Does technological diversification promote innovation?

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of technological diversity on innovative activity at the firm level. The empirical study on a panel of European R&D active companies shows that both R&D intensity and patents increase with the degree of technological diversification of the firm. Possible explanations are that, on the one hand, a firm that diversifies its technology can receive more spillovers from other (related) technological fields. On the other hand, diversification can reduce the risk from technological investments and it creates incentives to spend more on R&D. The paper provides empirical evidence relevant to the diversity-specialization innovation debate.