Absorptive capacity (ACAP) enables firm to adjust to a rapidly changing environment and achieve sustained competitive advantage. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on ACAP by providing a comprehensive literature review of the various conceptual attributes of the construct, its determinants, outcomes, and positive and negative consequences of using its input-oriented, output-oriented, and perceptive measurement modes. Proposals for constructing ACAP based on the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) empirically illustrate for the conceptual part of the paper. Additionally, combining concepts of absorptive capacity and open innovation (which is still rare in the literature) provides a new perspective on the role of absorptive capacity in opening up the innovation process. This advances the understanding of both inter-related proposals. The article also identifies key problems and formulates future research directions to improve the multi-level characteristics of absorptive capacity.
In recent years, EU countries, including these from the Central Eastern European (CEE) region has recognised, that eco-innovation should be treated as strategic priority of their economies. The aim of this paper is to present a cross-country analysis of the connection between eco-innovation and its main drivers within firms from selected CEE countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania) and Germany. The empirical part is based on micro-data for Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2006–2008. Based on the results of stepwise regression between main policy actions sustaining innovation activity and eco-innovation performance we can conclude, that financial support for innovation activities has a rather limited role in promoting eco-innovation. At the same time enterprises from the CEE region regard environmental regulations as the most important drivers of eco-innovation. In Germany, a country ranked in the highest category in the Eco-Innovation Scoreboard, the variety of forces that influence eco-innovation is much more wide-ranging. This indicates that government actions should take a broader look and lay the more general bases fostering the model of a green growth.
Numerous firm-level studies indicate a positive relationship between innovation and exports, being an important indicator of international competitiveness. The aim of this chapter is to present a cross-country analysis of the relationship between innovation and exports of firms in selected new EU Member States from the CEE region. All types of innovation (i.e. product, process, organizational, and marketing innovation) are analyzed and their relationship with international sales is assessed in this chapter. The analysis is based on Community Innovation Survey (CIS) micro data of 10,903 innovative manufacturing firms from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania for the 2006 – 2008 period. The logistic regression models are constructed to identify the relationship between each type of innovation and firms' export sales. The reverse causality (i.e. the effect of international sales on firm innovation) is also investigated. The strongest relationship between the introduction of product innovation and export sales on all foreign target markets was revealed for firms in all CEE countries. The influence of other types of innovation on export sales was also proved positive, though weaker, in most of these countries. The influence of international sales on firm's innovation in all surveyed countries was weaker than the impact of innovation on export.
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