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Purpose– Organizational processes that create conditions to facilitate employee innovativeness have become topical due to the constant demand for organizations to renew themselves. Research shows that human resource management (HRM) practices can been used to create such conditions, but also the important complementary role of organizational trust has been highlighted in this context. In particular, earlier studies have mostly focused on the concept of interpersonal trust. However, impersonal trust (the individual employee's expectations about the employer organization's capability and fairness) has recently been suggested to be an equally or even more relevant facilitator supporting the effect of HRM practices on organizational innovativeness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– The hypotheses were tested with two large-scale quantitative studies from the forestry and information and communication technology industries in Finland. Structural equation modelling (with LISREL) was used to test hypothesis.Findings– This study shows that effective HRM practices indeed facilitate organizational innovativeness, and that this effect is partially mediated by impersonal trust in the organization. This result contributes to the existing literature and practice of HRM and the management of organizational innovativeness.Research limitations/implications– Future studies could include also interpersonal trust in order to study trust-innovativeness linkage. The study also examined this phenomenon only in Finnish context and this sets some limitations to the generalizability of the results. In addition, single respondents were used to assess all the variables used in the study. Further studies could improve on this by utilizing more objective measures of organizational innovativeness.Practical implications– The results suggest that organizations should pay attention to designing HRM practices so that they facilitate the building of impersonal organizational trust. In order to improve innovativeness through organizational trust, it is crucial to develop an organization-wide HRM system, since practices that are inconsistently used can lead to unwanted or inefficient results. Strategic and managerial actions related to HRM could increase employees' trust in the organization and subsequent conditions for providing continuously innovative solutions.Originality/value– The authors add to the literature by identifying the connection of HRM practices to contributing to behavioural, process and strategic innovativeness through the mediation of impersonal trust. To the best of the researchers' knowledge, this is one of few studies and the first systematic large sample study that examines impersonal trust and its relationship between HRM practices and different types of organizational innovativeness.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore interactional and procedural practices in managing tensions of coopetition (simultaneous collaboration and competition between firms).


Design/methodology/approach
Through an in-depth literature review of prior research within coopetition and strategy-as-practice fields, and by using two illustrative empirical examples, the authors develop a framework for preventing and managing coopetitive tensions through combinations of procedural and interactional practices.


Findings
The authors identify tensions related to strategizing, task and resource allocation, as well as knowledge sharing. Furthermore, they demonstrate potential ways of how these tensions can be prevented, resolved and managed.


Research limitations/implications
The findings show that the analysis of tensions in coopetition would benefit from a holistic, multilevel approach that recognizes practices that are interactional (i.e. face-to-face interactions) as well as procedural (i.e. organizational routines). Coopetitive tensions and their resolution are related to the use or neglect of both types of practices. Furthermore, interactional and procedural practices are mutually interdependent and can complement each other in tension management in various ways.


Practical implications
The findings of this study shed light on the roles and activities of actual practitioners involved in coopetition, and shows how their work and practices in-use contribute to coopetition, related tensions and their resolution.


Originality/value
By adopting the strategy-as-practice approach, this study generates valuable insights into the practices and tensions in coopetition, as well as illuminates the roles of the practitioners involved in managing coopetition relationships.

PurposeThe importance of integrating both internal and external knowledge into the product/service innovation process has been widely recognized in the knowledge management and innovation literature. Likewise, the role of the marketing and sales function as a driver of innovation has been stressed because of its market-facing role. However, limited research has investigated the complementarity of both internal and external knowledge regarding product/service innovation performance in a marketing context. The purpose of this study is to analyze marketing departments' role in accessing internal and external knowledge resources (i.e. marketing-specific relational capital [RC]) to reach improved product and service innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis uses empirical evidence collected by a structured survey of 346 respondents representing marketing and sales functions in Spanish companies.FindingsThe survey revealed that marketing-specific internal relational capital at the department and inter-department levels, as well as noncustomer external RC, are directly associated with product/service innovation performance. Further, the analyses show that the relationship between customer-specific RC and innovation performance is mediated by other types of RC, making it a fundamental antecedent to the innovation process. Finally, significant differences in marketing-specific RC subcomponents were found between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) firms.Originality/valueThis study makes a valuable contribution to marketing and management literature by revealing the types of social interactions in the marketing function that enable access to knowledge sources that promote successful product/service innovation.

PurposeThe aims of this paper are to identify and classify the knowledge resources that shape intellectual capital (IC) within the marketing function, to develop and validate a related scale and to demonstrate the scale's applicability in an empirical context.Design/methodology/approachA literature-based approach was adopted to identify and classify knowledge assets in the field of marketing. The new scale's content was then tested in a number of companies with different profiles. A subsequent survey of a representative sample of 346 Spanish firms sought to validate the scale and to assess those companies' marketing-related IC.FindingsThe literature search provided the basis for a marketing-related IC architecture comprising three main categories, nine subcategories and eighty items whose validity was tested and confirmed. The survey revealed that marketing-specific human capital (HC) is the most developed knowledge resource in Spanish firms, followed by marketing-specific relational capital (RC), while marketing-specific structural capital (SC) is the least developed. Significant differences were also found among companies with different profiles (B2C vs B2B, high-tech vs low-tech and manufacturing vs services).Originality/valueThis study makes a valuable contribution to the IC literature as one of the first to deploy the general IC framework in a specific functional area (here: marketing and sales) for more meaningful and in-depth assessment of firm-specific knowledge resources.

PurposeIn this study the authors seek to discuss and empirically analyze coordination mechanisms in innovation‐generating business networks. Their aim is to explore how these coordination mechanisms, as well as the roles of actors, evolve during the development of such networks.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses an in‐depth single case study on the development of Finnish Mobile TV in an innovation‐generating business network comprising a heterogeneous range of actors.FindingsThe findings suggest that coordination of innovation‐generating business networks combines "management" and "orchestration", both of which have their distinct roles throughout the development of the network. The latter is used throughout the case in question to communicate vision and build social capital, and the former to coordinate phases closer to commercialization.Research limitations/implicationsThe study provides novel evidence in explicating how network coordination mechanisms of management and orchestration change as the innovation‐generating business network evolves. However, there is a need to examine the issue further from different methodological standpoints in order to improve the generalizability of the results.Practical implicationsManagers will be able to use the lessons learned in designing different coordination mechanisms to ensure that the network evolves in the desired direction, and in considering the role of their companies in this development.Originality/valueThe paper enhances understanding of how coordination mechanisms evolve in different phases of innovation‐generating business networks.

PurposeAs service companies are occupying an increasingly significant place as drivers of economic growth, there is a pressing need to understand their peculiarities in order to facilitate their effective management and governance. One important area in which this kind of understanding is lacking is intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management. Although intellectual capital has become the key value driver for all types of organizations, there is a lack of systematic research on whether there are fundamental differences in the IC of service‐oriented versus product‐oriented companies. In an attempt to bridge this gap the paper aims to examine the main differences in IC stocks, creation, management and protection mechanisms between service‐oriented and product‐oriented companies.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on empirical evidence collected from 418 respondents representing HR and R&D functions in 335 Finnish companies.FindingsThe results demonstrate that service‐oriented companies possess more human capital and renewal capital, and focus more on IC creation than product‐oriented companies. In addition, IC protection is stronger in product‐oriented companies. As companies move towards a service orientation they need to change their approach to IC stocks and management, and in this acknowledging the differences between a service and a product orientation is the first step.Originality/valueThe results presented in this study shed new light on the differences between service‐oriented and product‐oriented companies in terms of the possession, management, creation and protection of intellectual capital.

PurposeService ecosystems are becoming an important domain of joint value creation and resource integration, and the literature in the field is burgeoning. The recent growth in the literature warrants consolidating the findings of the existing literature, summarizing the recent development and identifying avenues for more impactful future research on the topic. This study aims to map the service ecosystems research domain and synthesize insights by integrating qualitative content analysis with quantitative data analysis.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses algorithmic bibliometric review (quantitative) with VOSviewer and R-package and content analysis (qualitative) on 119 service ecosystems papers published between 2003 and 2020.FindingsThe bibliometric analysis uncovers the critical research domains, knowledge trajectories, influential authors and journals and author networks in the field. The content analysis identifies the four most important research themes (value creation, change triggers, strategic and entrepreneurial action and institutional embeddedness and agency) and provides an integrative view of the dynamics among these themes. The authors also find the need for more empirical and theory grounded research around these four themes. Furthermore, based on the review, the authors discuss the disciplinary identity of the service ecosystems field and suggest interesting future research opportunities, along with ideas for useful empirical approaches and theoretical extensions.Originality/valueThis study's comprehensive analysis offers an overview of the evolution and identity of the service ecosystems research and identifies several promising opportunities for future research on service ecosystems.