Emerald Management Reviews

Design/methodology/approach - Touches on the pressure of competition and various responses by entrepreneurs to it, product novelty being one, and using external knowledge being another. Summarizes collaboration relationships discovered by other researchers under study aims, theoretical perspectives, main arguments, and source. Examines the influence of different types of collaborative networks in Spain's manufacturing sector on product novelty innovation by analysing 1998-2002 longitudinal data from the Spanish Business Strategies Survey i.e. 6,500 observation covering 1,300 firms.

Findings - Distinguishes: novelty degree (high, low); collaboration length and type (singly with research organizations (ROs), clients, suppliers, or competitors, or multiple partners); and, firm- and industry-specific factors e.g. sales, R&D intensity, sector. Employs bivariate Probit analysis to determine: collaboration has a general positive effect on innovation, and on novelty particularly; size influences only high novelty for export; supplier-dominated sectors have less novelty; and, partner type affects outcomes - competitors negatively for novelty, but suppliers having the most significant general positive effect, with ROs also impacting positively (more on high novelty), and clients less so. Finds having diverse partners has the greatest positive effect.

Research limitations/implications - Notes similar European patterns. Wonders if competitor negativity is due to Spanish traditionality, and might be positive in highly science-based countries.

Originality/value - Shows by data on Spanish firms' technological collaborations that continuity and diversity of partners contribute significantly to product novelty innovation, with suppliers being the best to partner with singly.