The Roles of Worker Expertise, Information Sharing Quality, and Psychological Safety in Manufacturing Process Innovation: An Intellectual Capital Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the roles of three elements of intellectual capital in implementing process innovations. Building upon prior literature, we develop a model describing how worker expertise, information sharing quality, and psychological safety work together as elements of the human, structural, and social dimensions of intellectual capital to influence the technical success of manufacturing process innovation (MPI) projects. Results of an analysis of data describing 179 MPI projects in US firms strongly support a multidimensional, process‐oriented view of intellectual capital's effects on MPI project technical performance. We also find that the incrementalness of an MPI project plays a moderating role over the relationship between worker expertise and MPI performance. Our study provides insights on how intellectual capital can be more effectively accumulated in a project environment.

Strategic agility of Korean small and medium enterprises and its influence on operational and firm performance

“…This capability dimension is in line with collaborative innovation of processes. Collaborative innovation refers to all the relevant activities necessary to design and implement new processes or to improve the existing processes -a firm's ability to reconfigure an effective sequence of tasks to meet internal and external requirements (Lee et al, 2010).…”

Self-regulated learning, team learning and project performance in entrepreneurship education: Learning in a lean startup environment

“…The literature frames PS as an aspect of social capital (Lee et al, 2011) and of organizational culture (Baer and Frese, 2003). PS helps team members to think and behave in creative ways, to engage in trial-anderror learning, and to voice issues about content and team processes.…”

“…Some see the PSperformance relationship as being mediated by knowledge sharing (Kessel et al, 2012), and team learning behavior (Edmondson, 1999;Hill et al, 2014), or both (Huang and Jiang, 2012). Others see PS as a mediator between knowledge sharing and performance (Lee et al, 2011) and as having a direct relationship to team performance (Lee et al, 2011). Yet others conceptualize PS as a moderator between innovativeness and performance (Baer and Frese, 2003).…”

Relationship between Intangible Capital, Knowledge and Maintenance Performance in a PSS Network: An Empirical Investigation

“…Intangible capital has been recognized as a foundational aspect of competitive advantage and strategy formation [11]. With the increasing importance of intellectual capital, many scholars have investigated its organizational role.…”

“…In fact, although significant work exists in are as such as PSS networks, maintenance for PSS, and PSS delivery management [2][3][4][5], little is known about the dynamics of intangible capital within a PSS network setting in the light of the processes necessary to acquire fundamental PSS maintenance performance. Researchers argue that competitive advantage is founded on intangible capital, which can be accumulated to serve as resources [6].…”