Configurational paths for SMEs’ innovation: focusing on information resources, absorptive capacity, and government support

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to reveal the paths of how absorptive capacity and government support combine for SMEs to create innovation performance based on external information resources. In addition, this study investigates the configurational paths for SMEs’ innovation creation depending on their industrial environment by comparing analyses of industry types. This study used data from 1,421 Korean SMEs in the manufacturing sector based on the 2018 Korea Innovation Survey data and conducted a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that four product innovation paths and two process innovation paths in the high-tech industry, and six product innovation paths, and four process innovation paths in the low-tech industry exist. This study presents the academic contributions by identifying the configurational paths of the factors based on the resource-based view, dynamic capability, and contingency theory. In addition, it shows that by comparing industry types that reflect technological characteristics, the direction of innovation activities and the path to generating innovation performance vary depending on the business environment to which SMEs belong. Therefore, managers and policy makers must consider the different industrial environments of SMEs when combining external information resources, government support, and internal absorptive capacity to create innovation.