ترجمه مقاله آماده Linking technological and educational level diversities to innovation performance
ترجمه مقاله آماده
Linking technological and educational level diversities to innovation performance
با ترجمه :
مرتبط کردن تنوع سطح فناوری و تحصیلی به عملکرد نوآوری
مجله و سال
J Technol Transf 2015
با کلمات کلیدی:
Educational level diversity , Technological diversity , Absorptive capacity, Organizational
demography
قیمت مقطوع 20 هزار تومان
لطفا از نشر این ترجمه در فضای مجازی و اینترنت جدا خودداری کنید. انتشار آن حرام است. از اینکه به مترجم احترام می‌گذارید ممنونم
09017614595
در این بررسی، مقداری که تنوع سطح تحصیلی در میان
مهندسان و دانشمندان تحقیقاتی (RSE ها) برحسب تنوع فناوری شرکتی بر بازده
نوآوری تأثیر می گذارد را مورد بررسی قرار دادیم. از داده های بررسی تحقیق و توسعه
ملی میان سال های 2004 تا 2008 سنگاپور استفاده کردیم. نتایج بدست آمده از 366
شرکت از صنایع مختلف نشانگر این است که زمانی که دامنه های فناوری یک شرکت متنوع
است، این شرکت ها با نیروی کاری RSE متشکل از سطح تحصیلی یکسان، بازده مثبت
نوآوری دارند و بعنوان تعداد برنامه های ثبت اختراع ثبت می شود، درحالی که شرکت
هایی که متشکل از سطح تحصیلی مختلف می باشند، بازده منفی نوآوری دارند.
Abstract In this study, we explore the extent to which diversity of educational levels
among research scientists and engineers (RSEs) in the context of a firm’s level of technological
diversity influences innovation performance. We used data from the 2004–2008
National R&D Survey in Singapore. The results from 366 firms across different industries
indicate that when a firm’s technological domains are heterogeneous, those firms with an
RSE workforce comprising similar educational levels have positive innovation performance,
measured as the number of patent applications, while those comprising diverse
educational levels have negative innovation performance. Our further exploration of the
positive interaction between technological domain heterogeneity and similarity of educational
levels suggests that firms that had a high ratio of RSEs with lower educational levels
had more positive patent outcomes compared to those that had a high ratio of RSEs with
higher educational levels. The results show that there are limits to the strength of technological
diversity in a firm’s absorptive capacity as explained by organizational
demography.
An innovation is characterized by an invention that either has new practical insights or a
new useful combination from existing inventions. The role played by technological diversification
to achieve innovations has been fraught with paradox. On the one hand, the
resource-based view of the firm argues that firms should build their core competencies by
focusing on one domain or a body of homogeneous technological domain to generate
incremental innovation more quickly and reliably (Barney 1991; Prahalad and Hamel
1990; Quintana-Garcı´a and Benavides-Velasco 2008). On the other hand, other research
argues for the importance of having multiple strands of theoretical and experiential
knowledge for innovation to overcome competence traps, familiar thought patterns, and
organizational inertia (Amabile 1988; Leonard-Barton 1992).
Since firms achieve innovations through their human capital (Becker 1964), herein lies a
second paradox. While some studies found that diversity in a firm’s human capital improves
its absorptive capacity and problem solving capacities (Page 2007; van der Vegt
and Janssen 2003), other studies found that such diversity has led to greater dysfunctional
conflicts, distrust, miscommunication, and social disintegration for the firm (Cabrales et al.
2008). A review of 50 years of social science research on diversity demonstrates that the
diversity-performance link is not clear-cut, suggesting that the performance benefits from
diversity may be realized only under very narrow conditions (Jackson et al. 2003; Milliken
and Martins 1996). Disentangling the inconsistent findings on diversity requires a careful
consideration of the contextual factors that may either pose opportunities or challenges for
the firm (Mannix and Neale 2005). In this study, we aim to take a finer-grained examination
of technological diversity and human capital diversity on innovation performance
by exploring the interdependencies between these two factors.
Human capital is an important feedstock for innovation (Becker 1964). Past studies
have explored the relationship between the diversity of educational backgrounds and
functional competencies on innovation performance (Bercovitz and Feldman 2011;
Vinding 2006). However, little is understood about the role that educational level, another
measure of human capital, plays in innovation performance. We argue that since individuals
with different educational levels play different roles from support to the conceptualization
of ideas in the innovation process, we seek to explore the extent to which
diversity of educational levels among research scientists and engineers (RSEs) in the
context of a firm’s level of technological diversity influences innovation performance.
Consequently, we seek to explore the interdependencies between the heterogeneity of a
firm’s technological domains as a proxy for technological diversity and the diversity of
their RSE’s educational levels on innovation performance, as measured by patent applications.
We hope that the results from this focused approach will extend the literature that
explores the relationship between human capital and innovation performance as well as
begin a conversation in the future for a different approach to considering how technological
diversity and human capital diversity affect innovation performance.
We hope that by teasing out the dimensions within these two factors in finer grain, we
can promote more dialogue to explore the confounding results on the relationships between
diversity and innovation (Link et al. 2014). The results of this study suggest that innovation
performance depends on the strategic choices that firms make in managing the interplay
between technological and human capital when implementing innovation strategy.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank the participants of the Technology Transfer Society Conference
2014 for their helpful feedback. We are grateful to NUS (R-535-000-006-133) for their grant
support. Errors remain our own
