Revealing the importance of international and domestic cooperation by using artificial neural networks: case of European radical and incremental innovators

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to introduce innovative ideas into the treatment of the radical and incremental innovations and to fill the research gap by using: (1) methods that can perform complicated tasks and solve complex problems leading in creation of radical and incremental innovation and (2) a broad sample of firms across countries. The authors’ ambition is to contribute to the scientific knowledge by producing evidence about the novel usage of artificial neural network techniques for measuring European firms' innovation activities appearing in black boxes of innovation processes.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors incorporate an international context into Chesbrough's open innovation (OI) theory and, on the one hand, support the hypothesis that European radical innovators benefit more from foreign cooperation than incremental innovators. On the other hand, the results of the analyses show that European incremental innovators rely on domestic cooperation supported by cooperation with foreign public research institutes. Moreover, the use of decision trees (DT) allows the authors to reveal specific patterns of successful innovators emerging within the hidden layers of neural networks.FindingsThe authors prove that radical European innovators using either internal or external R&D strategies, while the combinations of these strategies do not bring successful innovation outputs. In contrast, European incremental innovators benefit from various internal R&D processes in which engagement in design activities plays a crucial role.Originality/valueThe authors introduce innovative ideas into the treatment of hidden innovation processes and measuring the innovation performance (affected by domestic or international cooperation) of European firms. The approach places emphasis on the novelty of innovation and the issue of international cooperation in the era of OI by designing the framework using a combination of artificial neural networks and DT.

On the path to sustainable development: The nexus among owner gender diversity, energy management, and firms' innovation radicalness

“…These results support the traditional definition of the OI concept as previously described (Cagno et al, 2015;Chesbrough, 2017). The importance of internal R&D for radical and incremental innovation outputs are also confirmed by Prokop et al (2021), who consider a sample of European firms using domestic and/or foreign innovation cooperation. The authors also confirm the key role of knowledge flows across various partners.…”

“…In addition to these main variables, we identify four groups of variables based on the literature review (in line with the data provided by WBES), which represent the potential determinants of our output variables: value drivers (Gunawan et al, 2020) expressing the firm's commitment to environmental behaviour (e.g., by setting environmental targets), market pressure (Horbach et al, 2012) expressed by customers' voice for firms' environmental behaviour, environmental policy and regulations (Rennings, 2000), and OI instruments allowing the flow of internal and external (foreign) knowledge (Cagno et al, 2015; Prokop et al, 2021; Subtil Lacerda & van den Bergh, 2020). These are binary variables (1 indicates the answer is yes, 0 indicates the answer is no).…”

“…Here, we expect to find a positive relationship between firms' innovation outputs (radical and incremental) and energy management. Thus, we hypothesize that:H2 Innovating significantly increases firms' introduction of energy management.In addition, considering that both radical and incremental innovations are influenced by different factors (see, e.g., Prokop et al, 2021), we also examine whether a difference exists in the influence of radical and incremental innovations on the firm's implementation of energy management, leading to the following research question:RQ1 Does the introduction of radical and incremental innovations affect the implementation of energy management in different ways?…”

“…In addition, considering that both radical and incremental innovations are influenced by different factors (see, e.g., Prokop et al, 2021), we also examine whether a difference exists in the influence of radical and incremental innovations on the firm's implementation of energy management, leading to the following research question:…”

“…However, according to Bogers et al (2017), there is still a call for expanding OI research into new research categories. Prokop et al (2021) use the previously identified factors and extend OI research in terms of innovation radicalism in Europe. The authors show that European firms creating radical innovations (i) benefit from cooperation through various foreign channels and (ii) use either internal or external R&D strategies, as the combinations of these strategies do not bring successful innovation outputs.…”