Firms' search for external knowledge is one aspect of knowledge integration in the innovation process. The literature … search balance reflecting the heterogeneity of a firm's knowledge base. Results from German Community Innovation Survey data … has investigated innovation and the breadth of search in different information channels. We introduce the concept of …

The firms that compete with one another in terms of innovation do not necessarily coincide with the relevant … competitors on pre-innovation product markets. As a consequence, the findings about the ambiguous interrelation between (product …) market concentration and innovation cannot be transferred one-to-one to the interrelationship between innovation competition …