Application of a sectoral taxonomy to explore contingencies in the theory of determinants of innovation

Pavitt (1984) identified different patterns of technological change (technological trajectories) in four categories of industrial firms. This paper tests the applicability of Pavitt's model for the development of a contingency approach on the determinants of technological innovation. An empirical test in a sample of 105 Greek companies, showed that firms in different trajectories of Pavitt's taxonomy had differences in the rate of technological innovation. 'Specialised suppliers' and 'science-based' firms were found to have higher rates of innovation than 'supplier dominated' and 'scale intensive' ones. Most importantly, different variables proved to be significantly associated with innovation for each category of firms: innovation for 'supplier dominated' firms was related with the market environment, acquisition of information, technology strategy, risk attitude and internal communication. For 'scale intensive' firms the important determinants were related with the ability to raise funding and the education of personnel. For 'specialised suppliers' innovation was associated with high growth rate and training and incentives offered to the employees to contribute towards innovation. Science-based firms depended upon technical and general qualifications of personnel, licensing and customer feedback. The application of Pavitt's model can explain the apparent problem of inconsistent results in the research on the determinants of technological innovation.