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

Knowledge context, learning and innovation: an integrating framework

“…In a situation where firms also have similar internal knowledge resources we might expect this to lead to consistent forms of engagement with external organisations and to common profiles of innovation output. This is not what we observe, however, with levels of innovative activity varying widely within any given sector for example ), as well as a variety of different strategies for engaging with the external knowledge context (Arvanitis et al 2015). What creates this difference in firms' ability -or willingness -to generate innovation in any given context?…”

“…In Section 3, we then discuss the role of agency and ambition in determining 'why' firms seek to access external knowledge and their willingness to invest in external relationships and knowledge search. Individual firms may not only react very differently in terms of their strategic responses to a given knowledge context (Arvanitis et al 2015), but may also vary in their capacity to take advantage of the external knowledge that is available (Cohen and Levinthal 1990).…”

Complementarity of internal and external R&D: is there a difference between product versus process innovations?

“…A total of 4509 companies were surveyed in 2001 and 2005, whereas 6404 companies were surveyed in 2009. CIS data from different European countries has previously been used to test for complementarity of internal and external R&D (e.g., Beneito, 2006;Cassiman and Veugelers, 2006;Schmiedeberg, 2008;Arvanitis et al, 2013), but whereas other studies usually rely on data from 1 year, we use data from 3 years, spanning a total period of 9 years, to demonstrate the robustness of our results. In our data set, more than half (51%) of the companies surveyed in 2001 claimed to engage in innovation activities of any kind, with this number being slightly lower in 2005 (42%) and 2009 (44%).…”

Research and Development as an Initiator of Fixed Capital Investment

“…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.…”

“…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.…”