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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Giorgio Fazio, Professor Jonathan Sapsed
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2025 The Author(s). R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Balanced combinations of technological and non-technological innovations, or ‘complex innovation strategies’, are associated with better firm performance. However, the mechanisms through which different internal and external knowledge sources influence the resulting innovation profiles of firms are underexplored. This paper addresses these mechanisms, by establishing a theoretical framework and empirically assessing the direct effect of the main knowledge sources, as well as the indirect effect via absorption and spillovers, on the likelihood of adopting simple or complex innovation strategies. Using data from the three most recent waves of the Italian Community Innovation Survey (2014, 2018, 2020), we find that all sources of knowledge contribute to increase the likelihood of being a complex innovator along an inverted U-shaped curve. Moreover, we find a significant impact of the absorption of knowledge embodied in machinery, equipment and software, while no evidence of spillovers from external applied knowledge, here measured by extramural R&D, significantly emerges.
Author(s): Aronica M, Fazio G, Piacentino D, Sapsed J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: R & D Management
Year: 2025
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 02/06/2025
Acceptance date: 18/01/2025
Date deposited: 16/06/2025
ISSN (print): 0033-6807
ISSN (electronic): 1467-9310
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/radm.12779
DOI: 10.1111/radm.12779
Data Access Statement: The present manuscript uses data sourced by ISTAT and related to the 2014, 2018, 2020 Italian Community Innovation Survey (CIS2014- CIS2018-CIS2020). Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. The statistical analysis for this work has been carried out at the ISTAT Data Analysis Laboratory of Palermo, in compliance with the Italian legislation on the protection of statistical confidentiality and personal data. The results and opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors, do not constitute official statistics and do not engage in any way the ISTAT. The usual disclaimer applies
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