Rethinking the role of external collaboration in product innovation

Investigating the associations between inter-organisational relationship- and innovation-oriented antecedents and consequences of cooperative multiple stakeholder product innovation and their effects on overall firm performance of Australian manufacturing firms, we found that involving external stakeholders in product innovation indirectly enhanced the quality of stakeholder relationships, but did not predict market- or technical-based product innovation outcomes as hypothesised. The key driver of overall firm performance was market-driven product innovation performance, which was predicted by product innovation strategy and product innovation spending. Our results suggest the need for simultaneous consideration of product innovation- and multiple external stakeholder-based strategic orientations in enhancing business success.