INNOVATION COLLABORATIONS IN LOW-TO-MEDIUM TECH SMEs: THE ROLE OF THE FIRM'S INNOVATION ORIENTATION AND USE OF EXTERNAL INFORMATION

This study articulates and tests the direct and indirect relationships between the company's innovation orientation (IO), its collection and dissemination (C&D) of external information among the organisational members, and the level of success of its innovation collaborations involving customers, suppliers, and research organisations. Our conceptual framework is developed based on an integration of the literatures on organisational capabilities, marketing, innovation, and management control. We empirically test these relationships on a sample of 117 small-to-medium enterprises (SME) operating in Low-to-Medium-Tech (LMT) manufacturing industries. Partial Least Squares (PLS) results reveal that the relationship between the firm's IO and the success of its customer collaborations is partially mediated by the C&D of external information. We also find that the relationship between the firm's IO and the success of supplier collaborations is direct, and that the C&D of external information has no effect on the success of such collaborations. Finally the relationship between IO, C&D of external information and the success of research organisation collaborations is found to be indirect. Overall, these findings suggest that developing successful innovation collaborations in LMT sectors requires that SME managers start by building an internal culture that promotes innovation, learning and openness to the external environment.