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Openness and Innovation Performance: Are Small Firms Different?

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  • Priit Vahter
  • James H. Love
  • Stephen Roper

Abstract

We explore whether and how the benefits of openness in innovation are different for small plants (less than 50 employees) compared to medium and large plants. Using panel data from Irish manufacturing we find that the contribution of the "breadth" of openness (i.e., the variety of plants' innovation linkages) on innovation performance is stronger for small plants than for larger plants. Both small and larger plants face diminishing returns as the breadth of openness increases, but small plants experience negative returns at lower level of the breadth of openness than larger plants. Our results suggest that small plants can gain significantly from using wider set of innovation linkages, but for such plants appropriate partner choice is a particularly important issue. Small plants also gain significantly more than larger ones from investing in the linkages within the supply chain.

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  • Priit Vahter & James H. Love & Stephen Roper, 2014. "Openness and Innovation Performance: Are Small Firms Different?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7-8), pages 553-573, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:indinn:v:21:y:2014:i:7-8:p:553-573
    DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2015.1012825
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    Cited by:

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    5. Radicic, Dragana & Petković, Saša, 2023. "Impact of digitalization on technological innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    6. Roper, Stephen & Love, James H. & Bonner, Karen, 2017. "Firms’ knowledge search and local knowledge externalities in innovation performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 43-56.
    7. Stephen Roper & Nola Hewitt-Dundas, 2017. "Investigating a neglected part of Schumpeter’s creative army: what drives new-to-the-market innovation in micro-enterprises?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 559-577, October.
    8. Becker, Bettina & Roper, Stephen & Vanino, Enrico, 2023. "Assessing innovation spillovers from publicly funded R&D and innovation support: Evidence from the UK," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Love, James H. & Máñez, Juan A., 2019. "Persistence in exporting: Cumulative and punctuated learning effects," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 74-89.
    10. Omar Carrasco-Carvajal & Mauricio Castillo-Vergara & Domingo García-Pérez-de-Lema, 2023. "Measuring open innovation in SMEs: an overview of current research," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 397-442, February.
    11. Ashish Kumar Jha & Indranil Bose, 2021. "Linking Drivers and Outcomes of Innovation in IT Firms: The Role of Partnerships," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 1593-1607, December.
    12. Corral de Zubielqui, Graciela & Fryges, Helmut & Jones, Janice, 2019. "Social media, open innovation & HRM: Implications for performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 334-347.
    13. Rajeev K. Goel & Devrim Göktepe-Hultén & Christoph Grimpe, 2017. "Who instigates university–industry collaborations? University scientists versus firm employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 503-524, March.
    14. Alfonso Expósito & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2019. "The relationship between types of innovation and SMEs’ performance: a multi-dimensional empirical assessment," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(2), pages 115-135, June.
    15. Obradović, Tena & Vlačić, Božidar & Dabić, Marina, 2021. "Open innovation in the manufacturing industry: A review and research agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    16. Lu, Qinli & Chesbrough, Henry, 2022. "Measuring open innovation practices through topic modelling: Revisiting their impact on firm financial performance," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    17. Heuschneider, Sara & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2016. "External search for exploration of future discontinuities and trends: Implications from the literature using co-citation and content analysis," Working Papers 92, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    18. Marullo, Cristina & Ahn, Joon Mo & Martelli, Irene & Di Minin, Alberto, 2022. "Open for innovation: An improved measurement approach using item response theory," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    19. Huma Sikandar & Umar Haiyat Abdul Kohar & Erika Eleana Corzo-Palomo & Valery Kimiyo Gamero-Huarcaya & Carlos Samuel Ramos-Meza & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Vipin Jain, 2024. "Mapping the Development of Open Innovation Research in Business and Management Field: A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9868-9890, June.
    20. Alfonso Expósito & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2018. "Innovation and business performance for Spanish SMEs: new evidence from a multi-dimensional approach," Working Papers 1805, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    21. Andriana G. Dimakopoulou & Nikos Chatzistamoulou & Kostas Kounetas & Kostas Tsekouras, 2023. "Environmental innovation and R&D collaborations: Firm decisions in the innovation efficiency context," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1176-1205, August.
    22. Messer, Julia & Martin, Alexander, 2019. "Open Innovation in KMU: Eine empirische Analyse ausgewählter Faktoren," Flensburger Hefte zu Unternehmertum und Mittelstand 18, Jackstädt-Zentrum Flensburg.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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