Improving firm performance through inter-organizational collaborative innovations: The key mediating role of the employee’s job-related attitudes

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to add to the existing knowledge about how firm performance is influenced by their involvement in collaborative innovation. The contextual resource-based dimensions improve the participating firm’s performance through its impact on the job-related attitudes of the firm’s personnel. Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses were tested using structural equation model to analyze a set of data collected through surveys among a sample of Colombian manufacturers. Findings: This study provides empirical evidence that contributes to the scarce research in the open innovation arena about how human resources influence performance in the inter-organizational collaborative innovations. In particular, it offers strong support for the key mediating role of the employees’ job-related attitudes in the relationship between complementary capabilities and innovation culture as value-creating conditions, and the participating firm’s ultimate sales and financial performance. Research limitations/implications: The results may be affected by the context of the data set. Further studies considering the influence of specific contextual variables, such as the type of innovation, the national culture or the type of partner, could yield richer insights that would help validate the results of this study. Practical implications: This study provides useful information for managers. As well as creating the required conditions to add value in the collaborative innovation, they should work to guarantee the better job-related outcomes for the employees involved in collaborative innovation projects. Originality/value: This research contributes to the open innovation literature. It posits the employee’s attitudes toward collaborative innovations as a factor of the utmost importance in determining how the external collaboration affects internal performance.