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Innovation is important to firms' productivity, competitiveness, agility, resilience and growth. The success of a firm's innovation strategy depends in part on how it combines and absorbs different innovation activities. Using the Crépon-Duguet-Mairesse (CDM) structural model, this paper analyses complementarity between product and process innovation for the case of small and micro manufacturing firms in Johannesburg, South Africa. The empirical analysis utilises rich new firm-level survey data that, unlike most firm surveys, includes micro-sized firms as well as informal enterprises. Our results show strong evidence of complementarity between product and process innovations in their effects on firm performance. The results suggest that firm size, capital intensity, firm age, innovation expenditure and financial constraints are key variables associated with complementarity. We extend the specifications used in previous studies to take account of the contextual setting, with split samples by firm formality, ownership and size. We find evidence of complementarity in formal firms only. Our results also show stronger effects of complementarity in micro-firms and foreign-owned firms. The findings have relevance for promoting innovation and for enhancing the effects of innovation on firm performance among micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) in a developing country context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm innovation is of vital importance to New Zealand's economy, but we understand little about how different human resource (workforce) factors influence innovation approaches (product/services innovation, process innovation, and innovation speed). We explore three human resource (HR) factors: workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), workforce attraction, and workforce retention, using a sample of New Zealand private sector firms (n = 402). Regression analysis shows all HR factors are significant predictors of all innovation approaches. Further analysis shows workforce KSAs is dominant towards product/service innovation, workforce attraction is dominant towards process innovation, and workforce retention is dominant towards innovation speed. Moderating effects by firm size are found showing small-sized firms out innovate large-sized firms when workforce KSA are high, despite small-sized firms having, on average, weaker HR factors and innovation approaches than large-sized firms. We highlight the organisational implications across small – and large-sized firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We first examine the effect of having innovation cooperation arrangements on the productivity level among firms with innovation activities. Then, we examine whether a firm's productivity level is affected by its number and types of innovation cooperation partners among those with innovation cooperation arrangements. Data on Norwegian firms with innovation activities is used. In the analysis, we differentiate between small and large firms. The estimation results show that unlike small firms, large firms can benefit from cooperation arrangements by achieving productivity improvements. Using the group of internal partners as the reference category, the results show that the productivity level is relatively higher in the short term among all and small firms that had cooperation arrangements with competitors or other enterprises in their sector, and relatively lower both in the short and medium term among all and small firms that had arrangements with partners in the academic sector. This level is relatively higher among large firms that had arrangements with consultants or consulting enterprises, and relatively lower among large firms that had arrangements with commercial labs or R&D-enterprises, in the medium term. We also find that most effects of the number of different types of cooperation partners are not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes the China high- and new-technology enterprise (HNTE) program implemented in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment. Difference-in-differences (DID) estimate with matching data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database, the China Customs Database and the HNTE Certification Database for 2006–2010 is used to study the impact of HNTE certification on enterprises' export product quality. The results show that, overall, HNTE certification promotes the upgrading of export product quality. Moreover, the improvement of innovation ability brought by HNTE certification is an important channel to promote such upgrades. A series of robustness tests also confirm the above conclusions. In addition, heterogeneity analyses are conducted based on the enterprise size, ownership and trade mode, respectively. The results show that the mechanism by which HNTE certification policy promotes export product quality through the improvement of enterprise innovation ability is more significant in non-SOEs and general trading enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is key for productivity growth and an important focus for policy in many countries. Innovation novelty, increasing from new-to-firm to new-to-world, is linked with firm growth and spillover effects. We examine the role of R&D, management capability and business skills in innovation novelty. Using detailed firm-level data, we find that firm-specific variables such as R&D, collaboration, foreign ownership, business focus on innovation and management capability are significantly associated with higher levels of innovation novelty. We also find that innovation strategy can vary based on firm size. We provide new evidence for Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using survey data from 1438 Peruvian manufacturing firms, we explore multiple and simultaneous relationships between the effects of innovation activities, employee level of education, and the firm size on manufacturing firms' innovation outcomes. We find that there is a positive relationship between innovation activities, employee level of education, and firm size. In addition, innovation activities have direct and positive effects on product and service innovation. However, employee level of education has positive indirect effects, especially on product innovation. The study also highlights that there is a negative direct relationship between size and service innovation. Thus, it is important to establish public policies aimed to promote service innovation in manufacturing firms, with specific support for small firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic complementary interaction between investment in technological capability and investment in specific innovation projects based on a decision model of innovation, using Vietnamese MSME data. The empirical results show that firm size, technological capability and current specific R&D investment have a positive impact on innovation. Firm age was positive but not significant, implying that conscious technological effort may be more important for innovation than passive learning by doing. The combination of significant economies of scale and technological capability imply that government assistance for firms with low technological capability maybe important, but government assistance is shown to be either insufficient or ineffective. Results from this paper suggest that government policy aimed at facilitating increases in firm size and providing technical extension services would be more constructive than merely providing R&D subsidies to MSMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By drawing on a large representative sample of German firms, we examine patterns and drivers of logistics innovation. We find that firm size, R&D intensity, product innovation, engagement in international markets, and competitive pressure are all positively related to the probability that a firm introduces logistics innovation and to the breadth of adoption across different types of logistics innovation. However, specific notable differences arise: digital logistics innovation is mainly adopted by larger firms and in response to cost and performance motives. In contrast, the adoption of environmental logistics innovation responds more strongly to market pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a multilevel treatment model to a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms, we evaluate the joint impact of regional and national funding on firms' cooperative relationships. A joint provision of public support from different administrative levels is termed a multilevel innovation policy mix. Because of heterogeneity in innovation behaviour and performance, we separately analyse small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms. Our empirical findings show heterogenous results with respect to both firm size and a type of cooperative partners. For SMEs, a multilevel policy mix has a synergistic effect on cooperation with customers. For other cooperative partners, the joint effectiveness depends on the comparison group. Namely, both sources jointly are more effective than regional support in isolation in promoting cooperation with suppliers and universities. For those SMEs that are funded from central government, a multilevel governance is effective in case of cooperation with government agencies and consultants. With regards to large firms, we find a limited evidence on complementarity between regional and national support. Namely, the policy mix is effective when large firms cooperate with other firms, specifically with customers and competitors. In contrast, empirical findings suggest no complementary effects for cooperation with knowledge providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether a firm's failure in undertaking innovative activities can promote or hamper its growth. It conducts a two-stage regression for the determinants innovation failure and its impact on firm growth by analysing the data of firms in the Korean manufacturing sector. It finds that firms are likely to fail in innovation when they have either low or extremely high levels of R&D intensity, conduct cooperative R&D, or face financial constraints. In addition, it finds that under these conditions, failed innovators have lower rates of growth than successful innovators, but also that firm size and age moderate the negative effect of innovation failure on firm growth. These findings imply that the impact of innovation failure on firm growth differs depending upon internal resources and resilience capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the effect of public procurement for innovation (PPI) in the Brazilian oil and gas sector on the innovative behavior of suppliers. It emphasizes the role PPI may play in developing countries due to its ability to target a wide range of firm sizes and to contribute to a more even diffusion of technical progress. Using microdata from RAIS and coarsened exact matching, results show that treated firms present on average a higher intensity of innovative efforts than the control sample. In small firms, PPI has a positive effect on the probability of carrying out innovative activities. Once small firms have decided to carry out these activities, treated and control samples have similar innovative effort intensities. The treatment’s effect on large firms’ probability of performing innovative activities is positive but lower than small firms. Nonetheless, there is a significant and positive effect on the intensity of these efforts. The paper suggests that, due to its effects over a wide range of firm sizes, PPI may be a worthwhile policy to implement for the reduction of structural heterogeneity present in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation and quality are essential for sustainable competitiveness in today’s business world. Despite extensive theoretical discussions about the relationship between innovation and quality, few studies explore the observable effects of technological innovation practices (TIPs) on product quality. This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of TIP on product quality, considering the moderating effect of firm size. A conceptual model linking product innovation practice, process innovation practice, normal quality (NQ), attractive quality (AQ) and product market performance is proposed. The model is tested using survey data from 201 innovative Chinese manufacturing companies. The results reveal that TIP does indeed positively influence both AQ and NQ. Firm size moderates the relationship between TIP and AQ. The study contributes to a better understanding of how different-sized Chinese firms can utilise innovation practice to improve product quality and market performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is imperative that public procurement opportunities are made equally accessible to all size businesses to ensure a fair and level competitive playing field. “Innovation,” as the creative process of exploiting new ideas, has become widely recognized as playing a central role in the economic recovery of Europe and so too are the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) who are considered as major promoters of innovation and innovative solutions. At a national level, the implementation of European Union (EU) policies on SMEs and innovation inclusion in public procurement, while of paramount importance to Irish policy-makers to ensure alignment and compliance, seems, however, to have a significant lack of monitoring and reporting mechanisms. It is found that a lack of commitment and drive from the top, a lack of robust measurements and monitoring mechanisms combined with contrasting political agendas, and a very risk averse culture have collectively added to government intentions being ignored in many instances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We use the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) data from 2005, 2008, and 2010 to estimate the relationship between firm size, innovation type, and export performance with different time spans. Following a review of the literature, we hypothesize that the effect of innovation activities on export performance would be revealed over long spans for large enterprises (LEs) and would be more likely to appear over short spans for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We also assume that firms could improve their export performance if they carried out both product and process innovations simultaneously. Four Tobit regression models are assessed, respectively, for LEs and SMEs at different time spans. The empirical results statistically support our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]