The Impact of Cooperation on Firms’ Innovation Propensity in Emerging Economies

Serdal Temel; Anne Laure Mention; Marko Torkkeli

doi:10.4067/S0718-27242013000100006

Authors

Serdal Temel Ege University Science and Technology Centre
Anne Laure Mention Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor
Marko Torkkeli Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta, University of Technology.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242013000100006

Keywords:

Open innovation, performance, cooperation, emerging and transition economies

Abstract

The importance of collaboration has been one of the main issues in innovation studies. Despite many different findings on collaboration and its impact on innovation performance, the impact of different types of collaboration on different types of innovation is still inconclusive. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of openness on the performance of the innovation process in a leading emerging economy. Based on Turkish CIS data, the findings reveal that doing R&D either continuously or occasionally affects the probability to introduce novelties. Conducting simultaneously marketing, organisational and process innovations also increases the likelihood to innovate. Furthermore, cooperation with partners and their effects on innovation propensity unveil that process, marketing and organisational innovations are determinants of product and service innovation, thus confirming that the various innovation types are intertwined and mutually supporting each other. From a geographical perspective, cooperating with external parties from the same country plays a dominant role in determining the innovation outcome. Cooperating with consultants and private labs on the other hand seems to negatively affect innovation performance. Surprisingly, the role of foreign cooperation remains ambiguous as results were not statistically significant. Another very interesting finding is the negative impact of firms’ size on innovation propensity. This paper, apart from its contribution to collaboration research, provides concise recommendations for policy makers and managers.

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Author Biographies

Serdal Temel, Ege University Science and Technology Centre

Dr. TEMEL has graduated from Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Economics and earned a Ph.D. from the same department. Dr. TEMEL has been working as a researcher at Ege University Science Technology Center since 2000 and is responsible for the university-industry cooperation, technology transfer, R&D and innovation projects. Between 2004-2008 Dr. Serdal TEMEL, has worked as director of Aegean Innovation Relay Centre (IRC-Ege) which is one of the centers of the European Union Commission, established by the IRC Network and this center was chosen most successful Technology Transfer Office in the network by the EU commission. Dr. Serdar TEMEL is currently the Manager of the EBIC-Ege which has been established as part of Enterprise Europe Network and is the Chairman of Enterprise Europe Network Textile and Fashion Sector Group. In addition, Dr. TEMEL has over 20 articles on innovation, R&D and university-industry collaboration. He has been involved in 12 EU supported projects and 5 national projects as a project manager or an expert. Currently Dr. TEMEL is coordinator of two ongoing research projects, namely “Izmir Innovation Strategy” and “Defining R&D and Innovation Capacity of Aegean Region”. Dr. Serdal TEMEL has been an invited speaker in different European Commission sponsored meetings, workshops and working groups.

Anne Laure Mention, Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor

Dr. Anne-Laure Mention is leading a research unit focusing on innovation economics and management within the Public Research Centre Henri Tudor (Luxembourg). She is actively involved in research projects, mainly focusing on innovation and performance measurement and management in the financial and business to business services industries. Her research interests mainly concentrate on open and collaborative innovation, intellectual capital measurement and management, innovation and technology management. She has been a Visiting Researcher at McGill University, Canada and Ferrara University, Italy. She received an IBM Faculty award for the project entitled ‘Towards accrued transparency of operations in the fund industry’ in 2011 focusing on organizational innovation. She is also a founding member of WICI, is the Deputy Head of the ISPIM Advisory Board Member and is a member of several scientific committees.

Marko Torkkeli, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta, University of Technology.

Dr. Marko Torkkeli is a Professor of Technology and Business Innovations at the Lappeenranta University of Technology in Kouvola, Finland. His research interests focus on technology and innovation management, strategic entrepreneurship, growth venturing, and decision support systems. He has published in journals such as the Int. J. Production Economics, Int. J. Foresight and Innovation Policy, Int. J. Business Excellence, Int. J. Technology Management and Int. J. Technology Intelligence and Planning. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Int. J. of Services Sciences and the Int. J. of Innovation Management. He is a Visiting Researcher at INESC Porto (Portugal), a Docent of Technology-based Business at University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and a Docent of Technology and Innovation Management at Helsinki University of Technology (Finland). He serves as the Director of Publications of the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).

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