The role of top management meetings in enhancing product innovation and performance

Abstract

Top management meetings enable the positive flow of knowledge and building of key relationships within the company and its suppliers. This study draws on open innovation and upper echelons theories to analyze the effects of top management meetings on open innovation instruments, product innovation and sales performance. We use partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to perform the path analysis of the hypothesized effects of top management meetings using data of 1,523 firms across 11 European countries. The results support the hypotheses that declare that top management meetings with suppliers positively influence product innovation while the effects of top management team meetings on product innovation remain negative. Surprisingly, the hypothesis that top management meetings with suppliers positively affect firm sales performance was not confirmed. Additionally, our efforts support the critical role of buyer-supplier relationships for innovation activities, primarily for services rather than manufacturing industries.