Antecedents, Moderators, Mediators and Outcome of Open Innovation: A Study Among Manufacturing Firms in the UK

This thesis integrates the resource-based theory, the capability-based view, and the contingency approach to examine the key antecedents, moderators, mediators, and outcomes of open innovation. Based on a rigorous systematic literature review, using a comprehensive set of survey data from 206 UK manufacturing firms, this thesis integrates three interrelated papers on open innovation. The first paper examines the current state of knowledge in open innovation literature. Nine hundred and forty-four (944) articles from leading journals on open innovation were reviewed and synthesised. Overall, the findings identify common themes in the literature and highlight research gaps that, if pursued, could enrich the literature. The second paper examines the influence of technological capability and marketing capability on inbound and outbound open innovation, and the moderating effect of government support. The study shows that technological capability enhances inbound and outbound open innovation, while marketing capability hinders inbound and outbound open innovation. In addition, the study shows that the interaction of government support and technological capability is significant and positive for inbound open innovation, but insignificant for outbound open innovation. Furthermore, the interaction of government support and marketing capability is significant and negative for both inbound and outbound open innovation. The third paper examines the internal mechanisms between inbound and outbound open innovation on firm performance. It was found that both inbound and outbound open innovation were not significantly related to firm performance. In addition, strategic flexibility negatively mediated the relationship between outbound open innovation and firm performance, while innovation performance did not mediate this relationship. Furthermore, strategic flexibility and innovation performance were serial mediators in the relationship between outbound open innovation and firm performance. In addition, organisational relearning positively moderated the relationship between inbound open innovation and firm performance

Implicit Attitudes Toward Ageing: A Case of Funeral Advertisements in the Ghanaian Print Media

Through the agency of the media, individuals within a community absorb impressions, images, ideas and sounds that mirror society’s attitude towards old age. The study explored implicit attitudes towards old age in the print media as depicted in funeral advertisements in Ghana. Data was gathered from print advertisements (funeral announcements from the Daily Graphic) for two (2) years. The research studied only funeral announcements that displayed the age (60 years upwards) at which a person died and captured the picture of the dead person depicted on the funeral announcement poster (either at a later stage of their lives, younger age or both). A content analysis revealed some major themes; Celebration of life, Celebration of profession, Celebration of achievement, Blessing and other sub-themes. Although these themes suggest a positive attitude towards old age, it was however observed that some of the pictures used in the advertisements were those taken at an earlier stage in the life of the dead person. Results are discussed with reference to relevant theories and related studies