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.