Drawing on a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in traditional manufacturing industries from seven EU regions, this study investigates how cooperation with external organisations affects technological (product and process) innovations and non-technological (organisational and marketing) innovations as well as the commercial success of product and process innovations (i.e., innovative sales). Our empirical strategy takes into account that all four types of innovation are potentially complementary. Empirical results suggest that cooperation increases firms’ innovativeness and yields substantial commercial benefits. In particular, increasing the number of cooperation partnerships has a positive impact on all measures of innovation performance. We conclude that a portfolio approach to cooperation enhances innovation performance and that innovation support programs should be demand-led.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how both technological and non-technological innovations influence export intensity in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, the authors report results for each firm-size category of micro-, small and medium firms, and thus reflect SME heterogeneity.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology is based on the analysis of the Eurobarometer 2014 data set from 28 EU Member States, Switzerland and the USA covering the period 2011–2014. To statistically test the three defined research hypotheses on individual and joint effects of both types of innovation, a multiple treatment model was estimated. The advantage of this empirical strategy is that it takes into account the endogeneity of both technological and non-technological innovations. Moreover, the authors employ the production approach or the direct test of complementarity between technological and non-technological innovations.
Findings
Empirical findings indicate that technological innovations positively affect export intensity in small and medium firms, whereas non-technological innovations exert no influence on export intensity, regardless of the firm size. Moreover, the results from the direct test suggest no evidence of the complementary effects of technological and non-technological innovation on export intensity.
Research limitations/implications
The authors infer that SMEs would benefit more from public support targeting both exports and innovations than micro-firms, as the sunk costs of exports are too high for the latter. However, public support aimed at reducing fixed costs of exports could be particularly beneficial for micro-firms.
Originality/value
The research fills a literature gap on the joint impact of technological and non-technological innovations on export intensity while taking into account the endogeneity of innovation activities and SME heterogeneity.
Highlights
A cross-country analysis of business innovation modes using CIS-Eurostat 2014 regional data.
Comprehensive investigation of internal and external DUI and STI drivers.
Empirical results confirm regional variations in the impact of innovation modes on innovation outputs.
Our findings also support the hypothesis of technological nuances of innovation; in particular DUI drivers are very important for most types of innovation output.
Specific policy actions are required to support the effective use of DUI (and STI) innovation modes and drivers across European regions.
We investigate whether public support for innovation increases the propensity of SMEs in traditional manufacturing industries to cooperate for innovation-in particular, for incremental innovation-with other firms and external knowledge providers. Using data from seven EU regions, we find that support programmes do not promote cooperation with competitors, marginally promote cooperation with customers and suppliers and strongly promote cooperation with knowledge providers. These findings suggest that, in this case, the role of public policy is systems conforming rather than systems creating. Innovation support programmes can assist SMEs in traditional manufacturing industry to consolidate and/or extend their innovation ecosystems beyond familiar business partners by promoting cooperation with both private and public sector knowledge providers. Finally, our findings suggest that evaluation studies of innovation support programmes should be designed to capture not only input and/or output additionality but also behavioural and systemic effects.
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