Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Journal of Innovation Studies, ss.1-49, 2026 (Scopus)
This study conducts a systematic literature review on the relationship between innovation and firm survival, aiming to clarify how different theoretical perspectives and underlying assumptions about innovation and firm survival across domains shape the conceptualization of both constructs. Here, firm survival refers to a firm’s continued (or discontinued) operation, continued ownership (or ownership changes), and continued solvency (or discontinued solvency). Rather than estimating the pooled effect size across studies, this paper employs a hybrid review that combines bibliometric mapping with fieldbased content analysis of 102 articles (1990–2023) from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The results from the hybrid review show that firm exit is treated as efficiency-based exit in economics but as inertia-induced exit in organizational studies. Such competing debates are documented through fieldbased content analysis (Section 3.2.1–3.2.4) and reconciled accordingly (Section 4.1.3). Additionally, the focal relationship varies depending on how firm exit is operationalized. Innovation generally has a protective effect, while firm exit is operationalized as firm failure (e.g., firm exit=failure) and can be viewed as a strategic outcome in the export market. To unify these fragmented views, we develop a multichannel framework outlining three distinct channels linking innovation and firm survival: the capability channel, the selection channel, and the legitimacy channel. Specifically, we identify three underexplored dimensions: non-technological innovation (e.g., sustainable human resource management, business model innovation) as a mechanism affecting survival through the capability and legitimacy channels; innovation timing as a real options policy pathway under uncertainty that spans all three channels; and firm moral failure as a separate non-economic indicator of firm survival, reflecting the company’s broader societal embeddedness. The contribution of this review lies in providing an integrative multi-channel framework derived from the cross-field conceptual and operational heterogeneity of innovation and firm survival.