External knowledge acquisition and innovation: the role of supply chain network-oriented flexibility and organisational awareness

In today’s dynamic business environment, building flexibility into product innovation has become increasingly important. Applying an absorptive capacity lens, this paper develops and empirically tests an integrative model linking external knowledge acquisition (EKA) with supply chain and product innovation flexibilities, and examines the moderating effect of organisational awareness (OA) (a form of individual knowledge base) on these constructs. It is one of a select few papers that explores the effect of both internal capability and external knowledge on innovation flexibility, and discusses both supply chain and human resource development implications. Results indicate that supply chain network flexibility and information spanning flexibility play a mediating role between EKA and product innovation flexibility (PIF), illustrating the importance of flexible supply chain networks and information distribution structures in facilitating the transformation of external knowledge into innovation. The study provides further evidence that strong OA allows firms to leverage external knowledge and supply chain network capability to influence PIF and performance.