Overcoming innovation barriers through collaboration in emerging countries: the case of Colombian manufacturing firms

There has been a growing interest in open innovation strategy as a mechanism to face obstacles in innovative projects in the last three decades. These studies reveal that companies perceiving knowledge and skill shortages prioritise collaboration with universities and public research institutions rather than with other partners. However, most studies addressing the link between collaboration and innovation barriers are conducted in high-income countries. Drawing on the concepts of cognitive distance and absorptive capacities, we propose an analytical framework that challenges the suitability of this finding in the context of less developed economies. We provide evidence supporting this framework’s implications using the case of Colombian manufacturing firms. The resulting underutilisation of knowledge by firms in the context of emerging economies, as a consequence of their cognitive distance from universities and public research institutions, has important policy implications.