The influence of information sharing and collaboration on the extent of innovation activities

In the present day, developed economies that function on the basis of knowledge indicate better economic performance. Many studies have shown that one prerequisite for economic growth is the availability of information and new findings - when the conditions of creativity and high technology are also present (not only for companies but also for regions and entire economies). Economic players face ever increasing pressure to find these resources while respecting restricting conditions such as time (innovation must be introduced in the market very quickly) and cost. Another frequently emphasized prerequisite is the effectiveness with which the factors of production are used - in addition to the ability to cooperate with other market players or partners in business networks. Therefore, this paper's goal is to analyze how the availability of information, information sharing and cooperation influence the extent of innovation activities in enterprises. The analysis was conducted by using CIS data for Germany, Slovenia, Portugal and Bulgaria in years 2010-2012. The results indicate that companies try to obtain information from various partners as well as from documents and use them to create innovations. The most frequently used sources of information are different within countries according to their innovation performance. For our analyses, own multiple linear regression models were used.