SME Knowledge Commercialization Through Public Sector Partnerships

Neil A. Thompson (), Andrea M. Herrmann and Marko P. Hekkert
Additional contact information
Neil A. Thompson: Department of Management and Organization, VU University Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Andrea M. Herrmann: Department of Innovation, Environmental and Energy Studies, Utrecht University, Domplein 29, 3512 JE Utrecht, The Netherlands
Marko P. Hekkert: Department of Innovation, Environmental and Energy Studies, Utrecht University, Domplein 29, 3512 JE Utrecht, The Netherlands

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2018, vol. 15, issue 03, 1-27

Abstract: Collaborating with public research organizations (PROs) helps SMEs acquire the knowledge and skills they need to successfully innovate. But do they also help SMEs reduce their exposure to involuntary knowledge misappropriation and legitimacy deficits? Building from transaction economics and population ecology theories, we hypothesize that innovative SMEs collaborate with PROs to not only co-develop knowledge, but also to mitigate the risk that knowledge will be misappropriated from larger firms as well as to build overall organizational legitimacy. Binary and ordinal regression analyses using the EIM Technology Panel including 779 innovative SMEs in the Netherlands reveal that some of the variations in SME innovation partnership behavior may indeed be explained by efforts to avoid knowledge misappropriation and gain endorsements and affiliation with highly legitimate PROs.

Keywords: Knowledge misappropriation; organizational legitimacy; innovation barriers; SME partnerships (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219877018500219
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:ijitmx:v:15:y:2018:i:03:n:s0219877018500219

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219877018500219

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) is currently edited by H K Tang

More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().