Sources of knowledge, investments and appropriability as determinants of innovation: An empirical study in service firms

This article analyses of a set of factors that influence innovation intensity in service firms. The analysis focuses on a broad variety of inputs required for innovation including knowledge sources, types of innovation investment and activities to manage appropriability. The empirical analysis uses original firm-level data on a sample of service firms in Spain. Our results indicate that internal sources of knowledge (e.g., employees), acquisition of external technology, internal design and strategic protection have a positive influence on innovation performance.