Open service innovation and the firm's search for external knowledge

The concept of open innovation captures the increasing propensity of firms to work across their traditional boundaries of operation. This phenomenon has largely been studied from the viewpoint of manufacturing businesses while services have received much less attention despite the predominant role they play in advanced economies. This paper focuses on open innovation in services, both as a subsector of the economy and as a component of the activities of manufacturing firms. We study the open innovation practices of business services firms and then consider the implications for open innovation of the adoption of a service inclusive business model by manufacturing firms. Our analyses are based on a unique dataset with information on open innovation activities amongst UK firms. Overall, engagement in open innovation increases with firm size and R&D expenditure. Business services are more active open innovators than manufacturers; they are more engaged in informal relative to formal open innovation practices than manufacturers; and they attach more importance to scientific and technical knowledge than to market knowledge compared to manufacturing firms. Open innovation practices are also associated with the adoption of a service inclusive business model in manufacturing firms and service-integrated manufacturers engage in more informal knowledge-exchange activities. The paper contributes towards a reconceptualisation of open innovation in service businesses and a deeper evidence-based understanding of the service economy.     

Managing competences in entrepreneurial technology firms: a comparative institutional analysis of Germany, Sweden and the UK

Innovating firms in new industries face a number of technological and market risks, especially appropriability and competence destruction. However, the relative significance of these varies between different sub-sectors, and so do managerial ways of dealing with them. These in turn are influenced by institutional frameworks, particularly those governing skill formation systems and labour markets. Consequently, the relative success of firms in fields with different appropriability and competence destruction risks is likely to vary between countries with contrasting patterns of labour market organisation. In the biotechnology and computer software industries, there are major differences in the dominant risks faced by innovating firms such that we would expect their relative success to differ between Germany, Sweden and the UK. While the UK and, to a limited extent, Sweden, have developed institutions similar to those found in the US that help govern “radically innovative” firm competences, Germany has invested in institutional frameworks associated with “competency enhancing” human resource practices that give its firms an advantage in more generic technologies in which organisational complexity is higher. While the distribution of public companies across sub-sectors broadly follows these expectations, Sweden has developed considerable strength in middleware software. This results from changing property rights and personnel policies at Ericsson.     

基于技术推力的外向开放式创新技术路线图研究

由于外向开放式创新可以为企业赢得巨大的战略利益和收益,企业需要在技术商业化过程中同时兼顾内部和外部的技术开发,并寻找二者间的均衡点。在传统T-plan方法的基础上,在外向开放式创新中引入技术路线图方法,提出了外向开放式创新技术推力路线图(TPROOI),并举例说明该方法在企业外向开放式创新中的应用。     

双向开放式创新与企业新产品绩效关系研究

   将开放式创新分为内向型和外向型两个维度,并探讨两种模式对新产品绩效的作用机理。基于242家创新型企业数据,通过采用多元回归和Bootstrap法,得出以下结论：双向开放式创新对新产品绩效具有正向影响,且内向型比外向型作用更显著;产品新颖度在双向开放式创新和新产品绩效关系中发挥中介作用;制度支持和协同机制在双向开放式创新和产品新颖度关系中发挥正向调节效应,且调节产品新颖度在双向开放式创新和新产品绩效关系中的中介效应。研究结论拓展了开放式创新理论,为企业开展开放式创新及政府政策制定提供理论指导。     

Competition favors the prepared firm: Firms’ R&D responses to competitive market pressure

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the long-debated relationship between market competition and firm research and development (R&D) by investigating the effect of competitive market pressure on firms’ incentives to invest in R&D. The paper shows that a firm's R&D response to competitive market pressure depends primarily on its level of technological competence or R&D productivity: firms with high levels of technological competence tend to respond aggressively (i.e., exhibit a higher level of R&D efforts) to intensifying competitive market pressure, while firms with low levels of technological competence tend to respond submissively (i.e., exhibit a lower level of R&D efforts). The differential effect of competitive market pressure on firm R&D, conditioned primarily by the level of firms’ technological competence, is empirically supported by unique firm-level data from the World Bank. Furthermore, the role of firm-specific technological competence in conditioning the R&D-competition relationship is more evident and statistically more significant for firms facing consumers whose utility is relatively more elastic to product quality than to price.     

R&D cooperation and failures in innovation projects: Empirical evidence from French CIS data

The second French Community Innovation Survey (CIS) indicates that 14% of R&D collaborating firms had to abandon or delay their innovation projects due to difficulties in their partnerships, an outcome which we term “cooperation failures”. Controlling for sample selection on the cooperation decision, our estimates show that firms collaborating with competitors and public research organizations (PROs), especially when they are foreign, are more likely to delay or stop an innovation project because of difficulties encountered in their R&D partnerships. More surprisingly, firms collaborating with their suppliers also face a higher risk of “cooperation failures”. At least for PROs, firms can reduce the risk of “cooperation failures” through previous experiences in partnerships. Larger firms and group subsidiaries are less likely to face “cooperation failures”, and so do firms in industries with a strong appropriability regime.     

Organizational and human resource management and innovation: Which management practices are linked to product and/or process innovation?

We examine the determinants of firms’ innovation success, using the firm-level data from the Japanese National Innovation Survey. We focus on the relationship between organizational and human resource management practices for research and development (R&D) and product/process innovation. We find that interdivisional cooperation/teams and the creation/relocation/integration of R&D centers are positively associated with both product and process innovation. Having board members with an R&D background is positively associated with product innovation, implying that top-down R&D decision-making may be important for firms to introduce new products. Among the factors examined, personnel assessment reflecting R&D outcomes appears to have an especially strong relationship with product innovation. Moreover, the positive relationship between the creation/relocation/integration of R&D centers and innovation success suggests that drastic organizational changes can work as a clear signal of firms’ determination to pursue an innovation-oriented strategy and help to accelerate innovation success.     

The impact of public basic research on industrial innovation: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry

While most economists believe that public scientific research fuels industry innovation and economic growth, systematic evidence supporting this relationship is surprisingly limited. In a recent study, Acemoglu and Linn (2004) identified market size as a significant driver of drug innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, but they did not find any evidence supporting science-driven innovation from publicly funded research. This paper uses new data on biomedical research investments by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine the contribution of public research to pharmaceutical innovation. The empirical analysis finds that both market size and NIH funded basic research have economically and statistically significant effects on the entry of new drugs with the contribution of public basic research coming in the earliest stage of pharmaceutical drug discovery. The analysis also finds a positive return to public investment in basic biomedical research.     

Innovation and productivity in developing countries: A study of Argentine manufacturing firms’ behavior (1992-2001)

Following the methodology employed in studies for industrialized countries and using panel data from innovation surveys in Argentina with information for 1992-2001, this paper contributes to the nascent literature that analyzes the determinants of innovative inputs and outputs and their impacts on manufacturing firms’ productivity in developing countries. The econometric results show that in house R&D and technology acquisition expenditures have positive payoffs in terms of enhanced probability of introducing new products and/or processes to the market. In turn, innovators attain higher productivity levels than non-innovators. The results also show that large firms have a higher probability of engaging in innovation activities and of becoming innovators.     

The effects of knowledge management on innovative success – An empirical analysis of German firms

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of knowledge management on the innovation success of firms in Germany. We look at innovative firms in the period from 2000 to 2002 taken from the Mannheim Innovation Panel and estimate the effect of collaborative measures of knowledge management on the immediate economic success of different types of innovations. The results of our matching analysis reveal that firms which apply knowledge management perform better in terms of higher-than-average shares of turnover with innovative products compared to their twins. We do not find a significant effect of knowledge management on the share of cost reductions with process innovation.     

Selective search, sectoral patterns, and the impact on product innovation performance

The shift toward more open and interconnected innovation activities has been a major topic in recent academic and practitioner discussions. Firms must connect their in-house R&D activities with external partners, such as leading customers or universities, to increase the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Hence, management needs to define where to search for valuable knowledge in its environment. In this paper we argue that knowledge search has to reflect the heterogeneity of various knowledge sources with regard to the knowledge they can provide and how these sources can be activated. We hypothesize that search strategies driven by science, suppliers and the product market will contribute differently to innovation success with new-to-market versus imitated products. Moreover, we explore the effect of these types of knowledge search within different sectoral patterns of innovation. Our empirical analysis rests on a sample of almost 5000 firms from five Western European countries. The results support our hypotheses and highlight the potentials and shortcomings of different types of knowledge search.     

Survivor: The role of innovation in firms’ survival

This paper explores the relationship between innovation and the survival probability of manufacturing firms in the Netherlands, conditional on firm age and size. The empirical analysis combines firm level data on innovation, derived from the second Community Innovation Survey, and on the date of exit, from the Business Register of all firms active in the Netherlands. To estimate the survival probability of a firm we use a non-parametric approach, based on the calculation of Transition Probability Matrices over different time periods. The results show that innovation has a positive and significant effect on the probability of firms’ survival. This effect increases over time and is conditional on firm age and size; we observe that small and young firms are the most exposed to the risk of exit, as found in earlier studies, but also those that most benefit of innovation to survive in the market, especially in the longer term.     

How does openness affect the importance of incentives for innovation?

When firms open up to external resources for innovation, do internal incentives still matter? This paper investigates the moderating effect of open innovation on the relationship between incentives and innovation using a survey database of British firms. Whilst both openness and incentives are positively associated with innovation efficiency, a substitution effect is found between openness and incentives. Whilst long-term incentives appear to enhance efficiency to a greater extent than short-term incentives, the substitution effect of openness is stronger regarding long-term incentives.     

Search patterns and absorptive capacity: Low- and high-technology sectors in European countries

Searching for externally available knowledge has been characterised as a vital part of the innovation process. Previous research has, however, almost exclusively focused on high-technology environments, largely ignoring the substantial low- and medium-technology sectors of modern economies. We argue that firms from low- and high-technology sectors differ in their search patterns and that these mediate the relationship between innovation inputs and outputs. Based on a sample of 4500 firms from 13 European countries, we find that search patterns in low-technology industries focus on market knowledge and that they differ from technology sourcing activities in high-technology industries.     

The value of innovation: The interaction of competition, R&D and IP

This paper analyses market valuations of UK companies using a new data set of their R&D and IP activities (1989-2002). In contrast to previous studies, the analysis is conducted at the sectoral-level, where the sectors are based on the technological classification originating from Pavitt [Pavitt, K., 1984. Sectoral patterns of technical change. Research Policy 13, 343-373]. The first main result is that the valuation of R&D varies substantially across these sectors. Another important result is that, on average, firms that receive only UK patents tend to have no significant market premium. In direct contrast, patenting through the European Patent Office does raise market value, as does the registration of trade marks in the UK for most sectors. To explore these variations the paper links competitive conditions with the market valuation of innovation. Using profit persistence as a measure of competitive pressure, we find that the sectors that are the most competitive have the lowest market valuation of R&D. Furthermore, within the most competitive sector (‘science based’ manufacturing), firms with larger market shares (an inverse indicator of competitive pressure) also have higher R&D valuations, as well as some positive return to UK patents. We conclude that this evidence supports Schumpeter by finding higher returns to innovation in less than fully competitive markets and contradicts Arrow [Arrow, K., 1962. Economic welfare and the allocation of resources for invention. In: Nelson, R. (Ed.), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity. Princeton University Press, Princeton], who argued that, with the existence of IP rights, competitive market structure provides higher incentives to innovate.     

Does spatial proximity to customers matter for innovative performance?: Evidence from the Dutch software sector

User-producer interactions are often assumed to be an important source of innovation. Spatial proximity between organisations would contribute to such interactive learning processes, because it facilitates face-to-face interactions required to exchange knowledge. However, both assumptions are increasingly debated. Therefore, we have empirically examined this using firm-level data on user-producer interactions of Dutch software firms. Indeed spatial proximity facilitates face-to-face interactions, but it does not strengthen the effect of face-to-face interactions on innovative performance. Moreover, regular interactions and collaboration with customers increase the likelihood that software firms bring new products to the market, but do not improve the firm's innovation output.     

Joint ventures and technology adoption: A Chinese industrial policy that backfired

To spur technology transfer, emerging market policymakers often require foreign firms to form joint ventures (JVs) with domestic firms. Through knowledge spillovers, JVs may reduce technology acquisition costs for domestic firms. Yet domestic firm rents from JVs could discourage innovation through a cannibalization effect. Which force dominates is an empirical question. I address it with novel data on China's auto sector. In response to fuel economy standards requiring firms to upgrade technology or sacrifice quality, firms with JVs reduced quality and price relative to their counterparts. Consistent with cannibalization, firms with JVs drive the negative effect.     

Externalities of openness in innovation

Discussion of open innovation has typically stressed the benefits to the individual enterprise from boundary-spanning linkages and improved internal knowledge sharing. In this paper we explore the potential for wider benefits from openness in innovation and argue that openness may itself generate positive externalities by enabling improved knowledge diffusion. The potential for these (positive) externalities suggests a divergence between the private and social returns to openness and the potential for a sub-optimal level of openness where this is determined purely by firms’ private returns. Our analysis is based on Irish plant-level panel data from manufacturing industry over the period 1994–2008. Based on instrumental variables regression models our results suggest that externalities of openness in innovation are significant and that they are positively associated with firms’ innovation performance. We find that these externality effects are unlikely to work through their effect on the spread of open innovation practices. Instead, they appear to positively influence innovation outputs by either increasing knowledge diffusion or strengthening competition. Our evidence on the significance of externalities from openness in innovation provides a rationale for public policy aimed at promoting open innovation practices among firms.     

A tale of two literatures: Transaction costs and property rights in innovation outsourcing

This paper investigates the relative importance of property rights and transactions cost factors in driving the decision of firms to outsource innovation. Using data for over 8000 firms from the UK Community Innovation Survey, we find that property right factors dominate over transaction cost factors. Transaction cost variables are more important for process innovation, while property rights variables are more significant for firms involved in product innovation. In addition, we find that firms involved in process innovation have a higher probability of outsourcing innovation than firms involved in product innovation.     

Exploring the role of proximity in SME knowledge-acquisition

Knowledge-acquisition activities of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are assumed to benefit from geographic proximity to similar firms and centres of research excellence. This paper will explore the knowledge-acquisition processes and critical interfaces of innovative SMEs and outline factors that contributed to an observed lack of geographic proximity-based knowledge search activity. A growth path based upon innovation driven, rapid internationalisation and subsequent customisation strategies fostered organisational proximity-based knowledge-acquisition from international sources. It is argued that local contextual factors will determine if organisational or geographic proximity (or both) are the key to knowledge-acquisition. The recognition of a diversity of potential growth trajectories is recommended for SME policies.