Journal
INTERNATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS JOURNAL-RESEARCHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Volume 34, Issue 1, Pages 123-143Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0266242614548931
Keywords
collaboration; innovation performance; New Zealand; SMEs; training
Categories
Funding
- ICEHOUSE-UABS, The University of Auckland Business School Faculty Research Development Fund, New Zealand Asia Institute
- Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC) at Doshisha University, Kyoto
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article draws upon survey data from New Zealand small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to explore the relationship between training, collaboration and innovation performance. Based on the perspective that SME owner-managers attempt to marshal both internal and external capabilities to improve innovation outcomes, it shows that strategies which focus on internal capabilities (training) only have no tangible effect. SMEs benefit from different capability strategies depending on their age. For younger firms, accessing external resources (collaboration) has a positive effect, while older SMEs benefit from a combined strategy (collaboration and training). Training effects are context (e.g. industry or sector) dependent and contingent on a broader approach to innovation. Our findings also suggest that demographic characteristics of the owner-manager influence the capability assembling strategy and are therefore, an important contingency for the innovation performance of SMEs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available