| Abstract: | It is widely recognised that innovation is of critical importance for the competitiveness and growth of firms, sectors and countries, so understanding its determinants is a critical research question. Beyond the ‘traditional’ innovation determinants identified by previous relevant research, there has been extensive theoretical literature on the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) to drive innovation; however limited empirical investigation of it has been conducted. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the impact of three different ICT (internal information systems (IS), e-sales and e-procurements), and also - for comparison purposes – of four important ‘traditional’ innovation determinants (demand expectation, price and non-price competition, market concentration), on the innovation performance of Greek firms. It is based on firm-level data collected through a survey of 271 Greek firms. The results show that in the Greek ‘innovation averse’ national context (characterised by low level of innovation and uncertainly avoidance culture), though none of the examined ‘traditional’ innovation determinants has an impact on product and process innovation of firms, the internal IS have a strong positive impact on both product and process innovation, and the e-sales only on process innovation; on the contrary, e-procurement is not a driver of innovation. Our results indicate the high potential of ICT as innovation driver even in innovation averse contexts, which however varies between different types of ICT. |
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Greek