• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.117-136
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• 2016

External knowledge search is critical to expand the firm's knowledge base, increasing the innovation performance. However, prior literature has paid less scholarly attention on the boundary condition of the search activity. In particular, the few literatures on the contingency factors are either conceptual or focus on the firm characteristics such as resources and capability. In this regard, this study argues the negative moderating effect of knowledge protection and environmental uncertainty of a firm on the positive relationship between external knowledge search and innovation performance, because these contingency factors hamper the reciprocity and the mutual trust between the firm and its external partner that provides knowledge needed in the innovation process. The empirical analysis is based on the sample drawn from Korean Innovation Survey, provided by STEPI in Korea. The sample consists of 1,637 respondent firms that experienced product innovation during the survey period. We could find statistically supporting results for the negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between external knowledge search and innovation performance. This study extends the academic debate on the boundary conditions of external knowledge search and provides managerial implications for successful product innovation.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-72
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• 2016

Extant research on firm innovation productivity is limited in measuring the innovation productivity, in which they measured firm innovation productivity by using either inputs or outputs of innovation. The present study complemented the extant research by employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to measure firm innovation productivity. Furthermore, this paper examined the effects of firms' external knowledge search, as one of open innovation practices, on firm innovation productivity, for open innovation activities are regarded as an influencing factor on firm innovation productivity in the previous literatures. Using the data of the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) of manufacturing industries conducted in 2008, this study developed hypotheses in which we considered not only two dimensions of external knowledge search (breadth and depth) but also two subtypes of external knowledge search (market-driven and science-driven). The results found that searching deeply and market-driven search are positively related to firm innovation productivity, but science-driven search is somewhat negatively related to firm innovation productivity. Furthermore, market-driven search can mitigate the negative effect of science-driven search on innovation productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1378-1389
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• 2002

This study was to identify dimensions of subjective knowledge and to test the structural model of the effect of subjective knowledge on information search and evaluation rules for apparel products. A questionnaire was administered to 668 females living in Seoul, Taejon, and Cheongju, and the data were analysed by using LISREL 8. The results of this study were as follows: First, consumers' subjective knowledge regarding apparel products consisted of five factors; Style knowledge, Fashion Knowledge, Store Knowledge, Fabric/Management Knowledge, and Brand knowledge. Those factors were influenced by the experience related with apparel products. Second, the subjective knowledge influenced information searches. That is, internal search was significantly influenced by fashion knowledge and store knowledge, while external search was significantly influenced by fashion knowledge and fabric/management knowledge. Third, the subjective knowledge had indirect effects on evaluation rules via search activities (e.g., internal and external), suggesting that the internal search was mediated in relationship between subjective knowledge and compensatory rule, while the urtemal search was mediated in the relationship between subjective knowledge and noncompensatory rule. Therefore, this study implies that subjective knowledge plays an important role to explain consumers' decision making processes such as information search and evaluation.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2015

This paper aims to explore the small and medium sized enterprises'(SMEs') technological innovation through an open innovative strategy. Researchers have identified open innovation as external search 'breadth' and 'depth'. Although an open innovation strategy is well known as an effective way for SMEs' innovation, this stream of research examines differences between pursuing breadth of external knowledge and depth of external knowledge for SEMs' innovation. The sample comprises a total of 1106 SMEs included in the Korean Innovation Survey, and logistic regression analysis and odds ratio comparison were used to evaluate the relationship between external knowledge search and innovation outcomes. The results show that both 'breadth' and 'depth' positively affect the SMEs' innovation. When SMEs are simultaneously pursuing external searching for breadth and depth, however, a negative result on innovation outcome followed because of the lack of their internal resources and capacities. Despite these contributions, we have certain limitations that can be regarded as means of future research. Even though breadth and depth are adopted to measure the way of how a firm sources the external knowledge, companies may place the different weight on each source of knowledge. And also, it is difficult to understand how the knowledge gained through external search contributes to a firm's incremental and radical innovation, respectively.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 2018

This study suggests external knowledge search as a way of creating knowledge and efforts for reaching out to the innovation and examines the relationship between innovation speed and the breadth and depth of external knowledge search. As a part of efforts to overcome the limitations of the routines of external knowledge search in the domestic market, the efforts of a firm to enter the foreign market have been examined with a moderate effect. Although previous research focused on exploration of external knowledge that is mostly effected in single country or similar industry, this study expands it by introducing the concept of market expansion and empirically inspect the interaction effect. 818 valid samples used in this study are based on the innovation survey published by STEPI and empirical results are as follows. First, the breadth and depth of external knowledge search have a positive impact on innovation speed. Second, export performance as the effect of expanding the market has a moderating effect on the speed of innovation. Third, younger companies prefer various networks while older companies prefer depth networks in order to increase the speed.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.243-254
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• 2015

To increase their market shares and grow continuously, it is very important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand their markets. Although various factors may influence an SME's effort to cultivate a new market, this research focused on activities related to the search and utilization of external knowledge. After conducting Tobit analysis based on the dataset of 959 Korean SMEs included in the 2010 Korean Innovation Survey, we found that external knowledge search and utilization activities positively affect the market expansion of SMEs. This result has two implications: (1) SMEs should actively search for appropriate external knowledge sources with which they can expand their markets and reduce their dependence on internal R&D activities; and (2) they should implement an efficient corporate system to effectively absorb and utilize external knowledge inside the firms. Despite these contributions, this research has its shortcoming in that it utilized a cross-sectional dataset, which can be further analyzed by incorporating the dataset from previous and future periods.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-115
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• 2015

This paper attempts to delineate and analyze the relationship between organizational search activities and organizational ambidexterity. A growing number of studies confirm that organizational ambidexterity is important for firm survival and long-term prosperity. However, research on how to achieve ambidexterity is still limited. To date, structural separation, contextul ambidexterity, and top management team attributes are proposed and examined as major antecedents of organizational ambidexterity. In this paper, I argue that orgnizational search may influence ambidexterity through its effect on exxploratory innovation and exploitative innovation. Since little study has been paid to uncover the relationship between knowledge search and ambidexterity, I develop theoretical arguments and propose some propositions rather than examine hypotheses. The propositions developed in the study are as follows; P1: The breadth of internal search is positively associated with exploratory innovation; P2: The breadth of external search has a reverse U-shaped relationship with exploratory innovation; P3: The depth of internal search is positively associated with exploitative innovation; P4: The depth of external search has a reverse U-shaped relationship with exploitative innovation; P5: The interaction between internal search breadth and internal search depth is positively associated with organizational ambidexterity; P6: The interaction between external search breadth and external search depth is positively associated with organizational ambidexterity. Based on the above propositions, I suggest some considerations for empirical research and propose avenues for future research.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.109-127
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• 2020

This study empirically investigates the effects of information search on new product development (NPD) process and performance with a sample of 82 NPD projects in 5 firms. The information search is consisted of general sources, internal sources, and external sources. The performance is consisted of technological and market performance. Findings show that information search from internal sources increases the technological knowledge of the NPD team, and information search from external sources increases the market knowledge of the NPD team. The technological and market knowledge of the NPD team increases its technical performance respectively. Only the market knowledge of the NPD team increases its market performance. Overall, the technological knowledge of the NPD team fully mediates the relationship between the information search from internal sources and its technical performance. The market knowledge of the NPD team fully mediates the relationship between the information search from external sources and its technical performance, and the relationship between the information search from external sources and its market performance. There is no other significant mediation relationships between the information searches and the performances. Implications of the research findings are discussed, and recommendation for future research are provided.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.299-331
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• 2017

This research details firm knowledge search types based on the locus and features for Korean firms in the knowledge-based industry, and then analyzes differences in innovation performance according to the types from the view of a configurational approach. Existing research has mainly concentrated on establishing a relation between knowledge search and outcome variables. Consequently, firms have relatively insufficient understanding of how to systematize knowledge search. Hence, this research classifies knowledge search into four dimensions-external search breadth, external search depth, internal search breadth, and internal search depth-by the locus and features of search. Furthermore, the research draws actual types of knowledge search of firms and analyzes differences in innovation performance. The main result of the research is as follows. First, the research reasons out six clusters of firms which have a dissimilar knowledge search type. Each cluster shows differences while participating in every dimension of knowledge search or few dimensions. Second, as for innovation performance, each cluster shows different exploitative and exploratory innovation performance according to their knowledge search type. This research applies a configurational approach while existing research applied a reductionistic approach, thereby establishing the major contribution which enables us to study a phenomenon as it comes, not to analyze variables and relationships of variables. Lastly, the research suggests a future direction of research based on the result of this research.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 2018

This paper investigates the relationship between external search strategy and radical innovation performance. As the discrepancies that can exist among the varying sources of external knowledge is overlooked, the existing literature on the effect of external search strategy on radical innovation performance remains inconclusive. This study aims to reconcile such mixed findings by recognizing that external knowledge can be distinctive depending on the environment in which its source is embedded in; specifically, this paper examines the relationship between external search strategy and radical innovation performance by distinguishing external search from 'market' and 'non-market' relationships. We test our hypotheses with a sample of 431 firms from the manufacturing industries from the 2010 STEPI survey. Our empirical findings suggest that external search strategy from market relationships positively influences radical innovation performance, while the influence of external search strategy from non-market relationships is found to be not significant. Our research suggests that in order to improve radical innovation performance, firms must be able to maintain a cooperative relationship with other actors connected with market relationships and to effectively exploit the market knowledge obtained from these actors.