Product innovation and firm growth: evidence from the integrated circuit industry

Applied research on growth and innovation would seem to suggest that successful innovations do not enhance firm expansion significantly. This article tests the hypothesis that the level of observation typical of applied research hampers the identification of a significant association between innovation and sales growth rates. Exploiting a unique data set, we find that incremental product innovations commercialized in the immediate past positively affect the revenue streams of specialized business units operating in dynamic environments. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved.