Implikationen unterschiedlicher Ausgangs- bzw. Rahmenbedingungen auf das Innovationsverhalten von neugegruendeten und etablierten Unternehmen

For newly-founded and established firms different initial or prevailing conditions apply in the innovation process. Against this background, the question arises as to what implications this has for a firm's innovation behaviour and to what extent both groups of companies differ significantly from each other as regards internal and environment-related influences. The present contribution takes this as its starting point. With the aid of discrimination analysis it is established which variables can be drawn on to describe significant group differences. Empirical investigations show clear differences in innovation behaviour between start up firms and incumbent firms. Both groups of companies differ most greatly in resource input during the R&D and innovation phase. The variables, ‚personnel expenditure per employee', ‚investment expenditure per employee', ‚R&D employment intensity'and ‚innovation expenditure per employee in the launch phase' display the highest discrimination coefficients. But also the sales share of new products as an indicator of the firm's innovation output is characterized by a significant separatory power. Environmental factors of innovation behaviour, on the other hand, (technological level of the industry, R&D cooperation behaviour) possess minor discriminatory significance.