Nexus between strategic thinking, competitive intelligence and innovation capability: Managerial support as a moderator
Keywords:
Competitive intelligence, innovation capability, managerial support, PLS-SEM, strategic thinkingAbstract
In a rapidly changing milieus, great support for innovation by top management
team allows firms to sustain high market competitiveness both in the present and in the future.
In actualizing this pursuit, strategic thinking and competitive intelligence are seen as drivers
for innovation capability. This study investigates the nature of relationships between
competitive intelligence, strategic thinking, and innovation capability. It also explores the
moderating role of managerial support on these associations. In this study, a sample of 327 top
and middle-level managers’ responses to a survey was obtained from Nigerian Information
Technology firms, using a judgmental sampling technique. The data were analyzed with Partial
Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), using the SmartPLS software. The
findings revealed that competitive intelligence and strategic thinking have an imperative direct
and positive impact on innovation capability, and managerial support impacted positively, by
meaningfully strengthening the relationships within the Nigeria context. The study mades
significant contributions to the literature in terms of model development, which depicts the joint
influence of competitive intelligence and strategic thinking with a moderating effect of
managerial support. If deficient, this may result in inefficiency in achieving innovation
capability among IT firms.
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