This paper analyses whether the entrepreneurial innovation capability of firms is stimulated through the relationship established with external partners. The literature review on innovation makes use of two approaches: (1) systemic and (2) networks and interorganisational relationships. The theoretical approach developed supports the basic idea that innovation is an evolutionary, nonlinear and interactive process established between the firm and the environment. Together with the firm's assets, a wide range of agents contribute towards acquiring external resources, knowledge and information essential for developing productive and innovative activities. The database was obtained through the Community Innovation Survey II (CIS II) coordinated by EUROSTAT. Relationships with science partners have a crucial role in promoting cooperation in innovative practices and stimulate the propensity to make advances at the level of product innovation.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to better understand whether firm cooperation and absorptive capacity foster success in seeking public financial support for innovation activities and, by doing so, how they contribute to innovation output.Design/methodology/approach: The authors therefore extend the existing literature focusing on the effects of cooperation and absorptive capacity on specific public financial support for innovation activities in Portuguese firms from local or regional government, central administration and the European Union by using available data from the Community Innovation Survey CIS 2010 and the application of logistic regression models. The empirical analysis enabled a better understanding of the positive relationship of the variables that determine the form of public financial support in the integration of incentives within firms to stimulate innovation.Findings: Therefore, as the level of absorptive capacity in Portuguese firms increases, so does the demand for benefits from public financial support to stimulate innovation from the European Union also increases. The same analysis, now considering the determinant cooperation, notes the positive effects of institutional sources of information and cooperation, in the propensity for seeking public financial incentives from the Central Administration and the European Union. As for internal information and cooperation sources, they are positively related to the integration of incentive measures from the local or Regional Administration and Central Administration.Originality/value: The paper presents results that allow us to propose some suggestions that both the firms and those responsible for the implementation of public policies can undertake to increment innovation performance.

The empiric literature regarding on technological innovation suggests that cooperation has a highly positive effect on the performance of firms’ technological innovation, however, very little is known about its impact on the organizational innovation. To fill this gap, the present study aims to analyze the impact of the external relationships with business and science partners about the capacity of firms to introduce organizational innovation. To reach the objective proposed, a quantitative investigation was chosen, based on a sample of 684 firms. Data were obtained through the inquiry CIS 2010 – Community Innovation Survey 2010. There came evident the external relationships established with business partners and with science partners on the performance of organizational innovation of the firms.This study contributes for the development of the existent theory when analyzing the external relationships of firms and the innovating development on the organizational level, considering that the investigation that has been carried out about innovation has been focused, in general, on the technological innovation

Purpose: This paper aims to analyses barriers as a determinant of ongoing or abandoned innovation activities. The literature exploits barriers as the nature of innovation and its influence on firm’s. The main focus is the Portuguese SMEs and the impacts that act as barriers in the development of innovation activities. Design/methodology/approach: The database was obtained through the Community Innovation Survey 2010 (CIS 2010) that was coordinated by EUROSTAT. In this sense, a logistic regression model is proposed, which makes it possible to analyse the relations between three or more variables, depending on whether the relationship is one of dependence or interdependence, thus allowing the application of distinct statistical techniques, using 6,160 firms Findings: There are several sources of information that are associated with the development of innovation projects. Practical implications: The importance of barriers to the development of innovation activities, as well as it being a decisive factor in the impediment to and abandon of the same, was noted. Originality/value: This study also demonstrated that each case is different and that a barrier in one firm can at the same time be a window of opportunity for another firm.