A Study of the Industrial Competitive Pressures on Firms’ Product Innovation: Moderating Effects of International Joint Venture

Abstract

We investigate the influence of various industrial factors on the product innovation performance of Korean manufacturing firms. While the resource-based perspective and industry-based perspective have established that both firm- and industry-level factors are relevant for firms' level of innovation, little is known about the extent to which the internal capabilities of a firm interact with the industrial environment in which the firm resides in. With a sample of 197 Korean manufacturing firms, this paper seeks to contribute to the literature by identifying industrial factors that can enhance or reduce the level of product innovations. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that the external linkages to foreign knowledge can play a vital role in coping with such competitive pressures, which in turn increase a firm's innovation performance.