The effects of environment, structure, and dynamic capabilities on product innovation strategy

The study compares the descriptive accuracy of some commonly held views on the factors affecting firms’ innovative behaviour. In particular, we contrast the relative impact of some of the ‘traditional’ factors that the extant literature has postulated as important determinants of product innovation, namely external environment and organisational structure, with that of the firm’s dynamic capabilities, which are emphasised by the resource-based theorising. External environment includes market dynamism and hostility. Structural dimensions are represented using formalisation, centralisation of decision-making, and vertical differentiation. Dynamic capabilities pertain to managerial and organisation processes through which coordination/integration, learning, and transformation take place inside the firm. Based on survey data drawn from a sample of leading Greek firms, results from hierarchical regression analysis seem to pronounce the effect of dynamic capabilities, even though environmental and structural variables also seem to exert a significant influence on product innovation strategy.