Does the founders’ involvement in R&D influence SMEs’ performance?

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the pivotal role of founders’ initial and enduring involvement in R&D in SMEs’ performance. A conceptual moderated-mediated model is outlined based on the intersection between resource orchestration and competence-based perspectives. Propositions are derived and tested on a random sample of 350 low research-intensive SMEs, observing that founders’ involvement in R&D matters for SMEs’ performance. Empirical findings also show founders as critical actors for inventive resource orchestration and how and under what conditions their involvement is likely to nurture the performance of low research-intensive SMEs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Resource orchestration view and competence-based perspectives
• founders involvement in R&D
• SMEs performance
• moderated-mediated model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gianluca Vagnani

Vagnani Gianluca is professor at Sapienza, University of Rome, Department of management. He got a Ph.D. in Business from University of Catania. His search fields are business strategy, firm innovation, competitive rivalry. His researches have been published in leading international journal as Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Management and Governance.

Luca Proietti

Proietti Luca is professor at Sapienza, University of Rome, Department of management. He got a Ph.D. in Sapienza from University of Rome. His search fields are business strategy and small business innovation. His researches have been published in leading international journal such as Journal of Management and Governance.

Corrado Gatti

Gatti Corrado is professor at Sapienza, University of Rome, Department of management. He got a Ph.D. in Business from Sapienza, University of Rome. His search fields are performance measurement, negotiation, business strategy. His researches have been published in leading international journal as Journal of Business Research, Journal of Management and Governance, Sustainability.