TY - JOUR
T1 - Winning Combinations
T2 - Search Strategies and Innovativeness in the UK
AU - Criscuolo, Paola
AU - Laursen, Keld
AU - Reichstein, Toke
AU - Salter, Ammon
N1 - Published online: 09 Feb 2017
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Searching for the most rewarding sources of innovative ideas remains a key challenge in management of technological innovation. Yet, little is known about which combinations of internal and external knowledge sources are triggers for innovation. Extending theories about searching for innovation, we examine the effectiveness of different combinations of knowledge sources for achieving innovative performance. We suggest that combinations involving integrative search strategies – combining internal and external knowledge – are the most likely to generate product and process innovation. In this context, we present the idea that cognitively distant knowledge sources are helpful for innovation only when used in conjunction with knowledge sources that are closer to the focal firm. We also find important differences between product and process innovation, with the former associated with broader searches than the latter. Using a large-scale pooled sample of UK firms, we find overall support for our conjectures, particularly in terms of product innovation.
AB - Searching for the most rewarding sources of innovative ideas remains a key challenge in management of technological innovation. Yet, little is known about which combinations of internal and external knowledge sources are triggers for innovation. Extending theories about searching for innovation, we examine the effectiveness of different combinations of knowledge sources for achieving innovative performance. We suggest that combinations involving integrative search strategies – combining internal and external knowledge – are the most likely to generate product and process innovation. In this context, we present the idea that cognitively distant knowledge sources are helpful for innovation only when used in conjunction with knowledge sources that are closer to the focal firm. We also find important differences between product and process innovation, with the former associated with broader searches than the latter. Using a large-scale pooled sample of UK firms, we find overall support for our conjectures, particularly in terms of product innovation.
KW - Innovation
KW - Openness
KW - Innovation search
KW - Knowledge integration
KW - Innovative performance
KW - Innovation
KW - Openness
KW - Innovation search
KW - Knowledge integration
KW - Innovation performance
UR - https://sfx-45cbs.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/45cbs?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/sfxit.com:azlist&sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1&rft.object_id=954925280617&rft.object_portfolio_id=&svc.holdings=yes&svc.fulltext=yes
U2 - 10.1080/13662716.2017.1286462
DO - 10.1080/13662716.2017.1286462
M3 - Journal article
VL - 25
SP - 115
EP - 143
JO - Industry and Innovation
JF - Industry and Innovation
SN - 1366-2716
IS - 2
ER -