Firm heterogeneity, appropriability, and innovation collaboration

Using data from both the 2nd Taiwan Innovation Survey and Taiwan Economic Journal, this study incorporates capabilities and governance perspectives to explore innovation collaboration strategies employed by firms with distinct innovation strengths. Consistent with prior research, this study confirms a concave relationship between firm appropriability strength and innovation collaboration breadth. Further, the results show that firms engaged in product innovation are less open to innovation collaboration while process innovation firms are more open to collaborative innovation. The analysis also provides evidence that the effect of appropriability strength on openness is contingent on innovation capabilities. Specifically, firms engaged in product innovation show a convex, rather than concave relationship between appropriability strength and openness to innovation collaboration. This study contributes to our understanding of the relationship between appropriability and openness to innovation collaboration, showing that the limitations of appropriability on openness are less severe for product innovation firms.