Exploring the nexus between innovation strategy and knowledge sources configurations: An empirical analysis of the South African manufacturing sector.

This paper proposes that firms’ use of a variety of internal and external knowledge sources results from strategic choices that, in the end, shape their performance. This link between innovation strategy and configurations of knowledge sources is logical, but only to a certain extent empirically studied. This study explores the relationship between product innovation strategy and the use of knowledge sources by analyzing data collected from 164 innovators in the South African manufacturing sector. Applying latent class cluster analysis and multinomial logistic regression, the results indicate that a reactive product innovation strategy is linked to the intense use of internal and external knowledge resources. Furthermore, these firms demonstrate a medium to high level of absorptive capacity, which is crucial for recognizing and combining both knowledge sources. The study recommends that firms should develop more balanced knowledge networks that combine their internal expertise with external knowledge obtained from their inter-organizational networks.