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Innovation paths and the innovation performance of low-technology firms--An empirical analysis of German industry

Eva Kirner, Steffen Kinkel and Angela Jaeger

Research Policy, 2009, vol. 38, issue 3, pages 447-458

Abstract: This paper analyses innovation paths and the innovation performance of low-technology firms in comparison to medium- and high-technology firms. Firstly, it shows that low-, medium- and high-technology sectors consist of a considerable mix of low-, medium- and high-technology firms. Thus, it is necessary to look at the firm level when analysing how innovation patterns differ depending on the level of R&D intensity. Secondly, the product and process innovation performance of low-technology firms in German industry is analysed based on data from 1663 firms in the German Manufacturing Survey 2006, applying a set of both product and process related innovation output indicators. The empirical results show that low-technology manufacturing firms lag behind their medium- and high-tech counterparts regarding their product and service innovation performance, to a large degree on purely definitional grounds, but that they seem to perform equally well and in some respects even better at process innovation.

Keywords: Low-; and; medium-technology; firms; Innovation; performance; Innovation; paths; Product; innovation; Process; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

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Research Policy is edited by M. Callon, M. Bell, F. Kodama, B. Martin, F. Meyer-Krahmer, W. W. Powell, S. Thomke and N. Von Tunzelmann

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