This dissertation explores the use of internal and external sources of knowledge inmodern innovation processes. It builds on a framework that combines theories such asa behavioural theory of the firm, the evolutionary theory of economic change, andmodern approaches to strategic management. It follows the recent increase ininnovation research focusing on the firm-level examination of innovative activitiesinstead of traditional industry-level determinants. The innovation process is seen as aproblem- and slack- driven search process, which can take several directions in termsof organizational boundaries in the pursuit of new knowledge and other resources. Itthus draws on recent models of technological change, according to which firmsnowadays should build their innovative activities on both internal and externalsources of innovation rather than relying solely on internal resources. Four differentresearch questions are addressed, all of which are empirically investigated via a richdataset covering Finnish innovators collected by Statistics Finland. Firstly, the studyexamines how the nature of problems shapes the direction of any search for newknowledge. In general it demonstrates that the nature of the problem does affect thedirection of the search, although under resource constraints firms tend to use externalrather than internal sources of knowledge. At the same time, it shows that those firmsthat are constrained in terms of finance seem to search both internally and externally.Secondly, the dissertation investigates the relationships between different kinds ofinternal and external sources of knowledge in an attempt to find out where firmsshould direct their search in order to exploit the potential of a distributed innovationprocess. The concept of complementarities is applied in this context. The thirdresearch question concerns how the use of external knowledge sources – openness toexternal knowledge – influences the financial performance of firms. Given the manyadvantages of openness presented in the current literature, the focus is on how itshapes profitability. The results reveal a curvilinear relationship between profitabilityand openness (taking an inverted U-shape), the implication being that it pays to beopen up to a certain point, but being too open to external sources may be detrimentalto financial performance. Finally, the dissertation addresses some challenges in CISbasedinnovation research that have received relatively little attention in prior studies.The general aim is to underline the fact that comprehensive understanding of thecomplex process of technological change requires the constant development ofmethodological approaches (in terms of data and measures, for example). All theempirical analyses included in the dissertation are based on the Finnish CIS (FinnishInnovation Survey 1998-2000).
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