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Enterprise's R&D and Innovation Management

Research on the Driving Path and Configuration Effect of Innovation in "Little Giant" SMEs

—Analysis of FsQCA Based on TOE  Framework

Liu Jingyan, He Meiting

(International Business School, Jinan University, Zhuhai 519070, China)

Abstract: The structured and collaborative utilization of internal core resources and potential  resources is the key to improving enterprise innovation. For "little giant" SMEs in the growth  stage, digital resources have increasingly become key strategic assets for innovation. At the same  time, increasingly organizational slack resources are emerging as potential power resources that  require careful management and optimization by managers. How "little giant" SMEs can enrich  digital resources and leverage slack resources through digital transformation in a complex mar⁃ ket environment, thereby promoting enterprise innovation, has gradually become the focus of in⁃ novation research. Based on the resource orchestration theory, this paper takes "little giant" Ashare listed companies as the research object, uses the fsQCA method to integrate five anteced⁃ ent conditions at three levels: technology, organization, and environment (TOE), and explores the  factors that drive the high levels of innovation in "little giant" SMEs, examining multiple concur⁃ rent factors and causal complex mechanisms involved. The research found that:①Organizational  environmental factors and technological factors alone do not account for the necessary conditions  for either high or non-high innovation levels in "little giant" SMEs. Instead, the innovation level  results from the combined influence of various antecedent conditions.②There are three types of  configuration paths that drive the high innovation level of "little giant" enterprises, namely the  digital technology-driven type under the dominance of the monopoly market, the redundancy ab⁃ sorption and digital technology-driven type also under the monopoly market dominance, and the  redundancy absorption and technology-driven type within the same market context.③There is a  configuration path that leads to a non-high innovation level in "little giant" SMEs, which is  asymmetrical compared to the three types of paths that drive high innovation levels. This study  not only effectively supplements the research on digital transformation from the perspective of re⁃ source orchestration theory, but also serves as a practical reference for "little giant" SMEs seek⁃ ing to improve their innovation level through digital transformation and the effective use of orga⁃ nizational slack resources. 

Key words: SRDI; "little giant" SMEs; innovation; digital transformation; organizational slack  resources; fsQCA