| Abstract: | It is widely recognized that the recent economic crisis in Greece is due not only to excessive
government spending and tax evasion, but also to the low competitiveness of its economy.
Innovation has become of critical importance for the competitiveness of firms, sectors and
countries in the modern economy. This paper presents an empirical study of the ‘new’
innovation determinants based on information and communication technologies (ICT)
and also of the ‘traditional’ innovation determinants in the Greek economy. In particular,
it investigates the impact of three different ICT (internal information systems (IS), e-sales
and e-procurements) and also of six important traditional innovation determinants
identified by previous relevant research (four ‘external’ ones—demand expectation, price
and non-price competition, market concentration—and two ‘internal’ ones—investment
in research and development (R&D) and firm size), on the innovation performance of
Greek firms. It is based on firm-level data collected through a survey of 271 Greek firms
before the start of the economic crisis, which have been used for the estimation of regression
models. It is concluded that in the Greek ‘innovation-averse’ national context
(characterized by low level of innovation and uncertainty avoidance culture) none of
the examined external (market-related) traditional innovation determinants has an
impact on product or process innovation of firms, while on the contrary the internal ones,
R&Dexpenditure per employee and size, affect positively both. Furthermore, the examined
new technologies seem to be important drivers of innovation: it is concluded that the
internal IS have a positive impact on both product and process innovation, the e-sales only
on process innovation, but the e-procurement on none. Our results indicate the high
potential of ICTas innovation drivers even in such innovation-averse and lower economic
development contexts, which, however, vary between different types of ICT. |
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Greek