Firm size, managerial practices and innovativeness: some evidence from Finnish manufacturing

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractIn this study we use a survey data on 398 Finnish manufacturing firms for the years 2002 and 2005 to empirically explore whether and which organizational factors explain why certain firms produce larger innovative research output than others, and whether the incentives to innovate that certain organizational practices generate differ between small and large firms, and between those firms that are operating in low-tech and high-tech industries.Our study indicates that there appear to be vast differences in the organizational practices leading to more innovation both between small and large firms, and between the firms that operate in high-and low-tech industries. While innovation in small firms benefits from the practices that enhance employee participation in decision-making, large firms that have more decentralized decision-making patterns do not seem to innovate more than those with a more bureaucratic decision-making structure. The most efficient incentive for innovation among the sampled companies seems to be the ownership of a firm's stocks by employees and/or managers. Performance based wages also relates positively to innovation, but only when it is combined with a systematic monitoring of the firm's performance.JEL codes: L25, M54, O31

The Relative Importance of Human Resource Management Practices for a Firm's Innovation Performance

“…Jiang et al (2012) show for Chinese firms that hiring and selection, reward, job design, and teamwork are positively related to employee creativity that influences innovation, whereas training and performance appraisal are not. Using data on Finnish manufacturing firms, large firms (in contrast to small firms) with more decentralized decision-making are not found to perform better in terms of innovation than those with a more bureaucratic decision-making structure (Koski et al 2012). Performance-based wages are found to relate positively to innovation if they are combined with a systematic monitoring of the firm's performance.…”

Revisión Y Adaptación Del Concepto “Innovación” Al Contexto Empresarial Español

“…Hay muchos factores identificados en las publicaciones científicas que influyen en la capacidad de innovación de las empresas (Love y Roper, 2001;Rowley et al, 2011). Sin embargo, existen diferencias contrastables entre los factores determinantes de la capacidad innovadora en el ámbito de las grandes y pequeñas empresas (Koski et al, 2009). Precisamente, varios trabajos ya proponían estudiar los factores que influyen en el carácter innovador de la microempresa española y del propio microempresario, para contribuir así a mejorar el conocimiento sobre la innovación empresarial en entidades organizativas de tamaño más limitado, que son las que más peso tienen en la mayoría de las economías emergentes y desarrolladas (Boumediene et al, 2009;Nieto y Santamaría, 2010).…”

Three Essays on a Longitudinal Analysis of Business Start-ups using the Kauffman Firm Survey

“…Researchers who believe that innovation is a function of a firm's ability to create, manage, and maintain knowledge (Smith et al, 2005), assign all the weight to the human resources and policies affecting them (Koski et al, 2009). Lazear & Oyer (2007) suggest that, "good performance can then be rewarded through a variety of mechanisms, including increases in base salary, subjectively determined bonus payments, or promotions.…”

“…Over the years, various reasons have come up that range from, the size of the firm to the structure of the market (Acs & Audretsch, 1987;Cohen & Klepper, 1996;Huynh et al, 2008;Koski et al, 2009;Petersen & Rajan, 1994;Smith, 2010).…”

“…Following the importance of human resource practices, Koski et al, (2009) in their study on 398 Finnish firms, explore the linkage between organizational factors and innovation. They find that practices that improve employee welfare affect innovation positively in small firms, whereas, large firms do not show this positive effect.…”