Title: Top management team advice-seeking and environmental competitiveness impacts on technological innovation

Authors: Bhaskar Prasad; Rudy Martens

Addresses: Knowledge Research Unit, Ernst & Young LLP, Trivandrum, Kerala, India ' Department of Management, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

Abstract: Technological innovation is seen to be critical for an organisation's competitiveness and its success. This study focuses on technological innovation, which comprises the introduction and implementation of new or improved products, services and production processes, at the firm level. The study examines the impact of top management team advice seeking on technological innovation. Advice seeking, with its important role in organisations, will have significant impact upon technological innovation. In this study a clear distinction is made between external and internal advice seeking. Also this study examines the moderating role of environmental competitiveness. The study has used data comprising organisations based in the USA in different sectors. Results of multiple regression analyses are consistent with the priori hypotheses. The empirical findings indicate that external and internal advice seeking positively influence technological innovation. In the presence of higher competitive environment, organisations benefit from external advice seeking.

Keywords: technological innovation; top management teams; TMT; advice seeking; environmental competitiveness; USA; United States; internal advice; external advice.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2015.071032

International Journal of Technology Management, 2015 Vol.69 No.1, pp.77 - 92

Accepted: 05 Nov 2014
Published online: 07 Aug 2015 *

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