abstract
This study analyzes the most effective innovation modes (‘science and technology-based innovation’, STI, and ‘doing, using and interacting-based innovation’, DUI) for business innovation performance in the context of post-Soviet Transition Economies (PSTE). Their specificities are expected to influence both their business innovation modes and their impact on innovation output. In particular, we aim at identifying the specificities of PSTE in that the DUI mode alone (and its specific drivers) is more relevant than the STI mode alone (and its drivers). In our hypothesis, this outcome should be even stronger in the context of non-technological types of innovation (e.g. organizational innovation).
8. Discussion
Extending the debate on the most effective innovation modes on business innovation output, we apply it in the context of transition economies in which we expected to observe the adoption of specific innovation modes. The results of the study are potentially useful for academics, policy-makers, and managers. Scholars can measure the DUI mode more adequately if they employ the learning-by-doing and learning-by-using types of indicators used in this study. Simultaneously, it will be important to consider additional and novel DUI type-indicators such as the use of focus groups, problem-solving sessions, and incubator soft-landing facilities, among others. Moreover, as we extend the geographical reach of STI/DUI studies, this research has implications for academics who analyze SME innovation from a geographical perspective. Furthermore, more comprehensive conclusions about the modes of innovation in PSTE might be delivered once other countries in transition are studied, e.g. Ukraine or Russia. Besides, the studies on innovation modes do not show what the composition of innovation drivers is in the combination of STI and DUI modes of innovation. Therefore, setting up a new classification tool could help to show how SMEs mix STI and DUI modes (i.e. the proportion of innovation drivers applied in each case).
