Knowledge for innovation in Europe: The role of external knowledge on firms' cooperation strategies

a r t i c l e i n f o This paper analyzes the relationships between firms' external search of knowledge and its role in cooperation strategies for innovation. In particular, this study accounts for differences between public and private external sources of knowledge and between private–private and public–private cooperation arrangements. The empirical model is based on the Fourth Community Innovation Survey statistics for 15 countries and 40 economic branches. Although firms' internal R&D effort and size are important factors explaining engagement in cooperation for innovation, firms' external search of knowledge also plays a role. Among other insights, the results suggest the relevance of firms' absorption of science-based knowledge from public external sources in favoring firms' engagement in cooperation arrangements. The locus of innovation should be thought of as a network of inter-organizational relations (Arora & Gambardella, 1990). Nowadays, a single organization faces increasing difficulties in innovating in isola-, and the logic that supports a merely internally oriented and centralized approach to research and development (R&D) may be insufficient. Instead, successful innovation increasingly depends on the development and integration of external ideas in the innovation process (Cassiman & Veugelers, 2002). In order to compete in a knowledge-intensive scenario, firms have to engage with different types of partners to acquire resources (Laursen & Salter, 2006) whether they work together with other companies, universities or public Accordingly, firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas to advance their technologies (Chesbrough, 2003), concentrating on finding the correct balance between the development of internal knowledge and the incorporation of valuable external knowledge. Within the increasing complexity of knowledge and technology, current actors increasingly perceive cooperation between innovation agents as a key aspect that sustains firms' innovation performances (Collins, 2006; Elango & Chen, 2012). The successful exploitation of col-laborative possibilities (i.e., innovation through the combination and cross-pollination of ideas) to cooperate successfully by sharing knowledge and jointly developing new products and services may hold the key for companies seeking to gain or maintain a lead over their rivals Part of the knowledge that firms share when cooperating for innovation can certainly be incorporated from outside their boundaries. Information and know-how trading often occur (Veugelers, 1997; Von Hippel, 1987) and also play an important role (Bönte & Keilbach, 2005; Rueda-Armengot & Peris-Ortiz, 2012) in firms' innovation performance. Accordingly, useful information for firms' innovativeness is often available in the public domain, and …