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Doing More with Less: The Disordinal Implications of Firm Age for Leveraging Capabilities for Innovation Activity

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  • Michael C. Withers
  • Paul Louis Drnevich
  • Louis Marino

Abstract

Innovation requires the entrepreneurial capabilities of opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation. Such capabilities generally accrue over time from a firm's cumulative learning and experience. In this study, we theorize that firm age should therefore moderate the firm's ability to leverage these capabilities for innovation activity, such that older firms can obtain higher outputs from their capabilities than younger firms can. We examine this relationship using a sample of 676 small and medium enterprises. We find that when both younger and older firms have highly developed innovation capabilities, older firms appear to enjoy higher levels of innovation activity than younger firms do. However, younger firms generally appear more likely to have higher levels of innovation activity than older firms do, when neither firm has highly developed innovation capabilities. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for research and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael C. Withers & Paul Louis Drnevich & Louis Marino, 2011. "Doing More with Less: The Disordinal Implications of Firm Age for Leveraging Capabilities for Innovation Activity," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(4), pages 515-536, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ujbmxx:v:49:y:2011:i:4:p:515-536
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-627X.2011.00334.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Lin, Hsing-Er & Yu, Andy & Stambaugh, Jeff & Tsao, Chiung-Wen & Wang, Rebecca Jen-Hui & Hsu, I-Chieh, 2023. "Family CEO duality and research and development intensity in public family enterprises: Temporality as a model boundary," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Valery Chistov & Nekane Aramburu & María Eugenia Fabra Florit & Iñaki Peña‐Legazkue & Pauline Weritz, 2023. "Sustainability orientation and firm growth as ventures mature," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5314-5331, December.
    3. Asimakopoulos, Grigorios & Revilla, Antonio & Rodríguez, Alicia, 2023. "International R&D sourcing, innovation and firm age: The advantage of ‘born-international sourcers’," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

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