Knowledge Acquisition Models of SMEs’ New Product Development Processes and the Role of Patent Information

Successful new product development (NPD) activities need high amounts of new knowledge from a variety of different sources. When the NPD activities are seen as a process of knowledge accumulation, two knowledge processes are identified: knowledge acquisition and knowledge utilization. This study focuses on the process of knowledge acquisition from external knowledge sources in the NPD of SMEs. Based on a comparative case study research design, three knowledge acquisition models are identified, and the used knowledge sources and the role of patent information in these models are discussed. The findings show that there is a relationship between the NPD processes and the ways the knowledge is acquired from the external environment, but on the other hand, the knowledge acquisition models identified do not correspond to the previous studies about knowledge acquisition in terms of the environmental scanning framework. Thus further studies are needed to understand the relationship between the type of knowledge acquired and the scanning-interpretation modes used by organizations.