The roles of top management characteristics, human resource management and customer relationships in innovations: an exploratory analysis

This study explores non-R&D determinants of innovations. Following findings from innovation literature, this study focuseson customer relationships, human resource management (HRM)and top management characteristics as possible determinants ofinnovations. For empirical analyses, this study conducts aquestionnaire survey in Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam in thebeginning of 2017. The results of the questionnaire survey andregression analyses present that customer relationships aresignificantly correlated with product innovations, whereas HRMpractices have significant associations with process innovations. Top management contributes to product innovations only bydeveloping mentoring relationships with their engineers. However, top management may make a significant contributionto innovations, by playing a key role in creating customerrelationships to promote knowledge transfer.