Experience in R&D collaborations, innovative performance and the moderating effect of different dimensions of absorptive capacity

Abstract

Using a multi-stage research design and insights from organizational learning theory, we investigate how experience in R&D collaboration with different types of domestic and foreign partners (customers, suppliers, competitors) influences the formation of new R&D collaborations with foreign partners, and how such collaborations in turn affect firms' innovative performance. Our framework, which is tested against a sample of 8800 firms over a 9-year period, explains how experience with certain types of domestic partners helps firms establish foreign collaborations, particularly with the same partner types. It further explains why experience in foreign collaborations is more important for the formation of new collaborations abroad in relation to experience with domestic partner types. Moreover, it shows that collaborations with foreign partners are more beneficial than domestic collaborations for a firm's innovative performance and identifies which types of foreign R&D partnerships are more advantageous for enhancing innovation performance. Finally, it demonstrates that the performance-enhancing advantages of foreign partnerships are not equal for all firms but are dependent on certain dimensions of absorptive capacity. The effect that foreign suppliers have on a firm's innovative performance is further enhanced if a firm has adopted appropriate organizational practices designed to enhance external collaboration and the internal dissemination of external knowledge. Finally, firms gain more from foreign competitors if they possess high levels of employee skills.

Cooperation Networks as a Driver of Sustainability-Oriented Innovation

“…The greater the scope, the greater the cognitive distance, and the less risk there is of information redundancy. However, there will likely be more communication issues and conflicts between partners contributing homogeneous knowledge [23,37,78].…”

“…In Appendix D, the Cronbach's alpha demonstrates the reliability of the scale. The factor analysis is valid because the amount of explained variance exceeded 50%, the weighting factors of all the items in each scale exceeded 0.5, and the reliability when presenting a Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.7 [78,[86][87][88][89].…”

“…The first, regarding whether or not companies introduced new business practices in terms of how they organize work or procedures, and the second, if said companies implemented new models for managing external relations with other companies or public institutions. This is because the implementation of open innovation for sustainability requires specific organizational capacities, which are different to those that a company might already possess, and knowledge integration methods [46,61,78,90].…”

“…Furthermore, there are discrepancies between the effects of company size when it comes to establishing external partnerships. There are authors who establish that bigger companies are less likely to need to form external partnerships, as they have more resources and can generate the necessary knowledge internally [78]. Others, however, consider them more likely to need R&D collaboration with different kinds of partners [88].…”

“…Fourthly, we controlled for export activity, as this can enable a company to better understand foreign cultures and related commercial practices, familiarize itself with possible foreign partners, and come in contact with foreign technological knowledge which can improve innovation performance. This process can imply establishing R&D collaborations with foreign companies to have broader access to locally integrated knowledge [78,86]. Other analyses have focused on how exports influence the propensity to carry out sustainable innovation [33].…”