Harvesting organizational knowledge and innovation practices : An empirical examination of their effects on operations strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of organizational knowledge and innovation practices on the outcomes of operations strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs a survey‐based method to test a theoretically grounded set of hypotheses using regression techniques. Findings – The results indicate that cost, quality, delivery and flexibility outcomes are influenced by specific organizational knowledge and innovation practices. Also, the findings show that innovation performance mediate the relationship between knowledge practices and operations strategy. Practical implications – Acquiring knowledge is not enough. Managers need to facilitate dynamics of knowledge sharing and utilization to cultivate a better level of technical and administrative innovation performance, which in turn will result in favourable operations strategy outcomes. Originality/value – The paper is one of the first studies that highlight knowledge and innovation practices in relation to operations strategy in one study applied to a developing country context.