
Firms that open up their organizational boundaries and access valuable external sources of knowledge can create new opportunities for innovation. However, little is known about this conjecture in the business-to-business (B-to-B) service context: whether B-to-B service firms utilize external knowledge and ideas for innovation, and if so, which types of partners they collaborate with in their innovation activities. This research is a step toward filling this void. Tobit regression analysis on secondary data was performed using various types of external partners as sources of innovation to determine the innovation performance of transportation and logistics service firms. The results show that customers, suppliers, and competitors (in descending order) contribute to service improvement, and customers contribute to the development of services that are new to the firm. In contrast, the use of universities and consultants as sources of innovation does not seem to immediately affect innovation performance in the transportation and logistics service industry.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 40 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
