Sticky information and heterogeneous needs as determining factors of R&D cooperation with customers

The aim of this work is to investigate the factors determining cooperation in developing innovations between firms and a specific group of agents, customers and users. The central point of the analysis is two variables recognised in previous studies as important factors in the study of cooperation with these agents, but which basically have been dealt with from a purely theoretical viewpoint. These variables are: (1) the existence of sticky information (information which is costly to obtain, transfer and use) and (2) the presence of heterogeneous needs in the market. Regarding the first variable, we have also taken into account two kinds of information which can be sticky: information on needs and information of technological nature. The findings obtained, using a Spanish sample of firms, show clearly that all these three factors exert a positive influence on cooperative relationships with these agents.

[1]  Jiann-Chyuan Wang,et al.  Cooperative research in a newly industrialized country: Taiwan , 1994 .

[2]  J. Rayport,et al.  Spark innovation through empathic design. , 1997, Harvard business review.

[3]  E. Hippel.  Has a Customer Already Developed Your Next Product , 1978 .

[4]  A. Macpherson,et al.  The Role of Producer Service Outsourcing in the Innovation Performance of New York State Manufacturing Firms , 1997 .

[5]  G. Lynn,et al.  Marketing and Discontinuous Innovation: The Probe and Learn Process , 1996 .

[6]  Steve Conway,et al.  The Role of the Users in the Innovation Process , 1993 .

[7]  Paul Stoneman,et al.  Handbook of the economics of innovation and technological change , 1995 .

[8]  E. von Hippel,et al.  Sources of Innovation , 2016 .

[9]  H. Gemünden,et al.  Technological interweavement: a means of achieving innovation success , 1992 .

[10]  Michael Fritsch,et al.  Who cooperates on R&D? , 2001 .

[11]  James Joyce,et al.  Perspectives on technology , 1977, Medical History.

[12]  A. Salter,et al.  Searching high and low: what types of firms use universities as a source of innovation? , 2004 .

[13]  K. Arrow.  Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention , 1962 .

[14]  Keith Pavitt,et al.  The objectives of technology policy , 1987 .

[15]  J. Hagedoorn.  Understanding the rationale of strategic technology partnering: Nterorganizational modes of cooperation and sectoral differences , 1993 .

[16]  Sonali Shah.  Sources and Patterns of Innovation in a Consumer Products Field: Innovations in Sporting Equipment , 2000 .

[17]  A. Neely,et al.  Networking and Innovation: A Systematic Review of the Evidence , 2004 .

[18]  Mariko Sakakibara,et al.  HETEROGENEITY OF FIRM CAPABILITIES AND COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF MOTIVES , 1997 .

[19]  W. Greene,et al.  计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis , 2009 .

[20]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  Satisfying Heterogeneous User Needs Via Innovation Toolkits: The Case of Apache Security Software , 2002 .

[21]  D. Harhoff,et al.  Profiting from Voluntary Information Spillovers: How Users Benefit by Freely Revealing Their Innovations , 2003 .

[22]  John Cullen,et al.  Democratizing Innovation , 2020, Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

[23]  Tarantola Stefano,et al.  European Innovation Scoreboard 2006 - Comparative Analysis of Innovation Performance , 2007 .

[24]  von Hippel,et al.  Sloan School of Management Working Paper 4366-02 June 2002 Open source projects as horizontal innovation networks-by and for users , 2003 .

[25]  A. Bonaccorsi,et al.  Strategic Partnerships in New Product Development: an Italian Case Study , 1994 .

[26]  E. Hippel.  Successful Industrial Products from Customer Ideas , 1978 .

[27]  Pamela D. Morrison,et al.  Determinants of User Innovation and Innovation Sharing in a Local Market , 2000 .

[28]  M. Carree,et al.  Heterogeneity in R&D cooperation strategies , 2004 .

[29]  A. Sánchez,et al.  Lean Production and Technology Networks in the Spanish Automotive Supplier Industry (1) , 2002 .

[30]  Ángeles Montoro-Sánchez,et al.  Determining factors in the success of R&D cooperative agreements between firms and research organizations , 2004 .

[31]  Alfred Kleinknecht,et al.  Why do firms cooperate on R&D? an empirical study , 1992 .

[32]  Luc Soete,et al.  THE ECONOMICS OF GROWTH AND TECHNICAL CHANGE , 1994 .

[33]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  A Customer-active Paradigm for Industrial Product Idea Generation , 1978 .

[34]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  User toolkits for innovation , 2001 .

[35]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[36]  B. Tether.  Who co-operates for innovation, and why: An empirical analysis , 2002 .

[37]  A. Arora,et al.  COMPLEMENTARITY AND EXTERNAL LINKAGES: THE STRATEGIES OF THE LARGE FIRMS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY* , 1990 .

[38]  S. Ogawa.  Does sticky information affect the locus of innovation? Evidence from the Japanese convenience-store industry , 1998 .

[39]  B. Kogut,et al.  Exploring internal stickiness : Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 2007 .

[40]  R. Veugelers,et al.  COMPLEMENTARITY BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY MAKE AND BUY IN INNOVATION STRATEGIES : EVIDENCE FROM BELGIAN MANUFACTURING FIRMS , 1998 .

[41]  C. Herstatt,et al.  Learning from users for radical innovation , 2006, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[42]  A. Arora,et al.  Evaluating technological information and utilizing it: Scientific knowledge, technological capability, and external linkages in biotechnology , 1994 .

[43]  Teresa García-Marco,et al.  Firms' motivations for cooperative R&D: an empirical analysis of Spanish firms , 2001 .

[44]  Esteban García Canal.  Acuerdos de cooperacion en I + D en España: un analisis empírico. , 1995 .

[45]  Aurelia Modrego Rico,et al.  Public financing of cooperative R&D projects in Spain: the Concerted Projects under the National R&D Plan , 2001 .

[46]  T. S. Robertson,et al.  TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT MODE: A TRANSACTION COST CONCEPTUALIZATION , 1998 .

[47]  D. Third.  OECD/Eurostat . Oslo Manual-Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Paris, France: , 2005 .

[48]  Reinhilde Veugelers,et al.  R&D Cooperation and Spillovers: Some Empirical Evidence , 1998 .

[49]  John Hagedoorn,et al.  Organizational modes of inter-firm co-operation and technology transfer☆ , 1990 .

[50]  R. Veugelers,et al.  R&D Cooperation and Spillovers: Some Empirical Evidence , 1998 .

[51]  E. Hippel,et al.  Customers As Innovators: A New Way to Create Value , 2002 .

[52]  Albert N. Link,et al.  Universities as partners in U.S. research joint ventures. , 2005 .

[53]  R. Veugelers,et al.  R&D Cooperation between Firms and Universities: Some Empirical Evidence from Belgian Manufacturing , 2003 .

[54]  Cornelia Dröge,et al.  Collaborating for new product development: Selecting the partner with maximum potential to create value , 2006 .

[55]  Pierre Mohnen,et al.  Série Scientifique Scientific Series What Type of Enterprise Forges Close Links with Universities and Government Labs? Evidence from Cis 2 What Type of Enterprise Forges Close Links with Universities and Government Labs? Evidence from Cis 2 , 2022 .

[56]  Paul H. Zipkin,et al.  The Limits of Mass Customization , 2001 .

[57]  Beverly B. Tyler,et al.  Evaluating technological collaborative opportunities: A cognitive modeling perspective , 1995 .

[58]  P. Beneito,et al.  Choosing among alternative technological strategies : an empirical analysis of formal sources of innovation , 2001 .

[59]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[60]  Eric A. von Hippel.  Has a Customer Already Developed Your Next Product? , 1978, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[61]  William M. Riggs,et al.  The impact of scientific and commercial values on the sources of scientific instrument innovation , 1992 .

[62]  Lars Bo Jeppesen,et al.  Making consumer knowledge available and useful , 2002 .

[63]  J. Hagedoorn.  Inter-firm R&D partnerships: an overview of major trends and patterns since 1960 , 2002 .

[64]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics , 1984 .

[65]  Teresa García Marco,et al.  ¿Cooperar en I+D? Con quién y para qué , 2003 .

[66]  Max Keilbach,et al.  Concubinage or Marriage? Informal and Formal Cooperations for Innovation , 2005 .

[67]  M. Knudsen.  The Relative Importance of Interfirm Relationships and Knowledge Transfer for New Product Development Success , 2007 .

[68]  Glen L. Urban,et al.  Lead User Analyses for the Development of New Industrial Products , 1988 .

[69]  John H. Aldrich,et al.  Linear probability, logit and probit models , 1984 .

[70]  M. Nieto,et al.  The importance of diverse collaborative networks for the novelty of product innovation , 2007 .

[71]  Annalisa Tunisini,et al.  Exploiting and Creating Knowledge through Customer-Supplier Relationships: Lessons from a Case Study , 1998 .

[72]  Robert W. Veryzer.  Discontinuous innovation and the new product development process , 1998 .

[73]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  Successful Industrial Products from Customer Ideas: Presentation of a new customer-active paradigm with evidence and implications. , 1978 .

[74]  Mary Tripsas,et al.  When Do User-Innovators Start Firms? Towards a Theory of User Entrepreneurship , 2004 .

[75]  R. Nelson.  The Role of Knowledge in R&D Efficiency , 1982 .

[76]  Christian Lüthje.  Characteristics of innovating users in a consumer goods field , 2004 .

[77]  Cornelius Herstatt,et al.  The process of user-innovation: a case study in a consumer goods setting , 2005 .

[78]  Eric von. Hippel.  User learning, "sticky information," and user-based designs , 1995 .

[79]  L. Jeppesen.  User Toolkits for Innovation: Consumers Support Each Other , 2005 .

[80]  A. Geuna,et al.  Factors affecting university-industry R&D projects: The importance of searching, screening and signalling , 2006 .

[81]  K. Motohashi.  UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS IN JAPAN: THE ROLE OF NEW TECHNOLOGY-BASED FIRMS IN TRANSFORMING THE NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM , 2005 .

[82]  J. Hagedoorn,et al.  The effect of strategic technology alliances on company performance. , 1994 .

[83]  Jürgen Hauschildt,et al.  External acquisition of knowledge for innovations—A research agenda , 1992 .

[84]  Andrea Gregg,et al.  Learning From Doing: Lessons Learned From Designing and Developing an Educational Software Within a Heterogeneous Group , 2021, Int. J. Web Based Learn. Teach. Technol..

[85]  E. Harison,et al.  Druid Summer Conference , 2004 .

[86]  Lars Bo Jeppesen,et al.  Consumers as Co-developers: Learning and Innovation Outside the Firm , 2003, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[87]  F. Piller,et al.  Reducing the risks of new product development , 2006 .

[88]  Bart Nooteboom,et al.  Innovation and inter-firm linkages: new implications for policy , 1999 .

[89]  L. Santamaría,et al.  Caracterización de las empresas que colaboran con centros tecnológicos , 2002 .

[90]  Arun Sharma,et al.  Supplier relationships: Emerging issues and challenges , 1997 .

[91]  G. Pisano.  The R&D Boundaries of the Firm: An Empirical Analysis , 1990 .

[92]  B. Nooteboom.  The Changing Boundaries of the Firm , 1998 .

[93]  D. Teece.  Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy , 1993 .

[94]  Joachim Henkel,et al.  Welfare Implications of User Innovation , 2003 .

[95]  M. Carree,et al.  Cooperative R&D and Firm Performance , 2004 .

[96]  Massimo G. Colombo,et al.  Technological cooperative agreements and firm's R & D intensity. A note on causality relations , 1996 .

[97]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D , 1989 .

[98]  E. Hippel.  Sticky Information and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation , 1994 .

[99]  Fr¬¥ed¬¥erique Sachwald,et al.  Co-operative R&D: why and with whom?: An integrated framework of analysis , 2003 .

[100]  Ulrich Kaiser.  An empirical test of models explaining research expenditures and research cooperation: evidence for the German service sector , 2002 .

[101]  William M. Riggs,et al.  Incentives to innovate and the sources of innovation: the case of scientific instruments☆ , 1994 .

[102]  Christian Lüthje.  Characteristics of Innovating Users in a Consumer Goods Field: An Empirical Study of Sport-Related Product Consumers , 2002 .

[103]  J. Burke,et al.  Petroleum Progress and Profits: A History of Process Innovation by John Lawrence Enos (review) , 1962 .

[104]  Lawrence M. Wein,et al.  Economics of Product Development by Users: the Impact of Sticky Local Information , 1998 .

[105]  Wolfgang Becker,et al.  R&D cooperation and innovation activities of firms—evidence for the German manufacturing industry , 2004 .

[106]  Christoph Hienerth.  The Commercialization of User Innovations: The Development of the Rodeo Kayak Industry , 2006 .

[107]  M. Aldenderfer,et al.  Cluster Analysis. Sage University Paper Series On Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences 07-044 , 1984 .

[108]  Gordon R. Foxall,et al.  User initiated product innovations , 1989 .

[109]  D. Teece.  Technology Transfer by Multinational Firms: The Resource Cost of Transferring Technological Know-How , 1977 .

[110]  Carliss Y. Baldwin,et al.  How User Innovations Become Commercial Products: A Theoretical Investigation and Case Study , 2006 .

[111]  T. Liao.  Interpreting Probability Models: Logit, Probit, and Other Generalized Linear Models , 1994 .

[112]  A. Drejer.  Innovation and learning , 2003 .

[113]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The knowledge-creating company , 2008 .

[114]  Sanford V. Berg,et al.  Joint venture strategies and corporate innovation , 1982 .

[115]  Cornelius Herstatt,et al.  User-innovators and "local" information: The case of mountain biking , 2005 .

[116]  Ralph Katz,et al.  Shifting Innovation to Users via Toolkits , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[117]  T. Reve,et al.  Forming strategic alliances for asset development , 1998 .

[118]  C. Freeman.  Chemical Process Plant: Innovation and the World Market , 1968, National Institute Economic Review.

[119]  Sonali K. Shah,et al.  How Communities Support Innovative Activities: An Exploration of Assistance and Sharing Among End-Users , 2003 .

[120]  R. P. Oakey.  The production and distribution of knowledge , 2009 .

[121]  R. Veugelers.  Internal R & D expenditures and external technology sourcing , 1997 .

[122]  Christina L. Ahmadjian,et al.  Organizational Learning and Purchase-Supply Relations in Japan: Hitachi, Matsushita, and Toyota Compared , 1998 .

[123]  Josef Johannes Heijs,et al.  Efectividad de la política de cooperación en innovación: evidencia empírica española , 2005 .

[124]  E. Hippel,et al.  FROM EXPERIENCE: Developing New Product Concepts Via the Lead User Method: A Case Study in a “Low-Tech” Field , 1992 .

[125]  Fritz Machlup.  The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States , 1962 .

[126]  D. Teece.  Competition, Cooperation, and Innovation Organizational Arrangements for Regimes of Rapid Technological Progress , 1992 .

[127]  Cornelius Herstatt,et al.  The Lead User Method: An Outline of Empirical Findings and Issues for Future Research , 2004 .

[128]  E. von Hippel,et al.  The dominant role of the user in semiconductor and electronic subassembly process innovation , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[129]  Rod Coombs,et al.  Technological collaboration : the dynamics of cooperation in industrial innovation , 1996 .

[130]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  The Journal of Product Innovation Management 18 (2001) 247–257 PERSPECTIVE: User toolkits for innovation , 2022 .

[131]  B. Shaw.  The Role of the Interaction between the User and the Manufacturer in Medical Equipment Innovation , 1985 .

[132]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  How learning by doing is done: problem identification in novel process equipment☆ , 1995 .

[133]  P. Vanderwerf.  Product tying and innovation in U.S. wire preparation equipment , 1990 .