Affiliations: Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Kashosi Gad David, Research scholar, Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083 China. Tel.: +86 13020096355; E-mail: pilgrimgad@gmail.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Internal social capital in the cooperative firms has emerged in recent years as an important concept for improving innovation performance. OBJECTIVE:We explore whether the cohabitation of the different interacting social groups, namely cooperative members, and non-cooperative members, will generate disparate impacts on the circumstance for enhanced innovation. METHODOLOGY:A sample of 180 cooperative firms in Ethiopia, with two respondents per firm, consisting of one adherent and one non-adherent member, we reflected on the theory of social capital, and by adopting a relational, cognitive, and structural concept. We conducted Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through PLS to analyze the importance of each group for innovation performance. RESULTS:Our results suggested that the internal interaction between adherent and non-adherent members of cooperative enterprises positively influences their “innovation performance”. The findings also revealed that non-adherent members were more involved in building innovation than adherent members. CONCLUSIONS:The results provide empirical evidence that internal social factors are essential assets for effective innovation in cooperatives, and established a new line of research within an empirical perspective.
Keywords: Innovation performance, internal social capital, cooperative firm, knowledge creation
