Abstract
Abstract Background: Firms increasingly depend on external actors for the process of generating innovation. Interaction with these actors might occur through an official collaboration agreement or via external actors as the source of information. Objectives: Although open innovation has received more attention, still less is known about its effect on organizational innovation. To fill this gap, this study investigates the impact of various external knowledge sources on the willingness of small and mediumsized enterprises to introduce organizational innovation. Methods/Approach: To achieve the proposed objective, the German Community Innovation Survey conducted in 2017 is used for the econometric analysis. Results: Different external sources of knowledge are relevant for the introduction of organizational innovation in small firms (customers in the private sector, competitors, conferences, and crowdsourcing) compared to medium-sized firms (customers in the private sector and industry associations). Conclusions: External knowledge sources are more important for small firms compared to medium firms, and those small firms are more likely to use various sets of external knowledge.
Highlights
Innovation is considered an important factor for firms’ longevity in the marketplace
The present study aims to shed more light on this particular topic by addressing the following research question: Do various external sources of knowledge from conferences, customer private, customer public, industry associations, competitors and from crowdsourcing have an effect on organizational innovation in small and medium enterprises? This study contributes to the current literature by considering the specific external knowledge sources (i.e conferences, industry associations, customers from the public and private sector, and crowdsourcing: ideas from the general public) and its impact on organizational innovation in terms of decision making and the adoption of new methods of work organizing responsibilities at the working place in SMEs
Descriptive statistics by firm size To analyze the effect of various external knowledge sources according to the characteristics of the firm, the sample is separated by firm size
Summary
Innovation is considered an important factor for firms’ longevity in the marketplace. The role of external sources of knowledge as an important factor of innovation has received significant attention in the literature. Firms increasingly depend on external actors for the process of generating innovation Interaction with these actors might occur through an official collaboration agreement or via external actors as the source of information. Objectives: open innovation has received more attention, still less is known about its effect on organizational innovation To fill this gap, this study investigates the impact of various external knowledge sources on the willingness of small and mediumsized enterprises to introduce organizational innovation.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
