Leveraging customer knowledge obtained through social media: The roles of R&D intensity and absorptive capacity

Elena Ji, Syed Mahmudur Rahman, Ralf Wilden, Nidthida Lin and Norma Harrison

Journal of Business Research, 2024, vol. 182, issue C

Abstract: Previous research has highlighted the benefits of leveraging knowledge generated through internal R&D and external customer knowledge to drive firm innovation. While it is understood that both these knowledge sources may have complementary and/or substituting effects, our understanding of the mechanism through which they affect innovation performance is limited. Therefore, we develop a theory and empirically test a multiple moderation model to investigate the effect of customer knowledge obtained through social media on innovation performance, contingent on the firm’s realized absorptive capacity and R&D intensity. Using PLS-SEM multi-group analysis, we find that firm R&D intensity complements realized absorptive capacity in integrating customer knowledge from social media for innovation performance. Given resource constraints, firms with a low level of R&D intensity should focus on cultivating a strong realized absorptive capacity to maximize the benefits of social media. In contrast, firms with high R&D intensity need not overly prioritize developing realized absorptive capacity.

Keywords: Social media; Customer knowledge; Absorptive capacity; R&D intensity; PLS-SEM; Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324003151
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:182:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324003151

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114811

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().