Prevalent but overlooked: the importance of informal knowledge sourcing for business innovation and performance

Purpose While much research explores firm knowledge sourcing for innovation, the focus is skewed towards formal knowledge sourcing activities. This study aims to explore the relationships between informal knowledge sourcing activities, innovation outputs and performance outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on data from a regional Australian innovation census of 1,965 businesses. Findings Results show that informal external and internal knowledge sourcing activities have an effect on innovation and performance. Informal, external knowledge sourcing intensity shows a positive and significant effect on process, organisational, marketing and service innovation. Informal external and internal knowledge sourcing activities show positive significant effects on range of innovation performance outcomes. Originality/value This study contributes new, cross-industry insights for research, measurement and theory on the impacts of informal knowledge sourcing for different types of innovation, such as those in business practices and workplace organisation, as well as for innovations in products and production processes. The analysis includes a wider range of innovation outcome measures than many empirical studies, which tend to focus on product and process innovation outcomes only.