International and domestic external knowledge in the innovation performance of firms from transition economies: The role of institutions

In this study, we analyze how the acquisition of domestic and international external knowledge contributes to the innovation performance of firms in transition economies and how the institutional conditions of the home country may affect these relations. We test our hypotheses via the responses of 645 firms from 18 Central and Eastern European countries. Our findings show that both external knowledge sources—domestic and international—contribute positively to the number of new products in transition economies. Our results also indicate that a country's governance imperfections positively moderate the relations between both domestic and international external knowledge and the number of new products. Additionally, our findings highlight that the benefits of international external knowledge for product innovation are greater in contexts with weaker institutional conditions than in environments with stronger institutional conditions. In contrast, the benefits of domestic external knowledge for product innovation do not vary substantially between scenarios with stronger institutional conditions and those with weaker ones. These findings lead us to conclude that the institutional conditions of transition economies moderate the relation between domestic and international external knowledge and innovation performance differently, with international external knowledge proving particularly valuable for product innovation when these conditions are weak.