Sources of Information as Determinants of Product and Process Innovation

PLoS One. 2016 Apr 1;11(4):e0152743. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152743. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

In this paper we use a panel of manufacturing firms in Spain to examine the extent to which they use internal and external sources of information (customers, suppliers, competitors, consultants and universities) to generate product and process innovation. Our results show that, although internal sources are influential, external sources of information are key to achieve innovation performance. These results are in line with the open innovation literature because they show that firms that are opening up their innovation process and that use different information sources have a greater capacity to generate innovations. We also find that the importance of external sources of information varies depending on the type of innovation (product or process) considered. To generate process innovation, firms mainly rely on suppliers while, to generate product innovation, the main contribution is from customers. The potential simultaneity between product and process innovation is also taken into consideration. We find that the generation of both types of innovation is not independent.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Information Services*
  • Organizational Innovation*

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad grant ECO2011-22947 and ECO2014-53904-R. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.