KM) streams of literature and adds to the prominent discussion on
how IC and technology-based KM together contribute to superior innovation performance. In introducing the
notion of equifinality, and testing our hypothesis by applying fsQCA, we also provide new ground for
methodological discussions in the field of innovation performance.
Keywords Intellectual capital, Internal and external relational capital, Trust capital, IT practices, Innovation
performance
Paper type Research paper
IT practices in
relational and
trust capital
753
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Taiwan. Project Title:
Multidimensional Intellectual Capital and IT Practices and their Influence on Innovation and Market
Performance. Project No. 107-2410-H-214 -009-
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 28 July 2019
Revised 8 December 2019
12 February 2020
16 February 2020
8 March 2020
Accepted 21 March 2020
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 21 No. 5, 2020
pp. 753-779
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-07-2019-0182
1. Introduction
Academics, practitioners and policy-makers broadly agree that the organizational ability to
innovate is based on knowledge-related issues (e.g. Grant, 1996;Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995;
Hamilton, 2006;Kianto et al., 2014). The productive force behind organizational innovation is
what organizations know, i.e. intellectual capital (Inkinen, 2015;Subramaniam and Youndt,
2005), and their ability to manage and effectuate intellectual capital (IC) to achieve
knowledge-based competitive advantages (Davenport and Prusak, 1998;Heisig, 2009;
Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995;Gold et al., 2001).
However, due to the complex nature of global markets no single actor can provide an
end-to-end solution and innovations on its own (Chesbrough, 2003,2012;Pagani and Pardo,
2017). There is a need for companies to create and maintain efficient and effective value and
innovation networks with the right partners (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998;Canhoto et al.,
2016;Ford et al., 2018). Therefore, collaborative and network environments, and innovation
co-creation through various kinds of networks and technologies, and the incorporation of
knowledge from different internal and external sources to drive innovation performance of
firms are now increasingly the focus of academic and practitioners’debate (Chesbrough,
2003,2012;Cantwell, 2017;Koch and Windsperger, 2017).
The utilization of information technology (IT) has become a necessary means for
managing knowledge flows within and outside organizational boundaries (Cunha et al., 2015;
Katemukda et al., 2018). That means that IT leverages knowledge management (KM)
processes (creation, transfer, storage, use and re-use) and thereby ensuring that knowledge
from the right source(s) arrives at the right time, in the most effective manner (Adamides and
Karacapilidis, 2018), and in that way accelerates innovation (Bontis et al., 1999;Alavi and
Leidner, 1999;Rodr
ıguez-Elias et al., 2008;Katemukda et al., 2018). Advanced IT enables
wider membership in collaborative networks, increases diversity and richness of available
knowledge, simplifies knowledge co-creation and re-use and supports collection and analysis
of big data for instance (del Giudice and della Peruta, 2016;Mount and Martinez, 2014;
Adamides, and Karacapilidis, 2018).
However, it is not technology alone that matters. Others found that trust makes
relationships in internal and external networks stronger, which require effective IT
infrastructure to enable synchronous collaboration of dispersed groups (Adamides and
Karacapilidis, 2018) and only then present innovation generating potential. Hence, relational
and trust aspects play a key role as well. The importance of different IC components in
pursuing innovation potential is well-established, for example several studies suggest that
certain (rather than all) IC components are associated with innovation performance (e.g.
Andreeva and Garanina, 2016;Dumay et al., 2013;Delgado-Verde et al., 2011;Subramaniam
and Youndt, 2005;Cabello-Medina et al., 2011;Cabrilo et al., 2018a). However, relatively little is
known about how the unlocking of the intellectual potential embedded in relationships with
stakeholders and trust that strengthens these relationships and facilitates intra- and
inter-organizational cooperation, knowledge flows, and co-creation of innovation unfolds (i.e.
open innovation; see Chesbrough, 2003).
Therefore, in this study we reflect specifically on the relational and trust capital, as specific
IC components, and knowledge-supportive IT practices to explore their joint effects on
organizational innovation performance. Relational capital (RC) is referred here as the value
and knowledge that resides in relationships with internal and external stakeholders
(Edvinsson and Malone, 1997;Roos et al., 1997;Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998), and emergent
trust capital is defined as the trust embedded in these relationships (Mayer et al., 1995;
Inkinen et al., 2014,2017). Following Inkinen et al. (2015) and Hussinki et al. (2017b),we
conceptualize knowledge supportive IT practices as the conscious and intentional managerial
and organizational activities to utilize IT for information and knowledge search, analysis and
distribution.
JIC
21,5
754
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