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Innovation strategies, innovator types and openness: a study of KIBS firms in Spain

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Abstract

This paper studies the determinants of innovation strategies in knowledge-intensive business services, by examining the relationship between these strategies and two dimensions of innovativeness: the type of innovator (internal, collaborative or external) and the degree of openness (reliance on internal or external information sources). First, we describe the characteristics of innovator types and their degree of openness. Second, we investigate the extent to which different innovation strategies—determined by examining innovation expenditures and cooperation in innovation—are associated with different innovator types and with different degrees of openness. The data used in this paper are part of the Technological Innovation Panel carried out by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics. The results obtained show that innovation strategies do not lead in any mechanical way to a higher or lower degree of openness. The recognition of the importance that external knowledge can have for innovation is not incompatible with the existence of firms that prefer to rely mainly on their internal capacities to innovate. However, it seems that when firms decide to cooperate for innovation, they are more likely to innovate collaboratively than in isolation.

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Notes

  1. As Shearmur and Doloreux (2009) and Tether et al. (2012) show, the p-KIBS/t-KIBS distinction is not ideal, since particularities are found between sub-sectors within the broad categories. However, given that only three KIBS sub-classes are available, the p-KIBS/t-KIBS distinction has the merit of being consistent with many other studies.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council in Canada (SSHRC 410-2011-0108) and the Telfer School of Management (SMRF research grant) at the University of Ottawa. The usual disclaimers apply.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International and Spanish Economics, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Mercedes Rodriguez

  2. Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    David Doloreux

  3. KEDGE Business School, Talence, France

    David Doloreux

  4. School of Urban Planning, University of McGill, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Richard Shearmur

Authors
  1. Mercedes Rodriguez
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  2. David Doloreux
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  3. Richard Shearmur
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Correspondence to David Doloreux.

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Rodriguez, M., Doloreux, D. & Shearmur, R. Innovation strategies, innovator types and openness: a study of KIBS firms in Spain. Serv Bus 10, 629–649 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-015-0286-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-015-0286-x

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