R&D internationalization in medium-sized firms: The moderating role of knowledge management in enhancing innovation performances

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between SMEs’ R&D internationalization and their innovation outcomes. Most studies on the topic focused on large multinational companies (MNCs), leaving several gaps in the literature with regard to SMEs. Using data from 106 Italian SMEs we performed an OLS regression analysis to test and find evidence of a positive linear relationship between SME’s R&D internationalization and innovation performance. In addition, we found that this relationship is positively moderated by knowledge management (KM) orientation. Main contributions are directed to the empirical test of the aforementioned relationships in a specific under developed research area, i.e. non-high tech SMEs, thus highlighting the positive effect of foreign acquisition of diverse cross-cultural knowledge on innovation. Moreover, KM orientation has been found to amplify this effect in the context of SMEs, due to a better management and integration of key internal and external knowledge.