Summary: | This paper investigates the determinants of firms’ innovative performance, by exploring the effects of different innovation strategies related to generation and acquisition of technological knowledge. The analysis is based on a sample of 1329 Spanish manufacturing firms. The results suggest that R&D contracting has not significant effect on firms’ innovative performance and that cooperation with external agents has a limited effect. In contrast, the development of in-house R&D activities seems to be the most important strategy to introduce new products onto the market. These results warns against the risk of overrating external knowledge sourcing, and highlight the need for policy makers to establish innovation policies mainly focus on strengthening the technological capabilities of firms.
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