Abstract:
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This paper analyses whether a firm’s absorptive capacity and its
distance from the technological frontier affect the choice between
innovation and imitation in innovative Spanish firms. From an
extensive survey of 5,575 firms during the 2004-2009 period, we found
two significant results. With regard to the role of absorptive capacity,
the empirical evidence shows that when innovative firms have
difficulties in accessing external information and hire skilled workers,
their innovative capacity is reduced. Meanwhile, with regard to distance
from the technological frontier, the firms that reduce this gap manage to
increase their innovative capacity at the expense of imitation. To
summarise, when we studied firms’ absorptive capacity and their
relative position to the technological frontier in tandem, we found that
the two factors directly affected firms' ability to innovate or imitate.
Key words: R&D sources, innovation and imitation strategies,
absorptive capacity, technological frontier, ordered probit. |