Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17657
Authors: Andrés Rodríguez-Pose; Silje Hausreve; Rune Fitjar
Abstract: Implicitly or explicitly, much innovation policy treats investments in research and development (R&D) as the main input to innovation. A large body of literature in innovation studies has challenged this, highlighting the role of external sources of innovation and of innovation based on learning by doing, using and interacting (DUI). Nonetheless, there has been limited empirical research on how firm-internal activities to promote DUI affect innovation, and on how important such activities are relative to internal R&D and to external sources of knowledge. We also know little about how internal DUI activities interact with internal R&D and with external knowledge sourcing. We address these gaps using Norwegian Community Innovation Survey data from 2010. We find that internal DUI is an important driver of new-to-market product innovation. Further, the results show partial substitution effects between internal DUI and internal R&D, as well as between internal DUI and external DUI.
Keywords: innovation; firms
JEL Codes: O31; O32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| internal DUI (Y40) | new-to-market product innovation (O36) |
| internal DUI (Y40) | internal R&D (O32) |
| internal DUI (Y40) | external DUI (Y40) |
| internal R&D (O32) | new-to-market product innovation (O36) |
| external DUI (Y40) | new-to-market product innovation (O36) |