Domestic and International Innovation Partnerships: Do They Matter for Innovation Outcomes of South African Firms?

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the diversity of domestic and international innovation partnerships on the innovation outcomes of South African firms. A number of competing hypotheses are formulated and tested empirically using a sample of South African firms in manufacturing and services by applying Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses. Results show that having an innovation partnership, particularly an international partnership, is beneficial to innovation outcomes. However, it also emerges that too diverse a set of international partnerships is detrimental to innovation outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion and a number of proposals for future research.

Network diversity structure, closeness and innovation of South African micro-entrepreneurs

“…Broader environmental factors -such as the degree of regional development (Garcia, 2006) or economic liberalisation (Meagher, 2006) -have also been recognised as a contributing variable. Resource-based network studies highlight network gains -such as knowledge acquisition and production capacities (Yli-Renko, Autio, & Sapienza, 2001); security (Barr, 1995(Barr, , 2002; and innovation aspects (Barr, 1995(Barr, , 1002Bakker, Oerlemans, & Pretorius, 2008). Social arrangements such as familial ties (Luo, 1997;Fafchamps & Minten, 2002); sub-contracting ties (Luo, 1997); home-based networks (Zhou, Wu, & Luo, 2007); and extra-, inter-, and intra-firm linkages (Yeung, 1997) describe the network composition that even enable a small firm's adjustment to global changes (Chen, 2009;Lu & Beamish, 2001;Yeung, 1997;Zhou et al, 2007).…”

Sparking Innovation in STEM Education with Technology and Collaboration

“…"Open collaborative innovation" can be desirable for promoting social welfare (Baldwin and Von Hippel, 2009) and new knowledge production "is often a collective process involving a significant number of individuals and organisations" (OECD, 2010a). In the private sector, for example, collaboration, interaction, engagement with external agents and/or international partnerships were suggested as ways to support innovation in firms in various countries (Bakker, Oerlemans and Pretorius, 2008;Fitjar and Rodriguez-Pose, 2011;Hoveskog and Antonova, 2011).…”