Using knowledge from end-users online for innovations: Effects of software firm types

Abstract

As firms need to persistently innovate, they search knowledge from sources external to the firm in order to aid their innovation processes. Firms, however, use the wide range of available types of external knowledge sources heterogeneously. In this paper we explore the factors that affect high-technology firms' utilization of end-users online as a source of knowledge for their innovations. Drawing data from a survey of the Finnish software industry, we find that several firm and environmental characteristics decrease and increase this propensity. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.