La innovación se considera como uno de los factores clave del éxito a largo plazo de una empresa en los mercados competitivos actuales. Como resultado, existe un creciente interés por profundizar en los determinantes de la innovación. En la actualidad la atención se centra en los determinantes relacionados con las personas y el comportamiento, y hace hincapié en el papel de la cultura organizacional como un factor que puede estimular o frenar la innovación y por lo tanto afectar el desempeño de las empresas. Sin embargo, existe poca investigación empírica que vincule estas variables, en particular en el contexto español. El propósito de este trabajo es estudiar estos vínculos en una muestra de empresas industriales. Los resultados muestran que la cultura puede fomentar la innovación y el desempeño de la empresa o puede actuar como una barrera para ambos, dependiendo de los valores que fomenta la cultura. En particular, se encuentra que la cultura adhocrática es el mejor predictor de innovación y desempeño. Además, sobre la base de los resultados, se concluye que la innovación media la relación entre cultura y desempeño.

Innovation is considered to be one of the key factors that influence the long-term success of a company in the competitive markets of today. As a result, there is a growing interest in the further study of the determining factors of innovation. Today, the focus is on these factors related to people and behavior, emphasizing the role of organizational culture, as a factor that can both stimulate or restrain innovation, and therefore affect company performance. However, there is little empirical research linking these variables, particularly in the Spanish context. The purpose of this paper is to study these links by using a sample of industrial companies. The results show that culture can foster innovation, as well as company performance, or it could also be an obstacle for both of them, depending on the values promoted by the culture. It has been found specifically, that an adhocratic culture is the best innovation and performance predictor. Based on these results, it can be concluded that, innovation mediates the relationship between certain types of organizational cultures and performance.

Abstract This study examines how companies can achieve high performance through certain organizational behaviors (open-mindedness and social networks) and innovation. The impact of open-mindedness in defiance of basic assumptions and processes could motivate the use of internal and external networks. These social networks are the cornerstone for the creation of knowledge and the construction of radical innovations, which in turn trigger the transformation new knowledge into organizational performance. We use structural equation modelling (SEM) to test our research model and hypotheses in a sample of 324 companies from the Brazilian industrial sector. Data were collected by a regular mail survey. The study brings a proper understanding that radical innovations play a crucial role for organizational performance in emerging economies. Results also show that open-mindedness is associated with both internal networks and external social networks. In addition, the external social network mediates the effects of open-mindedness on the internal social network. Finally, external social networks have an indirect influence on radical innovations, through internal social networks, and a direct effect on organizational performance.