Knowledge sources complementarities in Argentina´s production networks

Abstract

The access to different knowledge sources is a key aspect for innovative firms and the characteristics of production networks in which firms are involved may condition the relative importance of those sources. Although internationalization is a natural process for the development of production networks also in emerging economies, in this paper we show that the connections within the network and inside the domestic system are not negligible for improving firms? innovation results. The empirical analysis of cross-sectional firm level data of two Argentinean production networks comprises both indirect and direct complementarity tests, these based on data from a specific survey on the automotive and iron-steel networks. The results provide evidence for significant complementarities between internal and external sources of knowledge while the relevance of foreign sources is not absolutely confirmed, aspects that lead to implications for the capabilities building process of developing contexts.