Technological diversification within UK's small serial innovators
Technological diversification within UK's small serial innovators
This paper investigates the determinants of technological diversification amongst UK’s small serial innovators (SSIs). Using a longitudinal study of 339 UK-based small businesses accounting for almost 7000 patents between 1990-2006, this study constitutes the first empirical examination of technological diversification amongst SMEs in the literature. Results demonstrate that technological diversification is not solely a large-firm activity, challenging the dominant view that innovative SMEs are extremely focused and specialised players with little technological diversification. Our findings suggest a non-linear (i.e. inverse-U shaped) relationship between the level of technological opportunities in the environment and the SSIs’ degree of technological diversification. This points to a trade-off between processes of exploration and exploitation across increasingly volatile technology regimes. The paper also demonstrates that small firms with impactful innovations focus their innovative activity around similar technological capabilities while firms that have introduced platform technologies in the past are more likely to engage in technological diversification.
diversification, small serial innovators, sme, technological opportunity, relatedness, fractional response model
1-15
Corradini, Carlo
39bbaf6a-312f-4c1e-a438-fdc6c757de5d
Demirel, Pelin
687c839d-b7dc-4914-972a-293ab9f014c2
Battisti, Giuliana
f25a8a88-bb00-4dd4-91a9-ebbeaf1a36be
Corradini, Carlo
39bbaf6a-312f-4c1e-a438-fdc6c757de5d
Demirel, Pelin
687c839d-b7dc-4914-972a-293ab9f014c2
Battisti, Giuliana
f25a8a88-bb00-4dd4-91a9-ebbeaf1a36be
Corradini, Carlo, Demirel, Pelin and Battisti, Giuliana
(2016)
Technological diversification within UK's small serial innovators.
Small Business Economics, .
(doi:10.1007/s11187-015-9698-1).
Abstract
This paper investigates the determinants of technological diversification amongst UK’s small serial innovators (SSIs). Using a longitudinal study of 339 UK-based small businesses accounting for almost 7000 patents between 1990-2006, this study constitutes the first empirical examination of technological diversification amongst SMEs in the literature. Results demonstrate that technological diversification is not solely a large-firm activity, challenging the dominant view that innovative SMEs are extremely focused and specialised players with little technological diversification. Our findings suggest a non-linear (i.e. inverse-U shaped) relationship between the level of technological opportunities in the environment and the SSIs’ degree of technological diversification. This points to a trade-off between processes of exploration and exploitation across increasingly volatile technology regimes. The paper also demonstrates that small firms with impactful innovations focus their innovative activity around similar technological capabilities while firms that have introduced platform technologies in the past are more likely to engage in technological diversification.
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- Accepted Manuscript
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 29 December 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 30 January 2016
Keywords:
diversification, small serial innovators, sme, technological opportunity, relatedness, fractional response model
Organisations:
Centre for Innovation & Enterprise
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 386819
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/386819
PURE UUID: 5d778946-a72e-4b03-8e6d-973ff8110f8a
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Date deposited: 04 Feb 2016 15:16
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:38
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Contributors
Author:
Carlo Corradini
Author:
Pelin Demirel
Author:
Giuliana Battisti
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