The role of public external knowledge for firm innovativeness

García-Vega, María; Vicente-Chirivella, Óscar

Abstract

Public research organizations (PROs) and universities receive large amounts of public funding for the generation and transmission of knowledge, and companies contract external knowledge from both. An important question for the management of a firm's R&D and for public innovation policies is: What is more beneficial for the generation of firm innovations, external knowledge created by PROs or by universities? In this paper, we assess the impact of external knowledge from PROs versus universities on firm innovativeness. We use information on R&D acquisitions from a panel dataset of more than 10,000 Spanish firms from 2005 to 2014. We show that external knowledge from PROs and universities increases firm innovativeness. Our results suggest that knowledge generated by PROs is more sensitive to the absorptive capacity of the firm than knowledge generated by universities. This has implications for research policy, R&D management, and organizational strategies of firms’ knowledge activities. Firms with low absorptive capacities benefit relatively more from knowledge generated by universities than from knowledge generated by PROs. Moreover, R&D managers should plan both their external and internal R&D if they acquire external R&D from PROs.

Citation

García-Vega, M., & Vicente-Chirivella, Ó. (2024). The role of public external knowledge for firm innovativeness. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 93, Article 103056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2024.103056

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 8, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 10, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-03
• Deposit Date: Mar 16, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 18, 2024
• Journal: International Journal of Industrial Organization
• Print ISSN: 0167-7187
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-7986
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 93
• Article Number: 103056
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2024.103056
• Keywords: Public research organizations; Universities; External knowledge; Firm innovativeness
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/31602931
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718724000110?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The role of public external knowledge for firm innovativeness; Journal Title: International Journal of Industrial Organization; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2024.103056; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.