Complementarity in the Innovation Strategy: Internal R&D, External Technology Acquisition, and Cooperation in R&D

IESE Business School Working Paper No. 457

41 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2002

See all articles by Bruno Cassiman

Bruno Cassiman

Harvard University - Business School (HBS)

Reinhilde Veugelers

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Applied Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Date Written: March 2002

Abstract

Successful innovation depends on the development and integration of new knowledge in the innovation process. In order to successfully innovate, the firm will combine different innovation activities. In addition to doing own research and development, firms typically are engaged in the acquisition of knowledge on the technology market and cooperate actively in R&D with other firms and research organizations. In this paper we provide evidence on complementarity between different innovation activities. Using data from the Community Innovation Survey on Belgian manufacturing firms, we show that firms that are only engaged in a single innovation strategy, either internal R&D activities or sourcing technology externally, introduced fewer new or substantially improved products compared to firms which combine internal and external sourcing. This result is consistent with complementarity between own R&D and external technology sourcing activities. Furthermore, we show that the different innovation activities are strongly positively correlated and identify common drivers, resulting in the perceived complementarity between these innovation activities. An important finding is that a capacity to strategically protect intellectual property and a more basic R&D base which may serve as an absorptive capacity, are important common drivers for the different innovation activities.

Keywords: Complementarity, Innovation, R&D, Technology Acquisition, Cooperation in R&D

JEL Classification: D21, O31, O32

Suggested Citation

Cassiman, Bruno and Veugelers, Reinhilde, Complementarity in the Innovation Strategy: Internal R&D, External Technology Acquisition, and Cooperation in R&D (March 2002). IESE Business School Working Paper No. 457, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=303562 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.303562

Bruno Cassiman (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Business School (HBS) ( email )

Soldiers Field Road
Morgan 270C
Boston, MA 02163
United States

Reinhilde Veugelers

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Applied Economics ( email )

Leuven, B-3000
Belgium
+32 16 32 6908 (Phone)
+32 16 32 6732 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

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