A growing mass of study has underscored that slack resources are fundamental for innovation. However, empirical research has generated inconclusive findings that have invigorated an ongoing scholarly discussion about which sorts of slack resources are most beneficial to innovation. To resolve this debate, an increasing number of scholars contend that the use of slack resources to explain the slack-performance relationship could be contingent on both the firms’ strategic positions and their firm-level characteristics. In these debates, the slack time has received less attention from scholars. However, while practical usage of slack time by the multinational corporation has been reported to affect performance, the empirical tendency linking it to any objective performance indicators of the firm such as innovation is few. As a result of this, this study conducts a two-way and three-way moderation effect by extracting two generic and most researched firm-level attributes, which are firm age and size to explain the slack-performance relationship of innovative firms. In order to extend the scant literature on slack time, this study draws on the moderating role of both firm age and size. The three-way estimation of slack time-age-size-performance relationship employs a cross-section dataset from the World Bank Enterprise and Innovation Follow-up surveys of 9503 firms in 11 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The study uses an Instrumental Variable binary treatment model with a direct-2sls for the central estimation, and a Tobit model for the robustness checks. The results of this study reveal that age and size significantly moderate the impact of slack time on innovation. In particular, the findings indicate that the age and size of firms efficiently moderate the slack-performance relationship to support the introduction of innovation. The study further reveals that a three-way estimation of the variables results in a significant decline to the optimisation of firm-level innovation. For experts, the findings offer an essential insight as they reveal how top managers can manage with the allotment of slack time to perhaps specific employees in fostering a compelling introduction of innovation.

越来越多的研究表明，稀缺的资源是创新的基础。但是，实证研究产生了不确定的发现，这些发现使正在进行的关于哪种闲散资源最有利于创新的学术讨论充满活力。为了解决这一争论，越来越多的学者认为，使用松弛资源来解释松弛与绩效之间的关系可能取决于企业的战略地位和企业水平特征。在这些辩论中，闲暇时间受到了学者的较少关注。然而，尽管据报道跨国公司在闲暇时间的实际使用会影响绩效，但将其与企业的任何客观绩效指标（如创新）联系起来的经验趋势却很少。结果，本研究通过提取两个通用的和研究最多的公司级别属性（公司年龄和规模）来进行双向和三向调节，以解释创新型公司的松弛绩效关系。为了扩展关于闲置时间的文献，本研究利用企业年龄和规模的调节作用。松弛时间-时间-尺寸-绩效关系的三向估计使用了世界银行企业与创新跟进调查中对撒哈拉以南非洲11个国家/地区的9503家公司的横截面数据集。该研究使用工具变量二元处理模型（带有直接2sls的模型）进行中央估计，使用Tobit模型进行的鲁棒性检查。这项研究的结果表明，年龄和规模显着缓解了闲暇时间对创新的影响。特别是，研究结果表明，企业的年龄和规模可以有效地缓解松弛与绩效之间的关系，以支持创新的引入。该研究进一步揭示，对变量的三向估计会导致企业级创新优化的大幅下降。对于专家来说，这些发现提供了重要的见解，因为它们揭示了高层管理人员如何通过分配闲暇时间来管理特定的员工，从而促进了引人注目的创新。