| Summary: | The paper reports the results of an empirical study of a sample of Portuguese producers of equipment goods. The information collected for this study was based on case studies of nineteen firms. The unit of analysis was the firm. The information was obtained during personal interviews with the owner/manager of the firm or with a Director, following a semi-structured questionnaire. It was based on SAPPHO-type matched pair methodology. The sample consisted of two groups: the “innovative group” and the "average group". It is a procedure equivalent to the experimental group (innovative) and the control group (average) methodology adopted in the social sciences. The firms were matched according to a set of criteria. The objective was to see if common behavioural patterns within the groups and different behavioural patterns between the groups could be discerned that in turn could point out regularities. The inquiry looked at several functions of the firm. After analysis it come out that there were indeed differences between the two groups of firms and that the variables which showed more variability between the two groups could be grouped according to five broad categories, namely: tangibles (variables related to tangible assets of the firm), intangibles (variables related to intangible assets of the firm), management (variables related to management styles of the firm), external stimuli (variables related to external contingencies) and external sources of knowledge (variables related to external sources of knowledge). Explanations for the differences in each broad category are given based on concepts such as demand-pull and technology-push theories, firm’s absorptive capacity, public and tacit knowledge, appropriability, human capital and social networks. Relying and building on short but hopefully elucidative descriptions of the case studies, the paper tries to explain the variation in innovation capacity making use of the chain-linked model of innovation. It builds on this model and, based on an extension of it, and inspired on evolutionary theories of technical change, it proposes a conceptual framework that contributes to explain the empirical findings.
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