Sources and modes of innovation: young companies vs mature incumbents

This thesis consists of three essays that explore the sources and modes of innovation activity in mature and young firms. In detail, Chapter 2 focuses on the determinants of young companies’ R&D activity, while Chapter 3 and 4 study the relationship between different innovative inputs and different innovative outputs by distinguishing among firms of different ages (mature vs young). The results of the econometric analyses performed in the three chapters shed some important light on the peculiarities of the innovative process of the young companies operating in two European countries: Spain and Italy. More in detail, they clearly suggest that the age of a firm is a relevant factor in determining its innovative behavior and its innovative performance. To be precise, what emerges is that various firm and market characteristics play distinct roles in boosting different types of innovation activities for young and mature firms. In addition, these two groups of firms seem to show important differences also with reference to the impact of various innovative inputs on their innovative performance. These general evidence could represent a signal of the ineffectiveness of “erga-omnes” polices aimed at increasing the level of R&D expenditure across all types of industries.

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