Firms’ innovation objectives and knowledge acquisition strategies

Roper, Stephen; Becker, Bettina; Love, James H.; Bonner, Karen

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.

Citation

Roper, S., Becker, B., Love, J. H., & Bonner, K. (2022). Firms’ innovation objectives and knowledge acquisition strategies. International Journal of Innovation Management, 26(4), Article 2250025. https://doi.org/10.1142/s1363919622500256

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 23, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 6, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Deposit Date: May 23, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 6, 2023
• Journal: International Journal of Innovation Management
• Print ISSN: 1363-9196
• Electronic ISSN: 1757-5877
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 2250025
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/s1363919622500256
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1207794