External collaboration for innovation can alleviate the effect between the past innovation abandonment and future innovation introduction among SMEs

摘要

This study investigates the links between product innovation and external collaboration and betweenudfuture product innovation and past abandonment in small and medium sized firms. Our findings fromud449 manufacturing firms indicated firms that sought ideas or solutions from an external network suchudas suppliers, or business partners reported higher levels of new product introduction than firmsudwithout any external collaboration. Further, firms with past abandonment experiences reportedudhigher levels of new product introduction than firms without such experience. Additionally, theudfindings indicated that firms with external collaboration were more likely to introduce new productsudeven if they had previously experienced abandonment of a product innovation than firms withoutudexternal collaboration. Implications, limitations and future research are outlined.