ABSTRACT
According to Gruber and Henkel (2006), the key innovation challenges that enterprises face are liabilities associated with their age and size. In this regard, small new enterprises typically start with few resources (e.g. personnel and financial). A lack of financial resources limits the ability of small new enterprises to withstand unfavorable business conditions and makes them vulnerable to even minor inefficiencies (Carson, 1985). Therefore, a growing number of enterprises are starting to implement innovation practices in which they employ both internal/external flows of knowledge in order to explore/exploit innovation in collaboration with several agents (Yamin and Otto, 2004). The ability to develop innovation practices depends on their strategies for innovation (exploratory or exploitative), which in turn determine the available stock of innovation sources (van de Vrande et al., 2009).
