Innovation Strategies: Are Knowledge-Intensive Business Services Just Another Source of Information?

The objective of this paper is to contribute to the empirical literature on innovation strategies and services, by analysing the use of knowledge-intensive services, and their impact on innovation, in manufacturing firms. The analysis is carried out at the firm level, on the basis of a survey covering 804 manufacturing establishments in the Province of Quebec (Canada). We investigate the extent to which existing internal capabilities and their interaction with external sources of knowledge, in particular the use of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), affect the level of innovativeness of manufacturing firms. Then we examine the extent to which different innovation strategies, and the way KIBS are integrated into these, are associated with innovation. We show that manufacturing firms adopt a variety of innovation strategies, none of which preclude innovation, even introverted strategies whereby firms interact little with outside agents. However, those strategies that incorporate KIBS have a considerably greater chance of leading to innovation.

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