Antecedents of Production Innovation during Web Based Application Development

Internet technology is changing the way of product development, ranging from information gathering, product innovation and commerce to product development. Production innovations are crucial for success of companies operating in turbulent and uncertain environments. These production innovations need to be introduced at a rapid pace while at the same time companies have to absorb market information and integrate knowledge during Web based application development. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop a general model on the critical antecedents of production innovation via combining organizational learning theory and knowledge-based perspectives during Web based application development. Using structural equations modeling with data collected 208 Chinese firms, the result show that knowledge integration plays a perfect mediating role between learning orientation and production innovation. Managerial implications are explored and future research directions are also identified.