Providing contract research services and firms’ own product innovation performance

Philip J. Steinberg; W. Sofka; Thijs Peeters; Vivien Procher; Diemo Urbig

doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19667abstract

Abstract

Extant literature has largely assumed that firms providing research services to other firms as an inventor-for-hire will do so at the expense of developing their own product innovations. Given this assumption, it is surprising that many firms provide research services to other firms without compromising their own flow of product innovations. In this study, we provide a systematic logic that connects the inventor-for-hire services that firms provide to others with the firms’ own product innovation performance. We hypothesize that opportunistic gains from providing contract research eventually enable firms to increase their product innovation performance. Furthermore, we suggest that this increase will be stronger for technology leaders and will be weaker for firms with a strong engagement in basic research. We test our hypotheses on a panel of 1,006 firms over 2005 to 2013 and find support for our hypotheses.

Original language	English
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19667abstract
Publication status	Published - 2019
Event	79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2019 - Boston, United States Duration: 9 Aug 2019 → 13 Aug 2019 Conference number: 79 https://my.aom.org/program2019/

Conference

Conference	79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2019
Abbreviated title	AOM 2019
Country/Territory	United States
City	Boston
Period	9/08/19 → 13/08/19
Internet address	https://my.aom.org/program2019/

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

Access to Document

10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19667abstract

Cite this

@conference{d90b1340b6884350b5782c55027224f5,

title = "Providing contract research services and firms{\textquoteright} own product innovation performance",

abstract = "Extant literature has largely assumed that firms providing research services to other firms as an inventor-for-hire will do so at the expense of developing their own product innovations. Given this assumption, it is surprising that many firms provide research services to other firms without compromising their own flow of product innovations. In this study, we provide a systematic logic that connects the inventor-for-hire services that firms provide to others with the firms{\textquoteright} own product innovation performance. We hypothesize that opportunistic gains from providing contract research eventually enable firms to increase their product innovation performance. Furthermore, we suggest that this increase will be stronger for technology leaders and will be weaker for firms with a strong engagement in basic research. We test our hypotheses on a panel of 1,006 firms over 2005 to 2013 and find support for our hypotheses.",

author = "Steinberg, \{Philip J.\} and W. Sofka and Thijs Peeters and Vivien Procher and Diemo Urbig",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19667abstract",

language = "English",

note = "79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2019, AOM 2019 ; Conference date: 09-08-2019 Through 13-08-2019",

url = "https://my.aom.org/program2019/",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - Providing contract research services and firms’ own product innovation performance

AU - Steinberg, Philip J.

AU - Sofka, W.

AU - Peeters, Thijs

AU - Procher, Vivien

AU - Urbig, Diemo

N1 - Conference code: 79

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Extant literature has largely assumed that firms providing research services to other firms as an inventor-for-hire will do so at the expense of developing their own product innovations. Given this assumption, it is surprising that many firms provide research services to other firms without compromising their own flow of product innovations. In this study, we provide a systematic logic that connects the inventor-for-hire services that firms provide to others with the firms’ own product innovation performance. We hypothesize that opportunistic gains from providing contract research eventually enable firms to increase their product innovation performance. Furthermore, we suggest that this increase will be stronger for technology leaders and will be weaker for firms with a strong engagement in basic research. We test our hypotheses on a panel of 1,006 firms over 2005 to 2013 and find support for our hypotheses.

AB - Extant literature has largely assumed that firms providing research services to other firms as an inventor-for-hire will do so at the expense of developing their own product innovations. Given this assumption, it is surprising that many firms provide research services to other firms without compromising their own flow of product innovations. In this study, we provide a systematic logic that connects the inventor-for-hire services that firms provide to others with the firms’ own product innovation performance. We hypothesize that opportunistic gains from providing contract research eventually enable firms to increase their product innovation performance. Furthermore, we suggest that this increase will be stronger for technology leaders and will be weaker for firms with a strong engagement in basic research. We test our hypotheses on a panel of 1,006 firms over 2005 to 2013 and find support for our hypotheses.

U2 - 10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19667abstract

DO - 10.5465/AMBPP.2019.19667abstract

M3 - Abstract

T2 - 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2019

Y2 - 9 August 2019 through 13 August 2019