Title: Open innovation practices and innovative performances: an international comparative perspective

Authors: André Spithoven

Addresses: Belgian Science Policy Office, Avenue Louise 231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: This paper looks at firm-level differences in R&D intensity and sales from product innovations. R&D intensity and innovative sales are explained by a model using harmonised firm-level data from the Third Community Innovation Survey for three European countries: Belgium, Germany and Spain. For each country, the average estimates suggest that incoming knowledge spillovers, research cooperation, appropriability and human capital all exercise a positive influence on R&D intensity and, through this, on innovative sales. Quantile regressions indicate that, although there are differences between countries, the joint relative impact of incoming knowledge spillovers and research cooperation tends to increase quantile-wise in relation to that of appropriability. This suggests that strong innovators have a more open innovation process.

Keywords: open innovation; innovative performance; country comparisons; Belgium; Germany; Spain; quantile regression; R&D intensity; research and development; sales; product innovation; knowledge spillovers; research cooperation; appropriability; human capital.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2013.053037

International Journal of Technology Management, 2013 Vol.62 No.1, pp.1 - 34

Accepted: 17 Jul 2012
Published online: 30 May 2013 *

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