Small firm’s cooperation for innovation with other firms and research units : whether the partner matters for product, process, marketing and organizational innovations?

Abstract

PURPOSE: The main purpose of the article is to determine the relationship between the firms’ cooperation for innovation, as well as with other firms and research units. It was important to determine the cooperation partners influence on firms’ innovations – product, process, marketing, and organization.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study is based on a small firm survey (n=63) located in Poland. The research model defines the relationship between firms’ cooperation and product, process, marketing, and organizational innovations. The multi stepwise regression modeling was used in the study and SPSS software.

FINDINGS: According to the survey, there is a positive relationship between cooperation for innovation and marketing innovations only in the case of small firms’ cooperation with other firms. All the rest types of innovation in the surveyed small firms are not determined by cooperation for innovation, non-horizontal and non-vertical.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: As small firms’ managers, practitioners should invest more effort in cooperation for innovations with partners such as other firms. Cooperation with research units is convenient in firms’ innovativeness performance but in the case of surveyed firms is not crucial cooperation in innovation activity.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: That survey is one of the few studies examining the relationship between the small firms’ cooperation for innovation (with other firms and research units) and its influence on product, process, marketing, and organization innovations. The measurement of firms’ cooperation for innovation and the importance of the cooperating partners should be developed further as it is essential in the firms’ performance.