Company Stakeholder Capability Relationship and Company's Investment in Innovation Activities

Abstract

Objective: Stakeholders have a great impact on corporate behavior and performance and provide them with necessary resources for investment. Therefore, using the Structural Equation Modeling approach, this study examines the effect of the stakeholder relationship capability on corporate investment in innovative activities. Methods: This study employs meta-synthesis analysis, Delphi analysis and a research-made questionnaire to measure stakeholder relationship capability, and four proxies of individual, technical, environmental and operational innovation to measure corporate innovation. The questionnaire is sent to 151 managers in year 2018. Finally, 102 managers answered the questionnaires. Results: Having ensured the good-fitness of the evaluation and structural models, the results show that the stakeholder relationship capability improves the firm's innovation. Conclusion: Stakeholder relationship capability assist mangers in identifying stakeholders’ innovation needs and consequently, interacting with them to attract new resources and ideas, and as a result, more investment in innovative activities. These findings suggest the importance of the stakeholder relationship capability in firm's investment in innovation activities.

Keywords

• : company stakeholder relationship capability
• investment in innovation activities
• structural equations