Small firm innovation performance and employee involvement

Arbeitspapier

It is known that small firms rely mainly on the CEO's individual knowledge for developing innovations. Recent work suggests that this approach is inefficient since it underutilizes other employees' knowledge. We study to which extent using CEOs, managers and non-managerial employees' ideas enhances small firms' innovation performance. A Heckman selection model on 305 small firms shows that not only CEO's and managers', but also non-managerial employees' ideas contribute to innovation performance. However, contributions depend heavily on the individuals' area of expertise and on whether product or process innovation is desired. Our findings enrich the current view on the entrepreneurial team, but also warn against the implementation of one-size-fits-all employee involvement programs in small firms.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ZEW Discussion Papers ; No. 12-013

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation ; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives ; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
• Subject: Employee involvement ; upper echelon ; non-managerial employees ; innovation performance ; small firms

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Andries, Petra ; Czarnitzki, Dirk
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/56013
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET