IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v120y2020icp181-194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engaging in new and more research-oriented R&D projects: Interplay between level of new slack, business strategy and slack absorption

Author

Listed:
  • Teirlinck, Peter

Abstract

We investigate the role of slack absorption in conjunction with Miles and Snow business strategies on the influence of the amount of newly generated financial slack on R&D. The new slack resources refer to exogenously created financial slack induced by a wage subsidy in favour of highly qualified researchers in R&D. We demonstrate that the matter of whether slack is considered absorbed or unabsorbed influences the strength and shape of the interaction between business strategy, the amount of new slack resources, and engagement in additional R&D projects and a shift toward more research in these projects. These insights help to better understand the relation between slack resources and managerial decisions in terms of R&D investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Teirlinck, Peter, 2020. "Engaging in new and more research-oriented R&D projects: Interplay between level of new slack, business strategy and slack absorption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 181-194.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:120:y:2020:i:c:p:181-194
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.08.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320304975
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.08.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Monika Schnitzer, 2013. "Financial Constraints And Innovation: Why Poor Countries Don'T Catch Up," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(5), pages 1115-1152, October.
    2. Hicheon Kim & Heechun Kim & Peggy M. Lee, 2008. "Ownership Structure and the Relationship Between Financial Slack and R&D Investments: Evidence from Korean Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 404-418, June.
    3. Dirk Czarnitzki & Hanna Hottenrott, 2011. "Financial Constraints: Routine Versus Cutting Edge R&D Investment," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 121-157, March.
    4. Pinto, José Castro & Curto, José Dias, 2007. "The Organizational Configuration Concept as a Contribution to the Performance Explanation:: The Case of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Portugal," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 60-78, February.
    5. Ine Paeleman & Tom Vanacker, 2015. "Less is More, or Not? On the Interplay between Bundles of Slack Resources, Firm Performance and Firm Survival," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(6), pages 819-848, September.
    6. Yuri Mishina & Timothy G. Pollock & Joseph F. Porac, 2004. "Are more resources always better for growth? Resource stickiness in market and product expansion," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(12), pages 1179-1197, December.
    7. Beverly B. Tyler & Turanay Caner, 2016. "New product introductions below aspirations, slack and R&D alliances: A behavioral perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 896-910, May.
    8. Yunshi Liu & Wen-Ting Lin & Kuei-Yang Cheng, 2011. "Family Ownership and the International Involvement of Taiwan's High-Technology Firms: The Moderating Effect of High-Discretion Organizational Slack," Management and Organization Review, The International Association for Chinese Management Research, vol. 7(2), pages 201-222, July.
    9. Mark P. Sharfman & James W. Dean Jr, 1997. "Flexibility in Strategic Decision Making: Informational and Ideological Perspectives," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 191-217, March.
    10. Tom Vanacker & Veroniek Collewaert & Shaker A. Zahra, 2017. "Slack resources, firm performance, and the institutional context: Evidence from privately held European firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1305-1326, June.
    11. Dante I. Leyva-de la Hiz & Vera Ferron-Vilchez & J. Alberto Aragon-Correa, 2019. "Do Firms’ Slack Resources Influence the Relationship Between Focused Environmental Innovations and Financial Performance? More is Not Always Better," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1215-1227, November.
    12. Chen, Chung-Jen & Huang, Yi-Fen, 2010. "Creative workforce density, organizational slack, and innovation performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 411-417, April.
    13. Erming Xu & Hui Yang & J. Quan & Yuan Lu, 2015. "Organizational slack and corporate social performance: Empirical evidence from China’s public firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 181-198, March.
    14. Justin Tan & Mike W. Peng, 2003. "Organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: two studies from an emerging economy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(13), pages 1249-1263, December.
    15. Pasi Kuusela & Thomas Keil & Markku Maula, 2017. "Driven by aspirations, but in what direction? Performance shortfalls, slack resources, and resource-consuming vs. resource-freeing organizational change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1101-1120, May.
    16. Kamel Mellahi & Adrian Wilkinson, 2010. "A Study of the Association between Level of Slack Reduction Following Downsizing and Innovation Output," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 483-508, May.
    17. William Ocasio, 1997. "Towards An Attention‐Based View Of The Firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 187-206, July.
    18. Liu, Yunshi & Lin, Wen-Ting & Cheng, Kuei-Yang, 2011. "Family Ownership and the International Involvement of Taiwan's High-Technology Firms: The Moderating Effect of High-Discretion Organizational Slack," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 201-222, July.
    19. Shahzad, Ali M. & Mousa, Fariss T. & Sharfman, Mark P., 2016. "The implications of slack heterogeneity for the slack-resources and corporate social performance relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5964-5971.
    20. Peter Teirlinck & Michel Dumont & André Spithoven, 2010. "Corporate decision-making in R&D outsourcing and the impact on internal R&D employment intensity," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(6), pages 1741-1768, December.
    21. Moore, Marguerite, 2005. "Towards a confirmatory model of retail strategy types: an empirical test of miles and snow," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 696-704, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Du, Yunzhou & Kim, Phillip H. & Fourné, Sebastian P.L. & Wang, Xiaowei, 2022. "In times of plenty: Slack resources, R&D investment, and entrepreneurial firms in challenging institutional environments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 360-376.
    2. Ng, Desmond, 2023. "R&D goal seeking and risk taking in biotechnology R&D investments," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 26(3), January.
    3. Xiaoxiang Li & Shuhan Zhang, 2021. "Does Slack Buffer? Market Performance after Environmental Shock," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Carnes, Christina Matz & Cavanaugh, Jeffrey & David, Parthiban & O'Brien, Jonathan, 2023. "Cash creates value for supply chain systems, but who appropriates that value?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Cao, Zhangfan & Chen, Steven Xianglong & Lee, Edward, 2022. "Does business strategy influence interfirm financing? Evidence from trade credit," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 495-511.
    6. Woo, Linda & Mun, Sung Gyun & Seo, Kwanglim, 2024. "Building resilience to crisis through slack resources: A longitudinal analysis of US hotels," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    7. Liu, Fuzhen & He, Chaocheng & Lai, Kee-hung, 2024. "Market reaction to responsible production practices adoption: The role of firm size and financial slack," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Du, Yunzhou & Kim, Phillip H. & Fourné, Sebastian P.L. & Wang, Xiaowei, 2022. "In times of plenty: Slack resources, R&D investment, and entrepreneurial firms in challenging institutional environments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 360-376.
    2. Boumediene Ramdani & Cherif Guermat & Kamel Mellahi, 2021. "The effect of downsizing on innovation outputs: The role of resource slack and constraints," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 46(2), pages 346-365, May.
    3. Su-In Kim & Hyejeong Shin & Heejeong Shin & Sorah Park, 2019. "Organizational Slack, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Integrated Reporting: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Woo, Linda & Mun, Sung Gyun & Seo, Kwanglim, 2024. "Building resilience to crisis through slack resources: A longitudinal analysis of US hotels," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    5. Paeleman, Ine & Fuss, Catherine & Vanacker, Tom, 2017. "Untangling the multiple effects of slack resources on firms’ exporting behavior," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 769-781.
    6. María Agustí & Francisco Velasco & José L. Galán, 2021. "The dynamic slack‐performance relationship from an efficiency perspective," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 850-862, June.
    7. Guo, Feng & Zou, Bo & Zhang, Xiaofei & Bo, Qingwen & Li, Kai, 2020. "Financial slack and firm performance of SMMEs in China: Moderating effects of government subsidies and market-supporting institutions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    8. Symeou, Pavlos C. & Zyglidopoulos, Stelios & Gardberg, Naomi A., 2019. "Corporate environmental performance: Revisiting the role of organizational slack," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 169-182.
    9. Godoy-Bejarano, Jesús M. & Ruiz-Pava, Guillermo A. & Téllez-Falla, Diego F., 2020. "Environmental complexity, slack, and firm performance," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    10. Malen, Joel, 2015. "Motivating And Enabling Firm Innovation Effort: Integrating Penrosian And Behavioral Theory Perspectives On Slack Resources," Hitotsubashi Journal of commerce and management, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 49(1), pages 37-54, October.
    11. Sulu Zhu & Pengqun Gao & Zhen Tang & Ming Tian, 2022. "The Research Venation Analysis and Future Prospects of Organizational Slack," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, October.
    12. Ciprian Stan & Mike Peng & Garry Bruton, 2014. "Slack and the performance of state-owned enterprises," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 473-495, June.
    13. Li, Wen Helena & Guo, Bin & De Sisto, Marco, 2021. "Untangling the commonalities and differences between domestic cross-regional experience and international experience in shaping speed of internationalization," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2).
    14. Jafari Sadeghi, Vahid & Biancone, Paolo Pietro, 2018. "How micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are driven outward the superior international trade performance? A multidimensional study on Italian food sector," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 597-606.
    15. Wiersma, Eelke, 2017. "How and when do firms translate slack into better performance?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 445-459.
    16. Samuel Adomako & Nguyen Phong Nguyen, 2020. "Human resource slack, sustainable innovation, and environmental performance of small and medium‐sized enterprises in sub‐Saharan Africa," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 2984-2994, December.
    17. Yongbo Sun & Hong Sun, 2021. "Executives’ Environmental Awareness and Eco-Innovation: An Attention-Based View," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    18. Pinar Sener Tournus & Fatma Didin‐Sonmez & Elif Akben‐Selcuk, 2023. "How does the economic policy uncertainty affect the relationship between financial slack and firm performance in emerging countries?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 171-186, January.
    19. Lu Shang & Yu Zhou & Xinyu Hu & Zhipeng Zhang, 2023. "How does the absorbed slack impact corporate social responsibility? Exploring the nonlinear effect and condition in China," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 857-877, July.
    20. Xiaoxiang Li & Shuhan Zhang, 2021. "Does Slack Buffer? Market Performance after Environmental Shock," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-16, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:120:y:2020:i:c:p:181-194. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.