Inter-organizational Cooperation and Environmental Change: Moderating Effects between Flexibility and Innovation Performance

The paper investigates the moderator effect of inter-organizational cooperation in the relationship between workplace flexibility and innovation performance. This research question is important because innovation is dependent on the strategic integration of technological knowledge, requiring organizations to acquire new capabilities rapidly or to ensure the presence of knowledge that may be beyond existing internal capabilities. Inter-organizational cooperation constitutes a relevant mechanism for a firm to increase its knowledge base concerning new products and processes. High-cooperation firms may have more opportunities to take advantage of flexibility for innovation performance because it facilitates the access and dispersion of knowledge within the firm. We test the research hypotheses in a sample of manufacturing and service firms. The results contribute to the literature on flexibility and innovation because they demonstrate that inter-organizational cooperation moderates the relationship between flexibility and innovation performance. We discuss the implications of these results for future research and managerial practice.