Empirical studies on the qualitative aspects of the interactive determinants of corporate innovative performance

Abstract

The intensification of competition due to globalization, the advancement of technology, and the evolution of market needs are making it difficult for firms to achieve innovation performance on their own. While research has been following the footprints of this industrial shift on innovation factors, most of its attempts were based on the tangible and quantitative aspects of cooperation. The qualitative aspects of the interactive measures that would be as influential on the process and outcomes of the collaboration have not been dealt in earnest. This study aims to carry out an introductive research on the qualitative features of the interactive factors of innovation. Two issues in the qualitative aspects were covered in the study which we believe would help heightening the understanding of ‘why’ and ‘how’ firms should collaborate to yield better innovative performance. The first study, from the resource-based view, examines how the positioning of the core resources in cooperation affects its consequences. With empirical analyses of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) on data from Survey of Korean Venture Firms 2012, it demonstrates how the motivational direction of the cooperation, deriving from the core resources, influences the cooperation network structure and its resulting performances. The second study focuses consequential impacts of the interaction orientation of the cooperation. By identifying and analyzing the imitative behaviors in firm’s investment policies, it indirectly tests how firm's passive orientation in interaction with external factors influences its innovative performance. Panel data analyses using the 2-stage least squares (2SLS) regression with instrument variables on the North American firm data of 1980-2010, were applied in the study to back the investigation with empirical results. Collectively, this dissertation endeavors to provide deeper insights in the interaction of firms to gain innovative performance. It provides implications regarding the directional and orientational aspects of firm interaction that yields better innovation outcomes. Moreover, it contributes to the literature by empirically demonstrating the qualitative aspects of interaction, which methodologically had been hardly approached in an empirical way. We hope the introductive study on the qualitative aspects of interactive factors of firm innovation would catalyze more multi-dimensional approach to firms’ interaction for innovative performance, leading to a deeper understanding of interaction.