Digital product innovations: The impact of inter-firm collaboration and managers’ attitudes

Although digital innovation is increasingly important for all types of firms, studies of the drivers of digital innovation rarely cover all sectors. Furthermore, organisational and individual factors are often overlooked. To address these gaps, we use data from a purpose-built cross-industry survey of 1,201 firms in Norway to examine how various types of collaborations and managers attitudes toward them shape firms’ achievement of digital product innovation. We find that collaborations with suppliers, consultants, and universities and research institutes, and the presence of open-minded managers, are positively associated with a firm’s likelihood of digital product innovation. Although much attention has been given to customer relationships, upstream sources of knowledge from suppliers, consultants, and universities and research institutes are also important to strengthen firms’ capacities for digital product innovation. Furthermore, we go beyond examining the existence of partnerships to show that manager’s attitudes towards collaboration also matter.