WHAT DRIVES ENTERPRISE PRODUCT INNOVATION? ASSESSING HOW REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL INTER-FIRM COLLABORATION COMPLEMENT OR SUBSTITUTE FOR R&D INVESTMENTS

Jarle Aarstad (), Olav Andreas Kvitastein and Stig-Erik Jakobsen
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Jarle Aarstad: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
Olav Andreas Kvitastein: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
Stig-Erik Jakobsen: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2019, vol. 23, issue 05, 1-25

Abstract: We study whether regional, national, and international inter-firm collaboration complement or substitute for enterprise R&D investments as drivers of product innovation. Analysing a large-scale dataset of 6,584 Norwegian enterprises, we find that for enterprises without R&D investments, regional collaboration, in particular, has a positive innovation effect. Unsurprisingly, R&D investments also have a positive innovation effect, but more interestingly; for enterprises with R&D investments, international collaboration has an additive effect, whereas regional and national collaboration have no effect. The findings imply that regional collaboration, in particular, substitutes for enterprise R&D investments as a driver of product innovation, whereas international collaboration has an additive and complementary effect. We moreover find that in particular enterprises with R&D investments, but without international collaboration, are more innovative the smaller they are. Conversely, enterprises with R&D investments have a stronger innovation effect from international collaboration the larger they are.

Keywords: Product innovation; R&D investments; inter-firm collaboration; enterprise size; substitution and complementary effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919619500403

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