Impact of External Knowledge Acquisition Strategies on Innovation – A Comparative Study Based on Dutch and Swiss Panel Data

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractThere is growing evidence that firms increasingly adopt open innovation practices. In this paper we investigate the impact of two such external knowledge acquisition strategies, 'buy' and 'cooperate', on firm's product innovation performance. Taking a direct (productivity) approach, we test for complementarity effects in the simultaneous use of the two strategies, and in the intensity of their use. Our results based on large panels of Dutch and Swiss innovating firms, suggest that while both 'buy' and 'cooperate' have a positive effect on innovation, there is little statistical evidence that using them simultaneously leads to higher innovation performance. Results from the Dutch sample provide some indication, that there are positive economies of scope in doing external and cooperative R&D simultaneously conditional on doing internal R&D.3

Enhancing green product and process innovation: Towards an integrative framework of knowledge acquisition and environmental investment

“…Forés and Camisón (2016) found that a firm's innovation performance relies on external and internal knowledge sources to reduce environmental impact and improve energy efficiency. While, Arvanitis, Lokshin, Mohnen, and Wörter (2015) have identified that customer knowledge is important for the firms pursuing innovation. Many scholars have reported that external knowledge resources positively contribute to supplier innovation performance improvements (Xie, Zou, & Qi, 2018).…”

Research and development as an initiator of fixed capital investment

“…For instance, Polder et al (2010) find that ICT investment is an important driver of organizational innovation, which itself complements product and process innovations in achieving higher TFP growth. Arvanitis et al (2015) find complementarities between external knowledge acquisition strategies such as "buy" and "cooperate" and the firm's own innovation activities. Aw et al (2008) find a positive interaction effect between R&D and export activities in terms of firms' productivity; participating in export markets raises the returns on R&D. However, empirical contributions on the complementarity of R&D and fixed capital investments is scarce.…”

“…After solving the question about the direction of causality between R&D and investment, we can order the effects and investigate their complementarity in terms of the commercial success of innovative products, whereby we argue that R&D increases the return on fixed capital investments. Although the literature provides comprehensive empirical studies addressing various types of complementarities (e.g., Milgrom and Roberts 1995;Arvanitis et al 2015;Polder et al 2010), the complementary relationship in terms of the commercial success of innovative products between R&D and fixed capital has not been investigated so far.…”