Traveling into unexplored territory: Radical innovativeness and the role of networking, customers, and technologically turbulent environments

• This paper investigates the effect of networking on radical innovativeness.
• The focus is on manufacturing SMEs.
• Results show that networking has a positive effect on radical innovativeness.
• Networking, customer responsiveness, and tech turbulence have a positive, three-way interactive effect on innovativeness.
• Radical innovativeness is highest when networking, customer responsiveness, and tech turbulence are concurrently high.

Networking can be a useful tool for facilitating information exchange. In this paper we argue that networking increases a firm's radical innovativeness, and that this link is moderated by technological turbulence and a firm's responsiveness towards customer needs. A sample of 283 manufacturing SMEs reveals that (1) networking has a positive effect on radical innovativeness and (2) networking, customer responsiveness, and technological turbulence have a positive, three-way interactive effect on radical innovativeness. Specifically, radical innovativeness is highest when networking, customer responsiveness, and technological turbulence are concurrently high.