Is innovation always beneficial? A meta-analysis of the relationship between innovation and performance in SMEs

By Nina Rosenbusch, J. Brinckmann, Andreas Bausch. 2011

1,933 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The performance implications of innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have attracted considerable interest among academics and practitioners. However, empirical research on the innovation-performance relationship in SMEs shows controversial results. This meta-analysis synthesizes empirical findings in order to obtain evidence whether and especially under which circumstances smaller, resource-scarce firms benefit from innovation. We find that innovation-performance relationship is context dependent. Factors such as the age of the firm, the type of innovation, and the cultural context affect the impact of innovation on firm performance to a large extent.

Subfields: Management of Technology and Innovation, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fb2ce5e7ab68e728e506647c617d408136fbb566

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In Management of Technology and Innovation

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Strategy and Management

Citations in the corpus

The impact of knowledge spillovers and innovation on firm-performance: findings from the Balkans countries (2017, methodology): “Rosenbusch et al. (2011), applying metaanalyses techniques to aggregate prior empirical research on the innovation–performance relationship (42 empirical studies on 21,270 firms), have found that innovation has a positive effect on the firm-performance.”
Entrepreneurial alertness: Exploring its psychological antecedents and effects on firm outcomes (2021, background): “For example, systematic reviews and meta-analyses reported that innovation is positively associated with financial performance for large firms (Bowen et al., 2010), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Rosenbusch et al., 2011), as well as new ventures (Song et al., 2008).”
The role of ICT and innovation in enhancing organizational performance: The catalysing effect of corporate entrepreneurship (2017, background): “The previous studies have also examined the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship (Rosenbusch, Brinckmann, & Bausch, 2011; Zhao, 2005) and reported the importance of entrepreneurial strategies in the achievement of competitive advantage (Roaldsen & Borch, 2011).”
Mapping the field: a bibliometric analysis of the literature on university–industry collaborations (2017, background): “Furthermore, narrative reviews frequently incorporate various normative and cognitive biases of the researcher (Rosenbusch et al. 2011).”
Software development in startup companies: A systematic mapping study (2014, methodology): “Rosenbusch et al. [50] studied the innovation-performance relationship in SMEs by conducting a meta-analysis of 42 empirical studies that cover 21,270 firms.”
Nexus between social capital and performance of micro and small firms in an emerging economy: The mediating role of innovation (2017, background): “Both the innovation process and the resulting innovation outputs influence the performance of MSBs (Rosenbusch et al., 2011).”
Hotel innovation and performance in times of crisis (2014, background): “Finally, hotel results may also hinge upon a series of contextual variables working as control variables (Li and Atuahene-Gima, 2001; Rosenbusch et al., 2011) affecting the innovation-performance relationship.”
The impact of government financial support on the performance of new firms: the role of competitive advantage as an intermediate outcome (2014, background): “2.1.1 Innovation and licensing-in-based competitive advantage Innovation is a major way of generating distinctive resources and competitive advantage (Rosenbusch, Brinckmann, and Bausch 2011).”
Inter-organizational collaboration and SMEs’ innovation: A systematic review and future research directions (2020, background): “In response to these challenges, innovation becomes a strategic option for this sector (Rosenbusch et al., 2011).”