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 language | English |
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Journal | International Journal of Innovation Management |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 04 |
Early online date | 6 Jul 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published 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