Abstract
This book has attempted to look inside the “black box” of non-R&D-intensive sectors and firms to investigate their economic relevance, competitiveness, and innovativeness. Given that non-R&D-intensive sectors and firms used to be neglected both as innovators and innovation drivers by the mainstream innovation literature, this anthology reflects the latest research from different collaborative projects at Fraunhofer ISI. Although the presented research focuses on the German manufacturing industry, the results are broadly relevant, as they reflect economic and structural patterns that are likely present—to varying degrees—in other industrialised countries. For instance, other industrialised countries within and beyond the EU even have higher shares of non-R&D-intensive firms and industries than Germany. Starting with an overview of the research from the past decade (Chap. 2), which has shown that non-R&D-intensive sectors and firms play an important role in national competitiveness and innovativeness in developed economies, eight chapters have provided details from different analytical angles on the six leading research questions stated in the editorial of the book.
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Notes
- 1.
Contrary to the widespread assumption that non-R&D-intensive industries offer limited opportunities for entrepreneurial activity owing to their mature character, there are indications that the phenomenon is finally emerging in these traditional sectors. For further reading on the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in non-R&D-intensive industries, we recommend the book, “Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship In Low-Tech Industries”, which was recently published by Hirsch-Kreinsen and Schwinge (eds.) (2014). The authors identify the typical patterns, prerequisites, and impacts of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship, as well as the distribution of entrepreneurial activities in low-tech sectors. The authors conclude with policy recommendations to promote such activities.
- 2.
As stated by Professor Joseph Tidd from SPRU during the 2014 ISPIM Conference in Dublin, the distinction between high-tech and low-tech sectors should be considered to be obsolete in research on firms’ innovation behaviour.
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Kirner, E., Som, O. (2015). The Economic Relevance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Ability of Non-R&D-Performing and Non-R&D-Intensive Firms: Summary of the Empirical Evidence and Further Outlook. In: Som, O., Kirner, E. (eds) Low-tech Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09973-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09973-6_12
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09973-6
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