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Purpose>This paper provides remarkable insight into the structural components of a firm's core competence and its development via research and development (R&D) activities for innovation and exporting activities.Design/methodology/approach>The authors have used a positivist design and a deductive methodology. The authors have examined the extant literature developing a theoretical framework to empirically investigate the relationships between a firm's core competence, organisational learning (OL), tacitness, dynamic capability and R&D activities. To carry out this investigation, the authors have collected stratified sample data from 330 firms operating in North East England, a peripheral region of England.Findings>The authors have found that there are indeed significant statistical relationships between these structural components, R&D activities and a firm's core competence, and this nexus is pertinent to innovation and exporting. Furthermore, it is found that North East England is significantly constrained by the lack of finance, technological capability, experts and brain drain. Based on these findings, the authors propose a cooperative R&D framework to narrow down these constraints to assist firms in developing core competencies for innovation and exporting in peripheral regions.Social implications>There is an urgent need to investigate the incidence of knowledge-driven activities, R&D, the extent of innovation and exporting activities of firms operating in North East England, a peripheral region of the United Kingdom (UK).Originality/value>This study provides an original and systematic investigation of the firm's core competence and its formation via key structural components for innovation and exporting within an empirical framework.

The fierce competitive status of the business world has urged innovation activities to transform from mechanistic to ecological and organic. An innovation ecosystem consists of multilateral organizations and emerges as a favorable mechanism for value co-creation and sustainable growth. Yet the theorizing of an innovation ecosystem is still at an early stage and in-depth studies from emerging economy leaders are insufficient. This study aims to investigate how an innovation ecosystem is constructed and coordinated from a core-firm based view. An exploratory single case study on the Haier Group is adopted. Through analyzing the multi-bedded units (i.e., six innovation projects/technological breakthroughs), we extract and depict Haier’s innovation ecosystem and the ecological niches within it. We highlight an innovation ecosystem that promotes sustainable development and is based on complementarities in technologies and resources, while at the same time integrates non-technological issues such as strategy, culture, institution, and the market. Regarding ecosystem coordination, value appropriability should be ensured to sustain the innovation ecosystem. Moreover, we argue that the ultimate purpose of innovation ecosystem is not to facilitate the realization of one specific project, but rather to improve the overall success rate of innovations within it. This research complements and extends literature on enterprise innovation ecosystems, and provides implications as to the construction, coordination, and sustainability of innovation ecosystems for emerging economy firms.

Purpose This study aims to explore the relationship between supply chain financing (SCF) and the business risks of core enterprises, the economic value of SCF for core enterprises and the motivation for core enterprises to participate in SCF. The authors also examine the mediating effects of financing constraints. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes the panel data of 393 companies listed on the main board of the A-share market in China from 2011 to 2014 using fixed-effect and intermediary-effect models. Findings The development of SCF in core enterprises can significantly reduce business risk by alleviating financing constraints. Research limitations/implications The study sample is from China’s A-share market, which may limit the ability to generalize results. The indicators used to measure SCF primarily consider commercial credit, which may have affected the accuracy of the study. Practical implications This study provides a new basis for core enterprise managers in the manufacturing sector to conduct SCF and control business risks. SCF with small and medium-sized upstream and downstream enterprises can reduce business risks and enhance competitiveness, especially under financing constraints. Originality/value This study focuses on core enterprises, a topic less explored in academia. It examines the impact of SCF on their performance and the mediating role of financing constraints. This study offers a novel perspective on the SCF transmission mechanism of supply chain finance and provides new insights for core enterprises.

Based on a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2024, this study employs a complex adaptive systems (CAS) lens to investigate the spillover effects of core-firm digital transformation (CDT) on innovation within supply chain networks. It reveals that CDT fosters supplier innovation while impeding customer innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the spillover effect is more pronounced when suppliers (customers) are non-state-owned, larger, more competitive, and have more able managers. Mechanism analysis suggests that the spillover effect is realized through resource and competition mechanisms. This study contributes to the literature by integrating CAS theory with established supply chain management perspectives to provide a systemic understanding of digital transformation’s ripple effects, offering valuable insights for both managers navigating digital ecosystem evolution and policymakers designing industrial innovation strategies.

Small-world networks have received much theoretical attention from sociologists, business-management researchers, and others. In the present study, I examine both financial and internationalization performance under a small-world network structure of business groups. Using the perspective of network analysis, I set out to clarify the effects of small-world network structures on the financial performance of groups and their core firms. I also test the internationalization performance of groups and its mediating role between small-world networks and group financial performance. This study extends business-group research by examining the effects that group and cross-level nested dimensions can have on financial and internationalization performance. With longitudinal business-group data in Taiwan from the BGT directory spanning the years between 2009 and 2013, I present evidence that small-world networks have shaped dynamic financial outcomes. The result indicates that the relationship between small-world networks and the financial performance of groups is U-shaped. The evidence additionally indicates that an inverted U-shaped relationship characterizes the interactions between the small-world networks and the nested core firms of groups. However, small-world network structures do not affect the internationalization performance of groups.

Analytically, in a linear approach on the dimensionless amplitude of oscillation, the dispersion equation for capillary waves is obtained on the charged liquid layer surfaces on a conductive cylindrical firm bar of the final thickness. It is shown that the firm core has a stabilization effect on capillary waves and reduces the destabilizing influence of a radial electric field. The influence of the core becomes substantial only at values of the radius comparable with the outer radius of the cover. The higher the density of the superficial charge, the wider the range of unstable wave numbers and the higher the values of the instability increase increments.

小世界網絡近幾年來在管理領域已受到諸多學者的關注，本研究主要探討在集團企業所形成的小世界網絡結構與其績效之相關性。該績效包含財務面的營業績效以及國際化績效。本研究採用過去較少用來探討集團企業的網絡觀點，所探討重點為小世界網絡結構對整體集團企業及其所屬核心母公司的財務績效所造成之影響；除此之外，集團企業的國際化績效，在過去集團企業研究領域也較少被觸及，本研究也嘗試探討小世界網絡結構對集團企業的國際化績效影響，以及國際化績效所扮演的中介角色。本研究透過集團層次以及跨層次( 集團對公司層次) 之研究情境，延伸過去集團企業這一脈的文獻研究。針對為期5 年的集團企業資料之實證結果顯示：集團企業的小世界網絡結構與其財務績效呈U 型的非線性相關；小世界網絡結構與其所隸屬的核心母公司之財務績效卻呈倒U 型的非線性相關。值得一提的是，小世界網絡結構與集團的國際化績效並未呈現相關性，集團的國際化績效也未在小世界網絡及其財務績效之相關性帶來中介效果

We study 892 Italian motorcycle industry projects carried out via 184 different buyer—supplier and supplier-supplier relationships to provide evidence on the knowledge dynamics occurring in dyads and networks and to understand the underexplored but important (perhaps even dominant) leading role that some firms play in the evolution of networks and interfirm learning processes. We develop a multiphase model which, from a multilevel perspective addressing different relational subsets, suggests how firms can best organize to generate and exchange knowledge efficiently. We argue that extant theoretical perspectives can profitably draw on our findings to strengthen their dynamic components and help them explain the widely diffused 'exploring through partner' strategies more effectively.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, non-core firms face increasing pressure to innovate while adhering to sustainable practices. Non-core firms are organizations that operate in peripheral or less central positions within an ecosystem, having limited access to critical resources but playing essential supportive roles in innovation processes. Innovation eco-embeddedness, which integrates ecological considerations into innovation processes, is becoming a critical factor for enhancing innovation performance. However, the dynamics between eco-embeddedness, breakthrough innovation, and innovation performance, especially under varying levels of ecological legitimacy and technology turbulence, remain under examination. This study aims to investigate the relationships between innovation eco-embeddedness, breakthrough innovation, and innovation performance in non-core firms. Additionally, it examines the moderating effects of ecological legitimacy and technology turbulence on these relationships. This study developed and tested seven hypotheses using a conceptual framework based on innovation ecosystem theory, breakthrough innovation theory, and institutional theory. We collected data from a diverse sample of non-core firms and used structural equation modeling to analyze the direct, mediating, and moderating effects. The findings reveal a positive relationship between innovation eco-embeddedness and both breakthrough innovation and innovation performance. Breakthrough innovation also directly enhances innovation performance and mediates the relationship between eco-embeddedness and performance. Ecological legitimacy significantly moderates the impact of eco-embeddedness on breakthrough innovation, while technology turbulence intensifies the mediated relationship between eco-embeddedness and innovation performance when both moderating factors are high. This study provides valuable perceptions for managers and policymakers in non-core firms, highlighting the importance of embedding ecological considerations in innovation processes.

This chapter is about a vital middle ground between general theories of entrepreneurship and detailed empirical case studies of entrepreneurship. One of the key reasons to study entrepreneurship is to inform action. We study who the entrepreneurs are, what they do, and what works in order to see patterns and learn lessons. General models or theories of entrepreneurship can be challenging to put into action. In their fine study of entrepreneurial history and theory, Youseff Cassis and Ioanna Minoglou list as one of the most pressing questions for students of the subject: “Is it legitimate to strive for one a-spatial and a-temporal typology of entrepreneurship?” (Cassis and Minoglou, 2005: 7). The question has practical as well as academic implications. If an entrepreneur is someone who puts capital at risk and who innovates by combining factors in a new way (as Joseph Schumpeter argued) (Schumpeter, 1934; Schumpeter, 1947), what beyond those basic principles is an aspiring entrepreneur to draw upon when faced with a particular set of social, political, and economic realities?