• A cross-country analysis of business innovation modes using CIS-Eurostat 2014 regional data. • Comprehensive investigation of internal and external DUI and STI drivers. • Empirical results confirm regional variations in the impact of innovation modes on innovation outputs. • Our findings also support the hypothesis of technological nuances of innovation; in particular DUI drivers are very important for most types of innovation output. • Specific policy actions are required to support the effective use of DUI (and STI) innovation modes and drivers across European regions.

A growing literature discusses the effectiveness of business innovation modes on innovation performance. In particular, the innovation mode based on the application of science and technology drivers -STI- (e.g. R&D; collaboration with universities) is analysed and compared to the mode based on learning-by-doing, by-using and by-interacting -DUI- (e.g. teamwork, collaboration with suppliers). These modes express the archetypical strategies firms use to innovate. The literature has long identified specificities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, in this study we segment this group of enterprises and inquire the peculiar innovation modes adopted by these firms as we expect SMEs to be less homogeneous than typically expected. Here, we distinguish between internal STI and DUI drivers, and external STI and DUI drivers as we expect firms of different sizes to compete through different combinations of drivers. Complementarily, we investigate the impact of these drivers on innovation output across these types of firms. The results show the effective adoption of internal STI drivers across micro/small firms, and the well-rounded approach taken by medium-sized firms. Large firms show a more limited effectiveness of external STI and DUI drivers, which seems to be linked to a selective approach to innovation.

This paper investigates the impact of migration on innovation networks between regions and foreign countries. It posits that immigrants (emigrants) act as a transnational knowledge bridge between the host (home) regions and their origin (destination) countries, thus facilitating their co-inventorship networks. It also argues that the social capital of both the hosting and the moving communities reinforces such a bridging role, along with language commonality and migrants’ human capital. Focusing on Spain, as a country that hosted an intense process of migration over the past two decades, patent data are combined with national data on residents and electors abroad and a gravity model is applied to the co-inventorship between Spanish provinces (NUTS-3 regions) and a number of foreign countries. Both immigrants and emigrants affect the kind of innovation networking at stake. The social capital of both the moving and the hosting communities actually moderates this impact positively. The effect of migration is stronger for more skilled migrants and with respect to non-Spanish-speaking countries, pointing to a language-bridging role of migrants. Policy implications are drawn accordingly.

Whilst contemporary literature indicates that the business environment (BE) impacts almost all entrepreneurial activities, there are indications that the unique business and institutional setting in Africa (with its challenges and opportunities) and the nature of SMEs (their strengths and weaknesses), among other factors, lead to the context-specific impact of regulations on the performance of African SMEs. Using regressions and propensity score matching methods on a panel of 39,461 firm observations (27 African countries) from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, we unearthed evidence to suggest that whilst enabling tax administration and business licensing regulations improve SMEs’ performance, trade facilitation impedes African SMEs’ performance. Furthermore, the institutional context of competition (from foreign firms) worsens trade facilitation’s negative impact on African SMEs’ performance. These findings suggest a fine-tuning of BE regulations in African countries. Trade facilitation, for example, must be carefully thought through and implemented in a way to benefit SMEs.

In the literature on regional innovation systems, one strand of study has identified a number of gaps that limit the efficiency and effectiveness of regional innovation systems, including so-called ‘managerial gaps’, ‘structural holes’, ‘innovation gaps’, and ‘valleys of death’. Our project aims to demonstrate how social capital, in a creative tension that balances bonding and bridging elements, may contribute to reducing these specific gaps identified in the regional innovation systems literature. This perspective is analysed within a particular context: the Mondragon Cooperative Group in the Basque Country.

Echoing previous contributions on ‘STI and DUI innovation modes’ (science and technology-based innovation, and innovation based on learning-by-doing, by-using and by-interacting), this study discusses their role in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ability to develop novel products. In particular, the RTH model (based on Research, Technology and Human Resource Management) is proposed so as to describe the most effective approach taken by innovative SMEs. On these bases, the STI and DUI modes are changed for a more empirical identification of business innovation modes centred on differentiating among three separate drivers of innovation: Research (R), non- research and development (R&D) Technology (T) and Human Resource management (HRM). The study focuses on analysing how different drivers of innovation can be effectively aggregated within a firm to support its ability to produce innovation. We propose a new research instrument – RTH model – and test on a sample of SMEs in the ICT sphere that operates in a technology-follower country in transition, Belarus. The results of the econometric analyses show insightful outcomes, that is, the novelty of product innovation is more sensitive to the Technology and HRM drivers than to the Research driver.