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Innovation and export performance: a study of Italian high-tech SMEs

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Abstract

The objective of the paper is to examine the influence of innovation measures on the export intensity of Italian high technology small and medium firms. In fact, despite a growing number of empirical studies attempting to guide the approximation of the value of innovation and its relative impact on the export intensity, a distinction between innovation input and output indicators, both internal and external to the firms has not been clearly established. Drawing on the innovation and export management literature, we used a sample of Italian firms operating in the high tech settings within the manufacturing industry (HTSMEs). Applying a 3 years lag time approach, we ran various Tobit regression models. Our empirical results revealed that: (1) R&D employees do positively and significantly impact the export intensity of HTSMEs, whereas R&D expenditures do not; (2) the use of ‘Universities’ as external R&D partners has a positive influence on the export intensity of HTSMEs; (3) ‘Product innovations’ and the ‘Turnover derived from innovative activities’ positively and significantly affect the export intensity of firms in our sample.

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Notes

  1. The data from the Capitalia Survey (2003) did not allow us to prove the opposite direction, i.e. whether internationalisation [export] causes innovation as we did not have data for firms exports in the period 2001–2003, but only for 2003.

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Acknowledgments

This paper has benefited from the constructive comments of participants at AIB-UK Chapter hosted at University of Glasgow (UK) and EIBA Conference hosted at University of Valencia (Spain). I would like to thank A. Zucchella and E. Cotta Ramusino from University of Pavia (Italy) for their helpful recommendation and guidance. I am also grateful to A. Majocchi form the Center for International Business & International Economy (CIBIE) at University of Pavia (Italy) for his comments and statistical advice. The contribution of two referees significantly improved the paper. I would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of my mentor Professor Jim Bell (1954–2009).

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  1. Department of Economics, Business and Statistics. Faculty of Political Science, University of Milan, Via Conservatorio, 7, 20122, Milan, Italy

    Alfredo D’Angelo

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Appendix

Appendix

The dataset Capitalia (2003) provides detailed information on: (a) general information on activity, sector, ownership, (b) employment; (c) innovation and investments; (d) internationalisation; (e) market and competition; (f) finance and relationships with banks. The Table 9 provides a brief summary of the secondary data source.

Table 9 Summary of the secondary data source
Full size table

According to the Survey of manufacturing enterprises (Capitalia 2003), the sample represents 11.3% of the total manufacturing industry in Italy. The data in this source are based on responses to questionnaires sent every 3 years by the bank to its clients. These responses are matched with firms’ balance sheets data available to the bank. The direct participation of Capitalia in the collecting data makes the dataset used in this study a very reliable source of information. Furthermore, the joint use of both sources of information (i.e. balance sheets and surveys) allows to overcome the methodological limitations affecting innovation studies based on only one source of information (Canibano et al. 2000).

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D’Angelo, A. Innovation and export performance: a study of Italian high-tech SMEs. J Manag Gov 16, 393–423 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-010-9157-y

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