FIRMS’ INNOVATION OBJECTIVES AND KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

STEPHEN ROPER, BETTINA BECKER, JAMES H. LOVE, KAREN BONNER

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

External partnerships play an important role in firms’ acquisition of the knowledge inputs to innovation. Such knowledge acquisition may be interactive - involving exploration and mutual learning - or non-interactive - involving exploitative activity and learning by only one party. Here, we consider how firms’ innovation objectives influence their choice of interactive and/or non-interactive knowledge search. We conduct a comparative analysis for Spain and the UK, which have contrasting innovation eco-systems and regulation burdens. Three empirical results emerge. First, we find strong support for complementarity between non-interactive and interactive knowledge search. Second, we find that where firms have innovation objectives relating to product or service improvement, they are more likely to establish non-interactive search strategies. Third, the innovation objective of reducing environmental impact is significantly related to both, interactive and non-interactive knowledge acquisition strategies. This is likely related to the increasing awareness of the need to promote an agenda based on sustainable growth.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Innovation Management
Volume26
Issue number04
Early online date6 Jul 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished online - 6 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Management of Technology and Innovation
  • Strategy and Management
  • Business and International Management
  • |nnovation
  • knowledge search
  • imitation
  • interactive knowledge search
  • non-interactive knowledge search

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