<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<bold>Background:</bold> Firms increasingly depend on external actors for the process of generating innovation. Interaction with these actors might occur through an official collaboration agreement or via external actors as the source of information.
<bold>Objectives:</bold> Although open innovation has received more attention, still less is known about its effect on organizational innovation. To fill this gap, this study investigates the impact of various external knowledge sources on the willingness of small and mediumsized enterprises to introduce organizational innovation.
<bold>Methods/Approach:</bold> To achieve the proposed objective, the German Community Innovation Survey conducted in 2017 is used for the econometric analysis.
<bold>Results:</bold> Different external sources of knowledge are relevant for the introduction of organizational innovation in small firms (customers in the private sector, competitors, conferences, and crowdsourcing) compared to medium-sized firms (customers in the private sector and industry associations).
<bold>Conclusions:</bold> External knowledge sources are more important for small firms compared to medium firms, and those small firms are more likely to use various sets of external knowledge.
</abstract>

Background: Firms increasingly depend on external actors for the process of generating innovation. Interaction with these actors might occur through an official collaboration agreement or via external actors as the source of information.
Objectives: Although open innovation has received more attention, still less is known about its effect on organizational innovation. To fill this gap, this study investigates the impact of various external knowledge sources on the willingness of small and mediumsized enterprises to introduce organizational innovation.
Methods/Approach: To achieve the proposed objective, the German Community Innovation Survey conducted in 2017 is used for the econometric analysis.
Results: Different external sources of knowledge are relevant for the introduction of organizational innovation in small firms (customers in the private sector, competitors, conferences, and crowdsourcing) compared to medium-sized firms (customers in the private sector and industry associations).
Conclusions: External knowledge sources are more important for small firms compared to medium firms, and those small firms are more likely to use various sets of external knowledge.

The Effect of External Knowledge Sources on Organizational Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises in Germany

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Business Systems Research Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Background: Firms increasingly depend on external actors for the process of generating innovation. Interaction with these actors might occur through an...

The Effect of External Knowledge Sources on Organizational Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises in Germany

Published Online: Jun 04, 2021

Page range: 60 - 79

Received: Jan 13, 2020

Accepted: Jun 25, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2021-0005

Keywords
organizational innovation, workplace, external knowledge sources, small and medium-sized firms

© 2021 Shoaib Abdul Basit, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Effect of External Knowledge Sources on Organizational Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises in Germany

Published Online: Jun 04, 2021

Page range: 60 - 79

Received: Jan 13, 2020

Accepted: Jun 25, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2021-0005

Keywordsorganizational innovation, workplace, external knowledge sources, small and medium-sized firms

© 2021 Shoaib Abdul Basit, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
organizational innovation, workplace, external knowledge sources, small and medium-sized firms