Failed and successful innovations: The role of geographic proximity and international diversity of partners in technological collaboration
研究了合作伙伴的地理邻近性和国际多样性如何影响创新项目的成败，发现邻近合作更利于成功，而高国际多样性会增加失败风险。
We aim to clarify the role of research partnerships on the success and failure of innovation projects by examining the geographic proximity and diversity of partners. First, we argue that collaboration with geographically near partners will contribute relatively more to innovation success than it does to innovation failure, while collaboration with geographically distant partners will contribute relatively more to innovation failure than it does to innovation success. Second, we postulate that lower levels of international diversity will contribute relatively more to innovation success than it does to innovation failure, while higher levels of international diversity will contribute relatively more to innovation failure than it does to innovation success. Using a large dataset of firms for the period 2008–2013, we perform a joint analysis of failed and successful innovations. Our empirical findings support our theoretical arguments. Our results highlight the relevance of studying both failed and successful innovations and the importance of knowing their determinants to manage the innovation process successfully. Moreover, our findings should alert managers to the importance of geographic location when choosing collaboration partners. It is noteworthy that beyond a certain threshold, international diversity begins to act as a brake on innovation success and to increase the likelihood of failure.