The effects of knowledge management on innovative success – An empirical analysis of German firms

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of knowledge management on the innovation success of firms in Germany. We look at innovative firms in the period from 2000 to 2002 taken from the Mannheim Innovation Panel and estimate the effect of collaborative measures of knowledge management on the immediate economic success of different types of innovations. The results of our matching analysis reveal that firms which apply knowledge management perform better in terms of higher-than-average shares of turnover with innovative products compared to their twins. We do not find a significant effect of knowledge management on the share of cost reductions with process innovation.

• Analysis of the effects of knowledge management (KM) on the innovation success of firms in Germany.
• Use matching procedure to estimate effect of collaborative KM on economic success of innovations.
• Innovative firms applying KM exhibit higher-than-average shares of turnover with innovative products.
• No significant effect of KM on the share of cost reductions with process innovation.