IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rai/mamere/mrev-2014-02-fliaster.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation in small and medium-sized companies: Knowledge integration mechanisms and the role of top managers’ networks

Author

Listed:
  • Fliaster, Alexander
  • Golly, Tanja

Abstract

Past research has revealed that knowledge integration is an important prerequisite for the success of new product development. For this reason, companies deploy a number of formal mechanisms to foster integration across multiple functions and hierarchical levels. In many SMEs, however, such formal mechanisms are complemented or even replaced by informal social networks among managers and employees. Despite the relevance of intraorganizational networks, past research on SMEs, however, was focused mainly on the interorganizational level of analysis. To cover this gap, we map ego networks of senior managers in SMEs and explore their knowledge exchange relationships both inside and across functional and hierarchical boundaries. Our study shows that these social networks are an essential driver of knowledge integration and innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Fliaster, Alexander & Golly, Tanja, 2014. "Innovation in small and medium-sized companies: Knowledge integration mechanisms and the role of top managers’ networks," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 25(2), pages 125-147.
    • Handle: RePEc:rai:mamere:mrev-2014-02-fliaster
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hampp-verlag.de/hampp_e-journals_mrev.htm#214
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Bogomolnaia & Hervé Moulin & Fedor Sandomirskiy & Elena Yanovskaya, 2017. "Competitive Division of a Mixed Manna," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85(6), pages 1847-1871, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    SMEs; social networks; innovation; cross-functional integration; top managers; knowledge creation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L64 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Other Machinery; Business Equipment; Armaments
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:rai:mamere:mrev-2014-02-fliaster. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Rainer Hampp (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.hampp-verlag.de/ .

    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.