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Open Innovation and Implementation of Different Types of Innovation: An Analysis Based on Panel Data

ABSTRACT

This work aimed to verify, based on the open innovation strategy, how different types of interactions with external actors (customers, competitors, suppliers, universities, and consultants) influence different types of innovations (general innovations, product innovations, and technological innovations) implemented by organizations. The panel data technique was used for analysis, based on PINTEC data, an innovation survey conducted by IBGE, which referred to the years 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011, and 2014. Regarding the innovations implemented by organizations, no type of interaction was significant for the general innovations or interactions with consultants, and suppliers were negative for product innovation. Finally, interaction with customers was positive while interaction with universities was negative for technological innovations. Thus, the results were essential to proving that different forms of cooperation have different impacts on the implementation of different types of innovation by organizations.

KEYWORDS
Open Innovation; Innovation; Cooperation; PINTEC; Panel Data Analysis

RESUMO

Este trabalho objetivou verificar, a partir da estratégia de inovação aberta, como diferentes tipos de interação com atores externos (clientes, concorrentes, fornecedores, universidades e consultores) influenciam diferentes tipos de inovações (inovações gerais, inovações de produto e inovações tecnológicas) implementadas pelas organizações. Para análise, utilizou-se a técnica de dados em painel, com base em dados da PINTEC, uma pesquisa de inovação do IBGE, referente aos anos de 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011 e 2014. Com relação às inovações gerais implementadas pelas organizações, verificou-se que nenhum tipo de interação foi significativo, enquanto para a inovação de produto, observou-se que as interações tanto com consultores quanto com fornecedores foram negativas, e, por fim, com relação à inovação tecnológica, verificou-se que a interação com clientes foi positiva e a interação com universidades foi negativa. Desse modo, os resultados foram essenciais para comprovar que formas variadas de cooperação impactam de forma diferente a implementação de diferentes tipos de inovação pelas organizações.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE
Inovação Aberta; Inovação; Cooperação; PINTEC; Dados em Painel

1. INTRODUCTION

Innovation could be considered one of the essential factors for an organization to have a competitive advantage and market growth (Kühl & Cunha, 2013Kühl, M. R., & Cunha, J. C. (2013). Obstáculos à implementação de inovações no Brasil: como diferentes empresas percebem sua importância. Brazilian Business Review, 10(2), 1-25.; Ibrahimov, 2018Ibrahimov, B. (2018). Open Innovation and application to Petroleum Industry.IFAC-PapersOnLine,51(30), 697-702.; Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.). However, the idea of ​​a closed innovation, used by organizations in past times, no longer can meet the demands of the current market, so the assumption that an organization can innovate while in isolation is increasingly in conflict with the generation of knowledge in the 21st century (Chesbrough, 2003aChesbrough, H. (2003a).Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA., bChesbrough, H. (2003b). The era of open innovation.MIT sloan management Review,44(3), 35-41.).

In contrast with the closed innovation, which is based on the “internal” resources of companies, an open innovation comprises an open system of research and development (R&D) and represents an important bond between organizations (Brockman, Khurana & Zhong, 2018Brockman, P., Khurana, I. K., & Zhong, R. I. (2018). Societal trust and open innovation.Research Policy,47(10), 2048-2065.). In this sense, the concept of open innovation, proposed by Chesbrough in 2003Chesbrough, H. (2003b). The era of open innovation.MIT sloan management Review,44(3), 35-41., is a new paradigm of innovation, which advocate that the knowledge, and the organization’s external technologies, could corroborate with the internal process of innovation (Ghisetti, Marzucchi & Montresor, 2015Ghisetti, C., Marzucchi, A., & Montresor, S. (2015). The open eco-innovation mode. An empirical investigation of eleven European countries.Research Policy,44(5), 1080-1093.).

Several researchers have been using the open innovation paradigm as a study scope (Van de Vrande, Vanhaverbeke & Gassmann, 2010Van de Vrande, V., Vanhaverbeke, W., & Gassmann, O. (2010). Broadening the scope of open innovation: past research, current state and future directions.International Journal of Technology Management,52(3/4), 221-235. ), in a way that leads to growth in the field, making it an established research area, providing paths for research, education, and discussion about the theme (Chesbrough & Bogers, 2014Chesbrough, H., & Bogers, M. (2014). Explicating open innovation: Clarifying an emerging paradigm for understanding innovation.New Frontiers in Open Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Forthcoming, 3-28.). Nowadays, this is considered to be one of the most important topics that discuss innovation management (Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.), several authors emphasize that it is possible to be optimistic when thinking that there is still room for the emergence of rich, diverse, and even unexpected ways to understand the process of open innovation (Van de Vrande, Vanhaverbeke & Gassmann, 2010Van de Vrande, V., Vanhaverbeke, W., & Gassmann, O. (2010). Broadening the scope of open innovation: past research, current state and future directions.International Journal of Technology Management,52(3/4), 221-235. ; Abulrub & Lee, 2012Abulrub, A. H. G., & Lee, J. (2012). Open innovation management: challenges and prospects.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,41, 130-138.).

In this sense, this study aims to corroborate with one of the main prerogatives of open innovation: interaction with external parties, for example clients, suppliers, competitors, or universities, among others (Chesbrough, 2003bChesbrough, H. (2003b). The era of open innovation.MIT sloan management Review,44(3), 35-41.; Dahlander & Gann, 2010Dahlander, L., & Gann, D. M. (2010). How open is innovation?.Research policy,39(6), 699-709.), is essential to generating and promoting innovation for among organizations (Chesbrough & Crowther, 2006Chesbrough, H., & Crowther, A. K. (2006). Beyond high tech: early adopters of open innovation in other industries.R&D Management,36(3), 229-236.). However, according to Rauter et al. (2019Rauter, R., Globocnik, D., Perl-Vorbach, E., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2019). Open innovation and its effects on economic and sustainability innovation performance.Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(4), 226-233.), the effects of how the innovation partners influence the innovation performance are still not clear, in a way which, for Stefan & Bengtsson (2017Stefan, I., & Bengtsson, L. (2017). Unravelling appropriability mechanisms and openness depth effects on firm performance across stages in the innovation process.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,120, 252-260.) more studies on the matter are essentials for a better understanding of how the external interaction can influence in terms of creation and innovation appropriation.

Since many different types of corroboration are necessary for the development of different kinds of innovations, given that each type of partner has its own perspective and access to many sources of knowledge and information (Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.), more studies should seek to understand which external sources of knowledge have higher relevance in order to achieve different innovation outcomes (Beule & Van Beveren, 2019Beule, F., & Van Beveren, I. (2019). Sources of open innovation in foreign subsidiaries: An enriched typology.International Business Review,28(1), 135-147.). In contrast to this background, the following research question emerged: does the interaction with external agents influence the implementation of different types of innovations in organizations? In this way, the main objective of the present research is to analyze the importance of interaction with external partners for the implementation of different types of innovation by the organization. Responding to this goal, this study aims to analyze how the interaction with different types of external agents can influence in a different manner many types of innovation, such as (i) general innovation, (ii) product innovation and (iii) technological innovation.

Still, many authors emphasize the need for more objective and quantitative research regarding open innovation (Al-Belushi et al., 2018Al-Belushi, K. I., Stead, S. M., Gray, T., & Burgess, J. G. (2018). Measurement of open innovation in the marine biotechnology sector in Oman.Marine Policy,98, 164-173.; Beule & Van Beveren, 2019Beule, F., & Van Beveren, I. (2019). Sources of open innovation in foreign subsidiaries: An enriched typology.International Business Review,28(1), 135-147.), especially in regards to research that determines the causality of interaction with external agents with greater reliability (Foege et al., 2019Foege, J. N., Lauritzen, G. D., Tietze, F., & Salge, T. O. (2019). Reconceptualizing the paradox of openness: How solvers navigate sharing-protecting tensions in crowdsourcing.Research Policy,48(6), 1323-1339.). For this purpose, seeking to fulfill this void, this research has employed the panel data technique to analyze how it is occurred the interaction of certain sectors of the Brazilian economy from the data of the Industrial Survey of Technological Innovation (PINTEC), developed by IBGE, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, from the years of 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011 e 2014.

2. OPEN INNOVATION AND HYPOTHESES FORMATION

In the present days, more and more, innovation has been constituting itself as an important source of competitive advantage, giving an ability to gain leadership in a competitive market, as well as determine the economic success of each organization (Abulrub & Lee, 2012Abulrub, A. H. G., & Lee, J. (2012). Open innovation management: challenges and prospects.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,41, 130-138.; Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.). To this end, according to Chesbrough (2003aChesbrough, H. (2003a).Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.), most large organizations during the (20th) twentieth century used the closed innovation paradigm as the foundation of their R&D laboratories, achieving, at that time, important achievements and commercial successes. In this type of philosophy, companies believed that for an innovation to be successful it would be essential to have control over it, so that organizations should generate their own ideas, as well as develop, manufacture, market, distribute, and provide services on their own (Chesbrough, 2003bChesbrough, H. (2003b). The era of open innovation.MIT sloan management Review,44(3), 35-41.).

However, given that this way of thinking is increasingly in conflict with the generation of knowledge in the 21st century (Chesbrough, 2003aChesbrough, H. (2003a).Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.), effective organizations are now emerging, which work together as a way to identify their key assets, processes, and capabilities (Walters & Rainbird, 2007Walters, D., & Rainbird, M. (2007). Cooperative innovation: a value chain approach. Journal of enterprise information management, 20(5), 595-607.), this being a better way to innovate than innovating in isolation (Wallin & Von Krogh, 2010Wallin, M. W., & Von Krogh, G. (2010). Organizing for open innovation: focus on the integration of knowledge. Organizational Dynamics, 39(2), 145-154.). To this end, a new paradigm thought up by Chesbrough emerged in 2003 - the open innovation, which, despite the fact that several definitions of this term are known, is actually seen as undefined (Vanhaverbeke & Chesbrough, 2014Vanhaverbeke, W., & Chesbrough, H. (2014). A classification of open innovation and open business models.New frontiers in open innovation, 6, 50-68. ). Several pieces of research have used this paradigm as a study scope, seeking mainly to understand the growing need to understand the simultaneous use of internal and external knowledge by organizations (Van de Vrande, Vanhaverbeke & Gassmann, 2010Van de Vrande, V., Vanhaverbeke, W., & Gassmann, O. (2010). Broadening the scope of open innovation: past research, current state and future directions.International Journal of Technology Management,52(3/4), 221-235. ).

According to Chesbrough (2003aChesbrough, H. (2003a).Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.), open innovation means that valuable ideas can be originated both inside and outside organizations, where the external acquisition of knowledge acquires as much importance as the ideas developed internally. Therefore, the boundaries between the company and the external environment are more permeable, so that external technologies and knowledge can be integrated into internal projects, just as internal knowledge and technologies influence business outside the organization (Chesbrough, 2003bChesbrough, H. (2003b). The era of open innovation.MIT sloan management Review,44(3), 35-41.).

In this interaction process, there are several types of agents with whom companies can relate, among them suppliers, fund providers, consultants, partners, customers, universities, and competitors, among others (Ibrahimov, 2018Ibrahimov, B. (2018). Open Innovation and application to Petroleum Industry.IFAC-PapersOnLine,51(30), 697-702.). What is emphasized is that these external individuals are holders of important knowledge and represent an essential capacity for the generation of innovation by an organization, given that innovation has better competitive advantages when associated with the elements of the macroenvironment, mainly through cooperation with various agents (Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.).

With valuable external knowledge, a company is able to increase its own strengths and speed during the implementation of innovations, as well as complement idle internal knowledge (Ibrahimov, 2018Ibrahimov, B. (2018). Open Innovation and application to Petroleum Industry.IFAC-PapersOnLine,51(30), 697-702.). In this context, this study focused on analyzing one of the main outcomes and benefits obtained from the interaction with external entities, this being the increase in the organization’s ability to innovate (Shaikh & Levina, 2019Shaikh, M., & Levina, N. (2019). Selecting an open innovation community as an alliance partner: Looking for healthy communities and ecosystems.Research Policy,48(8), 1-16.).

In this context, the open innovation literature has mainly studied how open innovation practices can improve a company’s innovation performance, focusing on the benefits of organizational openness and attributing innovation success to the extent of external connections and the range of R&D (Chesbrough, 2003aChesbrough, H. (2003a).Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.; Brockman, Khurana & Zhong, 2018Brockman, P., Khurana, I. K., & Zhong, R. I. (2018). Societal trust and open innovation.Research Policy,47(10), 2048-2065.), given that the open innovation approach aims to achieve strategic flexibility to allow firms to create more and better innovations from various cooperation strategies (Gassmann & Enkel, 2004Gassmann, O., & Enkel, E. (2004). Towards a Theory of Open Innovation: Three Core Process Archetypes. Proceedings of the R&D Management Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, July 6-9.). In this sense, considering that interaction with external agents can influence the development of innovations, one has:

  • H1A: The implementation of general innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with customers.

  • H1B: The implementation of general innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with universities.

  • H1C: The implementation of general innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with competitors.

  • H1D: The implementation of general innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with suppliers.

  • H1E: The implementation of general innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with consultants.

Innovation itself can be defined as the application of new ideas in products, processes, or other activities developed by a company (Kuncoro & Suriani, 2018Kuncoro, W., & Suriani, W. O. (2018). Achieving sustainable competitive advantage through product innovation and market driving.Asia Pacific Management Review,23(3), 186-192.), so it can be characterized in four types, those being of product, of process, of marketing, and of organizational innovation (OECD, 2005OECD (Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development) (2005).Guidelines for collecting and interpreting innovation data: Oslo Manual. 3rd edition. Paris : OECD.). As for product innovations, it has been observed that they are innovations employed by the company as a way for a new product to be created or improved (Kuncoro & Suriani, 2018Kuncoro, W., & Suriani, W. O. (2018). Achieving sustainable competitive advantage through product innovation and market driving.Asia Pacific Management Review,23(3), 186-192.), so studies about product innovation are an important subject for open innovation studies (Beugelsdijk & Jindra, 2018Beugelsdijk, S., & Jindra, B. (2018). Product innovation and decision-making autonomy in subsidiaries of multinational companies.Journal of World Business,53(4), 529-539.). To this end, with the emergence of open innovation, collaborative product innovation has become a new and promising product innovation model for the company (Lv & Qi, 2019Lv, B., & Qi, X. (2019). Research on partner combination selection of the supply chain collaborative product innovation based on product innovative resources.Computers & Industrial Engineering,128, 245-253.), given that organizations, through interaction, are able to obtain external knowledge, which is essential to innovate their products from projects with other partners (Um & Asakawa, 2015Un, C. A., & Asakawa, K. (2015). Types of R&D collaborations and process innovation: The benefit of collaborating upstream in the knowledge chain.Journal of Product Innovation Management,32(1), 138-153.; Anzola-Román, Bayona-Sáez & García-Marco, 2018Anzola-Román, P., Bayona-Sáez, C., & García-Marco, T. (2018). Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes.Journal of Business Research,91, 233-247.; Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.). Thus:

  • H2A: The implementation of product innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with customers.

  • H2B: The implementation of product innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with universities

  • H2C: The implementation of product innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with competitors.

  • H2D: The implementation of product innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with suppliers.

  • H2E: The implementation of product innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with consultants.

Moreover, given that organizations need to adapt to rapidly changing environments, the ability to develop technological innovations is essential for these companies to respond quickly to market changes and to acquire innovative results (Ince, Imamoglu & Turkcan, 2016Ince, H., Imamoglu, S. Z., & Turkcan, H. (2016). The effect of technological innovation capabilities and absorptive capacity on firm innovativeness: a conceptual framework.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,235, 764-770.). To this end, technological innovation corresponds to efforts spent on R&D that will lead to the development of new technology-based products or services, or that will improve the productive efficiency of organizations (Cândido, 2011Cândido, A. C. Inovação Disruptiva: Reflexões sobre as suas características e implicações no mercado. IET Working Papers Series, n.WPS05/2011, Monte de Caparica, Portugal, jul. 2011.). In this sense, assuming that technological innovations result from the application by companies of scientific and technical knowledge to development and application of new technologies (Blanch et al., 2014Blanch, L., Guerra, L., Lanuza, A., & Palomar, G. (2014). Innovación y transferencia tecnológica en ciencias de la salud: Una visión transversal. Medicina Intensiva, 38(8), 492-497.; Geldes, Felzensztein & Palacios-Fenech, 2017Geldes, C., Felzensztein, C., & Palacios-Fenech, J. (2017). Technological and non-technological innovations, performance and propensity to innovate across industries: The case of an emerging economy.Industrial Marketing Management,61, 55-66.), according to Jin et al. (2019Jin, W., Zhang, H. Q., Liu, S. S., & Zhang, H. B. (2019). Technological innovation, environmental regulation, and green total factor efficiency of industrial water resources.Journal of cleaner production,211, 61-69.) technological innovation can be considered a key element for the development of a country, since it benefits the development and application of new technologies, the optimization of traditional industries and the progress of industries. According to Anzola-Román, Bayona-Sáez & García-Marco (2018Anzola-Román, P., Bayona-Sáez, C., & García-Marco, T. (2018). Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes.Journal of Business Research,91, 233-247.) a large amount of research has been showing positive effects from the implementation of collaborative innovation practices on the generation of technological innovations, so that, for Barañano (2005Barañano, A. M. (2005). Gestão da inovação tecnológica: estudo de cinco PMEs portuguesas.Revista Brasileira de Inovação, 4(1), 57-96.), the success of technological innovation also depends on the interaction and alliances with external agents. Thus,

  • H3A: The implementation of technological innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with customers.

  • H3B: The implementation of technological innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with universities.

  • H3C: The implementation of technological innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with competitors.

  • H3D: The implementation of technological innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with suppliers.

  • H3E: The implementation of technological innovations by the organization relates to the importance of cooperation with consultants.

For such, the three defined hypotheses for this study were synthesized on Figure 1, which represents the simplified theoretical model.

Figure 1.
Simplified theoretical framework.

3. METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Seeking to answer the objective and develop the proposed hypotheses tests, the research has a quantitative approach, where statistical and mathematical methods were used in the research analyzes (Malhotra, 2012Malhotra, N. K. (2012). Pesquisa de Marketing: Uma Orientação Aplicada. Porto Alegre: Bookman Editora.). Still, the research has a descriptive character, given that it sought to expose and study the characteristics of a phenomenon (Gil, 1999Gil, A. C. (1999). Métodos e técnicas de pesquisa social, São Paulo: Editora Atlas.), corresponding to the implementation of various types of innovation based on the interaction with external actors.

The data used for analysis are secondary and were collected through free access to the editions of PINTEC, a survey about national indicators of innovation activities in some sectors of the Brazilian economy. PINTEC is a survey published by IBGE every 3 years, which, for the analysis, the editions of 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014 were used. Still, it is emphasized that the number of sectors interviewed varied between PINTECs, requiring a standardization, selecting only sectors contained in all PINTECs. Thus, 28 sectors of the economy were considered for analysis, corresponding to a total of 140 cases analyzed.

As for the variables used to develop the study, the dependent variables are based on issues related to the implementation of some types of innovation, such as (1) implementation of general innovations; (2) implementation of product innovations; and (3) implementation of technological innovations. The independent variables represent the partnership with several external actors, these being (1) customers; (2) suppliers; (3) universities; (4) competitors; and (5) consultants. Given that the responses of the independent variables in PINTEC vary between 3 = High, 2 = Medium and 1 = Low, it is emphasized that only companies that answered 3 = High for the variables were considered, given that the objective of the study is to analyze how interaction with external partners interferes in implementation of innovation.

In addition, four control variables were used that are related to internal innovation activities, which are: (1) Internal Research and Development (Anzola-Román, Bayona-Sáez & García-Marco, 2018Anzola-Román, P., Bayona-Sáez, C., & García-Marco, T. (2018). Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes.Journal of Business Research,91, 233-247.; Hsiao & Hsu, 2018Hsiao, Y. C., & Hsu, Z. X. (2018). Firm-specific advantages-product innovation capability complementarities and innovation success: A core competency approach.Technology in Society,55, 78-84.); (2) Training (Barañano, 2005Barañano, A. M. (2005). Gestão da inovação tecnológica: estudo de cinco PMEs portuguesas.Revista Brasileira de Inovação, 4(1), 57-96.; Hsiao & Hsu, 2018Hsiao, Y. C., & Hsu, Z. X. (2018). Firm-specific advantages-product innovation capability complementarities and innovation success: A core competency approach.Technology in Society,55, 78-84.); (3) Acquisition of Machinery and Equipment (Robertson, Casali & Jacobson, 2012Robertson, P. L., Casali, G. L., & Jacobson, D. (2012). Managing open incremental process innovation: absorptive capacity and distributed learning.Research policy,41(5), 822-832.; Lau & Lo, 2015Lau, A. K., & Lo, W. (2015). Regional innovation system, absorptive capacity and innovation performance: An empirical study.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,92, 99-114.); and (4) Net Sales Revenue (NSR) (Liu et al., 2018Liu, Z., Mu, R., Hu, S., Wang, L., & Wang, S. (2018). Intellectual property protection, technological innovation and enterprise value-An empirical study on panel data of 80 advanced manufacturing SMEs.Cognitive Systems Research,52, 741-746.; Longhini et al., 2018Longhini, T. M., Cavalcanti, J. M. M., Borges, S. L., & Ferreira, B. P. (2018). Investment in Innovation and its Influence on Net Sales: An Analysis Based on PINTEC Data.BBR. Brazilian Business Review,15(1), 1-16.).

Thus, Chart 1 presents a summary of the variables used for analysis.

Chart 1.
Variables used in regressions

As for data analysis, the procedure used refers to statistical techniques using panel data, using the “R” software, an open source environment for statistical computing and graphing, compiling, and running a wide variety of data.

For each dependent variable, two models will be estimated, and one more specified (Model 1, Model 3 and Model 5), with only independent variables, and another more complete (Model 2, Model 4 and Model 6), with independent and control variables. Below are the general notations, without tests and validations, of the proposed models:

Model 1:

GenInnovit = β0 + β1Customerit + β2Supplierit + β3Competitorit + β4Universityit + β5Consultantit + Ci + it(1)

Model 2:

GenInnovit = β0 + β1Customerit + β2Supplierit + β3Competitorit + β4Universityit + β5Consultantit + β6R&Dit + β7Trainingit + β8Acquisitionit + β8ln(NSR)it + Ci + it(2)

Model 3:

ProdInnovit = β0 + β1Customerit + β2Supplierit + β3Competitorit + β4Universityit + β5Consultantit + Ci + it(3)

Model 4:

ProdInnovit = β0 + β1Customerit + β2Supplierit + β3Competitorit + β4Universityit + β5Consultantit + β6R&Dit + β7Trainingit + β8Acquisitionit + β8ln(NSR)it + Ci + it(4)

Model 5:

TecInnovit = β0 + β1Customerit + β2Supplierit + β3Competitorit + β4Universityit + β5Consultantit + Ci + it(5)

Model 6:

TecInnovit = β0 + β1Customerit + β2Supplierit + β3Competitorit + β4Universityit + β5Consultantit + β6R&Dit + β7Trainingit + β8Acquisitionit + β8ln(NSR)it + Ci + it(6)

As a way to operationalize the results, tests were developed in order to ensure that the results were achieved in the best way. With the Hausman test, it was possible to identify the best option of a regression model with panel data to be used, as a way to choose between fixed effects and random effects. In addition, tests were developed to identify the problem of heteroscedasticity, using the Breush Pagan Test, and the short-panel autocorrelation problem, using the Wooldridge Test.

4. RESULTS

The descriptive statistics, accordingly to Wooldridge (2018Wooldridge, J. M. (2018). Introdução à econometria uma abordagem moderna, Cengage Learning, São Paulo.), consist of a statistic that is employed to summarize a set of numbers, which are expressed in Table 1. Accordingly to the average of the dependent variables (GenInnov, ProdInnov e TecInnov), organizations in general develop more general and product innovations than technological innovation, so that the latter even present a minimum value of zero, which shows that some organizations do not even develop this type of innovation.

Table 1.
Descriptive statistics

Regarding the independent variables, it was verified that cooperation with suppliers has a higher average than that of other variables, showing preference for an interaction with this agent. Still, the minimum value of all independent variables is zero, indicating that many organizations do not believe that the interaction with outside agents to be important, while the maximum value shows that the cooperation with suppliers and customers is more interesting to companies than competitors, universities and consultants, which presented a lower maximum value. Finally, the high dispersion in the data could be caused by the fact that the analyzed sectors are of various sizes.

As for multicollinearity, it can be problematic if it expresses a high, but not perfect correlation between two or more independent variables (Wooldridge, 2018Wooldridge, J. M. (2018). Introdução à econometria uma abordagem moderna, Cengage Learning, São Paulo.). It represents the degree to which one variable can be predicted or explained by the other variables within the analysis, and the way multicollinearity increases it becomes more difficult to verify the effect of any variable due to their interrelationships (Hair et al., 2009Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2009). Análise multivariada de dados. Bookman editora.). For this analysis, the correlation matrix was created, as well as the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) measure, performed from the individual variable coefficient statistics (Wooldridge, 2018Wooldridge, J. M. (2018). Introdução à econometria uma abordagem moderna, Cengage Learning, São Paulo.). Accordingly to Table 2, the correlation between variables, mainly the independent ones, usually are low and moderate, showing low risks for multicollinearity, given that the correlations above 0.8 can exhibit the presence of it (Gujarati & Porter, 2011Gujarati, D. N., & Porter, D. C. (2011). Econometria Básica. Porto Alegre: Amgh Editora.). Thus, through the VIF, which represents an indicator of the effect that independent variables have on the standard error of a regression coefficient (Hair et al., 2009Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2009). Análise multivariada de dados. Bookman editora.), it is confirmed that the removal of evidence of multicollinearity, since the maximum accepted value is 10 (Gujarati & Porter, 2011Gujarati, D. N., & Porter, D. C. (2011). Econometria Básica. Porto Alegre: Amgh Editora.; Wooldridge, 2018Wooldridge, J. M. (2018). Introdução à econometria uma abordagem moderna, Cengage Learning, São Paulo.) and the highest VIF value found was 7.97.

Table 2.
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables

After the initial descriptive statistics and multicollinearity analyses, the panel data analysis of the proposed models was conducted. Table 3 presents the performed tests, as follows: (i) Hausman test, which allowed for the identification of which is the best option for the model with panel data between the fixed effects and random effects methods, where, in the face of a p-value lower than 0.05, the fixed effect is opted for, given that it rejects the null hypothesis that the random effects are consistent, (ii) The Breush Pagan test as a way to identify heteroscedasticity problems, where a p-value of less than 0.05 indicates that we reject the null hypothesis of homoscedasticity, and (iii) Wooldridge test to identify autocorrelation problems in short panels, where a p-value of less than 0.05 indicates the rejection of the null hypothesis of absence of autocorrelation.

Table 3.
Tests performed for the proposed regressions

As a way for the correction of possible heteroscedasticity problems, when identified in the models, it was chosen to estimate the model considering the robust standard errors, as it can be observed at Table 3, since, according to Wooldridge (2018Wooldridge, J. M. (2018). Introdução à econometria uma abordagem moderna, Cengage Learning, São Paulo.), by obtaining and using the robust standard errors, it is possible to build a robust t-statistic regarding the heteroscedasticity problem. Consequently, with the exception of Model 1, all the other models were estimated from the estimation using the robust standard errors, as they presented heteroscedasticity problems.

Regarding the Implementation of innovation variable (GenInnov), Table 4, it can be observed two estimated models, being those the Model 1, that contain only the independent variables and the Model 2, which contain the independent and the control variables.

Table 4.
Panel regression for the dependent variable GenInnov

According to Table 4, for the dependent variable GenInnov, in the complete model (Model 2), with significance at the level of 1% and with an R2 of of 58%, and in the Model 1, no independent variable was significant, not supporting the hypotheses H1A, H1B, H1C, H1D and H1E, which states that the implementation of innovations by organizations is related to the importance of cooperation with external agents. However, it was observed that all the control variables were significant, expressing that the generation of innovation by the analyzed organizations is much more associated with internal resources, such as Research and in-house Development (β=0.31, p<0.05), staff training (=0.17, p<0.10), acquisition of machinery and equipment (β=0.63, p<0.01) and net sales revenue (β=6.90, p<0.01), than related to the interaction with external agents.

As for the implementation of the product innovation variable (ProdInnov) found in Table 5, two estimated models were verified, with one of them being Model 3, which contains only the independent variables, and Model 4, which contains the independent and control variables.

Table 5.
Panel regression for the dependent variable ProdInnov

In Table 5, it was shown that Model 3, with significance at the level of 1% and with R2 of 14%, and the Model 4, with significance at the level of 1% and with R2 of 31%. It was observed that two of the variables were significant, but negative, for both the Model 3, supplier (β= -0.96, p<0.05) and consultant, (β= -1.77, p<0.05), as for the Model 4, supplier (β= -0.92, p<0.05) e consultant (β= -1.35, p<0.10). This result corroborates with the presented hypotheses H2D and H2E, in which the implementation of product innovation is related to the importance of cooperation with suppliers and consultants, but with a negative sign.

As for the other independent variables (customer, competitor, and university) there was no evidence for any significant relations with product innovation, not supporting the hypotheses H2A, H2B e H2C. Regarding the control variables, it was verified that both the internal R&D (β=0.37, p<0.05) and the acquisition of machinery and equipment (β=0.28, p<0.05) were significant in the Model 4, which showed that certain, more internal, innovation activities are fundamental to the generation of new products.

Regarding the implementation of technological innovation (TecInnov), at Table 6, two estimated models were observed, being those Model 5, which only has independent variables and Model 6, which has independent and control variables.

Table 6.
Panel regression for the dependent variable TecInnov

According to Table 6, it can be observed from the complete model (Model 6), with a significance at the 1% level and with an R2 of 42%, that the customer independent variable (β= 0.45, p<0.01) has a positive and significant relationship regarding the TecInnov variable. This supports the hypothesis H3A, while the university (β= -0.33, p<0.01), despite having a significant relationship, supports the hypothesis H3B that the implementation of technological innovations is related to the importance of cooperation with universities, has a negative interaction. Still regarding the complete model, the other independent variables (competitor, supplier and consultant) were not verified to have any significant relationships with TecInnov, which do not support the hypotheses H3C, H3D and H3E. On the other hand, when analyzing the restricted model (Model 5), with a significance of 1% level and with an R2 of 23%, it was verified that, besides the customer and the university already verified in the complete model, the supplier (β=0.29, p<0.10) presents a positive and significant relationship, supporting the hypothesis H3D. As for the competitor variable (β= -0.42, p<0.05), despite having a significant relationship, has a negative result, supporting the hypothesis H3C, but with a negative interaction. As for the control variables, it was observed that both Employee Training (β=0.21, p<0.01) and net sales revenue (β=1.83, p<0.10) have shown a positive and significant relationship, demonstrating that certain innovation activities are fundamental to TecInnov.

Therefore, accordingly to the results, it can be verified that the hypotheses H1A, H1B, H1C, H1D e H1E were not supported, given that none of the independent variables, from the agents of interaction, was significant. As for the hypotheses H2D e H2E, it was observed that they were supported, since the consultant and supplier variable were identified for being related to the development of product innovation, but with a negative interaction. Lastly, as for the Technological Innovations, in the complete model, the hypothesis H3A, which refers to the client cooperation, was supported with a positive interaction, and the hypothesis H3B, consistent with universities, was supported with negative interaction. Still regarding Technological Innovations, considering the restricted model, the hypothesis H3D was supported with a positive interaction, while hypothesis H3E, which was also supported, showed a negative relationship. Figure 2 presents the summarized results.

Figure 2.
Result of the proposed hypotheses

5. DISCUSSION

The presented results were essential to meet the proposed objective to analyze the importance of the interaction with external partners for the implementation of different types of innovations. It was identified that different types of external agents could have influence on the types of innovation within the organizations (Rauter et al, 2019Rauter, R., Globocnik, D., Perl-Vorbach, E., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2019). Open innovation and its effects on economic and sustainability innovation performance.Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(4), 226-233.; Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.), showing that not necessarily all kinds of collaboration could be beneficial for the innovation of the organization. Thus, it is understood that the innovation partners bring different types of knowledge to the company, so that different types of collaborations play different roles in the innovation process (Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.).

Open innovation supports that organizations could increase their innovation activities if they engage with external agents, given that cooperation renews and complements the internal knowledge of the organizations, as well as to broaden external paths to commercialize the internally generated knowledge (Chesbrough, 2003bChesbrough, H. (2003b). The era of open innovation.MIT sloan management Review,44(3), 35-41.; Beule & Van Beveren, 2019Beule, F., & Van Beveren, I. (2019). Sources of open innovation in foreign subsidiaries: An enriched typology.International Business Review,28(1), 135-147.; Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.). However, even though companies are increasingly engaging with external partners (Shaikh & Levina, 2019Shaikh, M., & Levina, N. (2019). Selecting an open innovation community as an alliance partner: Looking for healthy communities and ecosystems.Research Policy,48(8), 1-16.), according to Al-Belushi et al. (2018Al-Belushi, K. I., Stead, S. M., Gray, T., & Burgess, J. G. (2018). Measurement of open innovation in the marine biotechnology sector in Oman.Marine Policy,98, 164-173.) many companies have still been ignoring opportunities to collaborate with external agents, as verified by the rejection of hypotheses H1A, H1B, H1C, H1D and H1E, in which it was found that cooperation does not interfere with the implementation of innovations (GenInnov) by companies. According to Kühl and Cunha (2013Kühl, M. R., & Cunha, J. C. (2013). Obstáculos à implementação de inovações no Brasil: como diferentes empresas percebem sua importância. Brazilian Business Review, 10(2), 1-25., p. 8) “difficulties in developing, maintaining and using relationships with partners have become obstacles, since, in some way, innovations are related to customers, suppliers, partners and even competitors, among others”.

As for the implementation of product innovation (ProdInnov), it was found that both the interaction with suppliers and with consultants were considered to be significant, supporting the hypotheses H2D and H2E, but with negative interaction, which means that the interaction with external agents interferes with the implementation of product innovations (Um & Asakawa, 2015Un, C. A., & Asakawa, K. (2015). Types of R&D collaborations and process innovation: The benefit of collaborating upstream in the knowledge chain.Journal of Product Innovation Management,32(1), 138-153.; Anzola-Román, Bayona-Sáez & García-Marco, 2018Anzola-Román, P., Bayona-Sáez, C., & García-Marco, T. (2018). Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes.Journal of Business Research,91, 233-247.; Lv & Qi, 2019Lv, B., & Qi, X. (2019). Research on partner combination selection of the supply chain collaborative product innovation based on product innovative resources.Computers & Industrial Engineering,128, 245-253.). As such, intensifying the relationships with suppliers and consultants decreases the implementation of product innovations for companies. Regarding the suppliers, it was observed that the results were divergent from the literature, which considered this to be a vertical and not competitive cooperation, where suppliers can be a source of innovative and technological ideas for the innovation process of companies, given that they have specific knowledge and skills (Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.). Therefore, companies that create cooperation strategies with their suppliers can improve their innovation performance, both in quality and adaptation and availability of the product in the market (Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.; Ardito et al., 2018Ardito, L., Petruzzelli, A. M., Dezi, L., & Castellano, S. (2018). The influence of inbound open innovation on ambidexterity performance: does it pay to source knowledge from supply chain stakeholders?. , Journal of Business Research, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.043.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.1...
). For this, the interaction with suppliers must happens at all stages of the innovation development, i.e., from the initial stage to the market introduction, otherwise the interaction will not have possible benefits (Homfeldt, Rese & Simon, 2019Homfeldt, F., Rese, A., & Simon, F. (2019). Suppliers versus start-ups: Where do better innovation ideas come from?.Research policy,48(7), 1738-1757.).

Regarding the cooperation with consultants, which was negative for ProdInnov, it was found that, although consultants are considered to be sources of expertise and skills for the development of innovation, since they have different points of view from the company (Wright, Sturdy & Wylie, 2012Wright, C., Sturdy, A., & Wylie, N. (2012). Management innovation through standardization: Consultants as standardizers of organizational practice.Research Policy, 41(3), 652-662.; Back, Parboteeah & Nam, 2014Back, Y., Parboteeah, K. P., & Nam, D. I. (2014). Innovation in emerging markets: The role of management consulting firms.Journal of international management,20(4), 390-405.; Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.), it was found that the interaction cannot be beneficial if the innovation process from the organization is more closed. In that case, the role of the consulting becomes idle, since the company relies more on internal ideas than on the interaction with consultants (Tether & Tajar, 2008Tether, B. S., & Tajar, A. (2008). Beyond industry-university links: Sourcing knowledge for innovation from consultants, private research organisations and the public science-base.Research Policy,37(6-7), 1079-1095.), a fact observed in the results of this research, where internal innovation activities, such as internal R&D, was also significant. There are also other problems, such as the possibility that consultants only perform standardized processes based on old experiences (Wright, Sturdy & Wylie, 2012Wright, C., Sturdy, A., & Wylie, N. (2012). Management innovation through standardization: Consultants as standardizers of organizational practice.Research Policy, 41(3), 652-662.), or that they are not interested in committing to innovation (Tether & Tajar, 2008Tether, B. S., & Tajar, A. (2008). Beyond industry-university links: Sourcing knowledge for innovation from consultants, private research organisations and the public science-base.Research Policy,37(6-7), 1079-1095.). In addition, there is the difficulty of managing contracts, as well as the possibility that consultants only perform what the companies expect of them, and don’t show any significant results for innovation (Back, Parboteeah & Nam, 2014Back, Y., Parboteeah, K. P., & Nam, D. I. (2014). Innovation in emerging markets: The role of management consulting firms.Journal of international management,20(4), 390-405.).

Lastly, regarding the implementation of technological innovations (TecInnov), a positive relationship with customers was found (hypothesis H3A) and a negative relationship with universities (hypothesis H3B). As for customers, it was observed that they can positively interfere in the development of this type of innovation (Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.), especially when customer needs are complex (Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.). Given that the interaction with customers is vertical and not competitive (Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.), collaborating with customers is considered to be a method to develop products accordingly to market needs (Eiteneyer, Bendig & Brettel, 2019Eiteneyer, N., Bendig, D., & Brettel, M. (2019). Social capital and the digital crowd: Involving backers to promote new product innovativeness.Research Policy,48(8), 103-122.), especially regarding the development of products that change rapidly, such as new technologies, where more direct interaction with customers force companies to renew their innovation strategies and activities (Barañano, 2005Barañano, A. M. (2005). Gestão da inovação tecnológica: estudo de cinco PMEs portuguesas.Revista Brasileira de Inovação, 4(1), 57-96.; Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.; Ardito et al, 2018Ardito, L., Petruzzelli, A. M., Dezi, L., & Castellano, S. (2018). The influence of inbound open innovation on ambidexterity performance: does it pay to source knowledge from supply chain stakeholders?. , Journal of Business Research, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.043.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.1...
; Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.).

The universities, on the other hand, showed a negative relationship in the implementation of technological innovations (TecInnov), so that intensifying the relationship with these agents decreased the implementation of technological innovations of companies. Even though universities are receiving an increasing attention in the interaction for innovation of companies (Saito, 2010Saito, H. (2010, July). What kinds of firms collaborate with universities and public research institutes?. In Technology Management for Global Economic Growth (PICMET), Proceedings of PICMET, Phuket, Thailand.), representing one of the main means of cooperation in terms of innovative outcomes (Howells, Ramlogane & Cheng, 2012Howells, J., Ramlogan, R., & Shu-Li, C. (2012). Universities in an open innovation system: a UK perspective.International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research,18(4), 440-456.; Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.), it was observed that often companies may not be prepared to exploit this type of knowledge (Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.). Mainly due to the cultural difference between these agents, which have opposite purpose and goals (Howells, Ramlogane & Cheng, 2012Howells, J., Ramlogan, R., & Shu-Li, C. (2012). Universities in an open innovation system: a UK perspective.International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research,18(4), 440-456.), universities perform a type of research not developed by companies (Saito, 2010Saito, H. (2010, July). What kinds of firms collaborate with universities and public research institutes?. In Technology Management for Global Economic Growth (PICMET), Proceedings of PICMET, Phuket, Thailand.), with a more basic nature and without the intention of commercialization of their results and discoveries (Miotti & Sachwald, 2003Miotti, L., & Sachwald, F. (2003). Co-operative R&D: why and with whom?: An integrated framework of analysis.Research policy,32(8), 1481-1499.). For this, companies need to develop an internal capacity to interact with this agent, otherwise they will not have a positive cooperation (Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.), as well as perform, at the same time, an interaction with other agents within the supply chain, as a way to complement the knowledge of universities (Haus-Reve, Fitjar & Pose, 2019Haus-Reve, S., Fitjar, R. D., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2019). Does combining different types of collaboration always benefit firms? Collaboration, complementarity and product innovation in Norway.Research Policy,48(6), 1476-1486.).

Still, the results did not elucidate the importance of cooperation with competitors for any of the complete models (Model 2, Model 4 or Model 6). It went against the research in the area, which shows that cooperation with competitors, a horizontal cooperation form, is important to intensify the competitiveness of companies in the market failures and technological deficiencies (Fernandes, Cesário, & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.; Ardito et al., 2018Ardito, L., Petruzzelli, A. M., Dezi, L., & Castellano, S. (2018). The influence of inbound open innovation on ambidexterity performance: does it pay to source knowledge from supply chain stakeholders?. , Journal of Business Research, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.043.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.1...
). However, for the restricted model (Model 5) and for the variable TecInnov, the relationship with the competitor was significant, but negative. This demonstrated that companies only have positive results when interacting with competitors, as long as they are able to reconcile this interaction as a way of not harming competition in the market in which they operate, such as in the disclosure of secrets of the innovation processes, since, even though there is a cooperation, they are still competitors in the same market (Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.; Ardito et al., 2018Ardito, L., Petruzzelli, A. M., Dezi, L., & Castellano, S. (2018). The influence of inbound open innovation on ambidexterity performance: does it pay to source knowledge from supply chain stakeholders?. , Journal of Business Research, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.043.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.1...
; Sivam et al., 2019Sivam, A., Dieguez, T., Ferreira, L. P., & Silva, F. J. G. (2019). Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena.Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 6(4), 507-515.).

As for the control variables, it was observed that the internal R&D has a direct influence at both the generation of general innovations (GenInnov) and technological innovations (TecInnov), demonstrating that organizations that invest in internal R&D have significant effects on the performance of new innovations (Hsiao & Hsu, 2018Hsiao, Y. C., & Hsu, Z. X. (2018). Firm-specific advantages-product innovation capability complementarities and innovation success: A core competency approach.Technology in Society,55, 78-84.) and technological innovations (Anzola-Román, Bayona-Sáez & García-Marco, 2018Anzola-Román, P., Bayona-Sáez, C., & García-Marco, T. (2018). Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes.Journal of Business Research,91, 233-247.). However, Ramadani et al. (2019Ramadani, V., Hisrich, R. D., Abazi-Alili, H., Dana, L. P., Panthi, L., & Abazi-Bexheti, L. (2019). Product innovation and firm performance in transition economies: A multi-stage estimation approach.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,140, 271-280.) emphasize that not all R&D spending results in new products, a fact that may relate to the findings of this study, where the internal R&D did not interfere with the development and implementation of product innovation. Still, even though internal R&D is important for the innovative process of organizations, it was found that it is currently difficult for companies to maintain competitive advantage only with investments in internal R&D, and they must seek ways to collaborate with other organizations (Fernandes, Cesário & Barata, 2017Fernandes, S., Cesário, M., & Barata, J. M. (2017). Ways to open innovation: Main agents and sources in the Portuguese case.Technology in Society,51, 153-162.; Anzola-Román, Bayona-Sáez & García-Marco, 2018Anzola-Román, P., Bayona-Sáez, C., & García-Marco, T. (2018). Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes.Journal of Business Research,91, 233-247.).

The training variable proved to be important, mutually for the implementation of innovation (GenInnov) and for the technological innovation (TecInnov), since it constitutes an obstacle, “the lack of personnel with innovative capacity or even the lack of qualified personnel to deal with innovations, in addition to the need to know how to deal with new technologies” (Kühl & Cunha, 2013Kühl, M. R., & Cunha, J. C. (2013). Obstáculos à implementação de inovações no Brasil: como diferentes empresas percebem sua importância. Brazilian Business Review, 10(2), 1-25., p. 7). In this sense, one of the needed factors for innovation to occur, among them technological innovation, concerns the structure of the workforce, since the knowledge and skills of the organizational human capital influence the company’s ability to constantly innovate, and companies must empower, train and educate their employees (Barañano, 2005Barañano, A. M. (2005). Gestão da inovação tecnológica: estudo de cinco PMEs portuguesas.Revista Brasileira de Inovação, 4(1), 57-96.; Blanch et al. 2014Blanch, L., Guerra, L., Lanuza, A., & Palomar, G. (2014). Innovación y transferencia tecnológica en ciencias de la salud: Una visión transversal. Medicina Intensiva, 38(8), 492-497.; Hsiao & Hsu, 2018Hsiao, Y. C., & Hsu, Z. X. (2018). Firm-specific advantages-product innovation capability complementarities and innovation success: A core competency approach.Technology in Society,55, 78-84.).

Furthermore, the acquisition of machinery and equipment were also significant for the implementation of innovations (GenInnov) and of product innovations (ProdInnov), proving to be an important element in certain innovation processes (Robertson, Casali & Jacobson, 2012Robertson, P. L., Casali, G. L., & Jacobson, D. (2012). Managing open incremental process innovation: absorptive capacity and distributed learning.Research policy,41(5), 822-832.; Lau & Lo, 2015Lau, A. K., & Lo, W. (2015). Regional innovation system, absorptive capacity and innovation performance: An empirical study.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,92, 99-114.). Finally, the net sales revenue was significant for development of general innovations (GenInnov) (Longhini et al., 2018Longhini, T. M., Cavalcanti, J. M. M., Borges, S. L., & Ferreira, B. P. (2018). Investment in Innovation and its Influence on Net Sales: An Analysis Based on PINTEC Data.BBR. Brazilian Business Review,15(1), 1-16.) and of technological innovation (TecInnov) (Liu et al., 2018Liu, Z., Mu, R., Hu, S., Wang, L., & Wang, S. (2018). Intellectual property protection, technological innovation and enterprise value-An empirical study on panel data of 80 advanced manufacturing SMEs.Cognitive Systems Research,52, 741-746.), given the implementation of innovations has a strong connection with the growth of company values, which can cause greater investments in production efficiency and other innovation-related elements later on (Liu et al., 2018Liu, Z., Mu, R., Hu, S., Wang, L., & Wang, S. (2018). Intellectual property protection, technological innovation and enterprise value-An empirical study on panel data of 80 advanced manufacturing SMEs.Cognitive Systems Research,52, 741-746.).

6. CONCLUSION

This article verified how different types of interaction with external actors influence different types of innovation implementation by organizations. Thus, it was analyzed how the interaction with customers, competitors, suppliers, universities, and consultants influences the implementation of general innovations (GenInnov), product innovations (ProdInnov) and technological innovations (TecInnov). Using panel data analysis, we analyzed how cooperation for innovation occurs in certain sectors of the Brazilian economy based on data from PINTEC, an IBGE innovation survey for the years 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014.

Regarding the general innovations (GenInnov) implemented by organizations, it was found that no type of interaction with external actors was significant, while the control variables (Internal R&D, Training, Acquisition of Machinery and Equipment, and Net Sales Revenue), which correspond to internal capacities to innovate, were significant. As for product innovation (ProdInnov), it was observed that interactions with consultants and suppliers were negative, demonstrating that cooperation with these actors is not being well managed by organizations, while some control variables (Internal R&D and Acquisition of Machinery and Equipment) were significant. Regarding technological innovation (TecInnov), interaction with customers was positive and with universities it was negative, as well as some control variables (Training and Net Sales Revenue) were significant.

The results contribute to the literature in different ways. We highlight the evidence that different types of cooperation corroborate, or not, differently in the implementation of certain types of innovation. Thus, although it is currently recommended that interaction with external actors is essential for organizational innovations, we found that such interaction may not be significant in the implementation of certain innovations, just as there are times when they can be harmful, since some relationships have been negative. Still, while the majority of interactions were not significant, or were negative, it appears that organizations seek to innovate by improving their own internal innovation capabilities, since the control variables, which represent the internal capabilities of companies, were significant. We emphasize that it was not for the study to understand how interactions occur, but whether they corroborate in the innovation processes. New research should seek to understand more deeply each type of influence from external actors, be it positive, negative or non-existent, in the implementations of innovations.

Proving that not necessarily all types of cooperation can be beneficial to the innovative process of companies, the results do not prove the most current theories of innovation, such as open innovation, which emphasizes that organizations must relate to different types of partners to acquire ideas and external resources to innovate and remain competitive in the sector in which they operate. Thus, the analysis of Brazil as an empirical field, a developing country, was essential to demonstrate that innovation practices can be different from developed and industrialized contexts in which most theories are developed. Further studies and new approaches should continue to explore the perspectives of innovation in different contexts, looking for peculiar and distinct findings for such processes.

In terms of practical contributions, for the managerial context, this study corroborates by presenting which types of cooperation are most significant for different ways that an organization has to innovate. Managers can take advantage of the results to make better innovation decisions and choose the best partners for their innovative processes, since the relationships with different actors and the innovation results of organizations are heterogeneous. As for the contributions of public policies, from the results found, governments can develop more effective policies, capable of improving and boosting the essential interactions for the innovation process, as well as improving relations that have not been beneficial, strengthening the national innovation system.

Finally, as for the limitations of the study, only three types of innovations developed by organizations were analyzed, namely: general innovations, product innovations and technological innovations. New research can expand the results, addressing other types of innovations existing at PINTEC, such as process innovations, marketing innovations and organizational innovations. Another limitation corresponds to the unit of analysis, since an aggregate analysis was carried out using data from Brazilian business sectors. In this way, future research can carry out more precise analyzes with microdata from each company, obtaining more peculiar findings. Still, next research may include, in the analysis, other cooperation actors not analyzed in this work, such as training centers and other companies of the group itself.

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  • FINANCING

    This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    25 Feb 2022
  • Date of issue
    Jan-Feb 2022

History

  • Received
    22 Apr 2020
  • Reviewed
    10 Nov 2020
  • Accepted
    10 May 2021
  • Published
    07 Jan 2022
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