End-user collaboration for process innovation in services: The role of internal resources

This paper focuses on how to improve process innovation in service
sectors. To do so, we analyse how the interplay of external knowledge
sources (specifically, the intensity of end-user collaboration and the
breadth of external collaboration) and the firm's internal resources
impact process innovation at the firm level. Survey data from 166
Information Technology Services firms provide the empirical data, which
is tested using the partial least squares structural equation model. Our
results demonstrate that benefits from collaboration are not automatic,
as the firm's commitment of internal resources fully mediates the impact
of the intensity of end-user collaboration and breadth of external
collaboration on process innovation. Thus, internal resources become
critical to make effective use of the knowledge residing both internally
and externally, and key managerial practices that enable a firm to
extract benefits from external collaboration are identified.

Keywords: end-user collaboration; external knowledge sources; internal
resources; process innovation; service industry