Technological, Marketing and Complementary Competencies Driving Innovative Performance of Slovenian Manufacturing Firms

The paper discusses innovative performance of firms and underlying competencies, namely technological, marketing and complementary. Competencies are regarded as networks of various capabilities and other firm assets and can be used for cross-industry comparisons. The study is based on a survey carried out among 50 established Slovenian manufacturing companies addressing competencies which they employ in their 65 distinct product lines. Three distinct segments of firms are established based on innovative performance indicators. Used are techniques of multivariate statistics, including cluster analysis and analysis of variance. The results imply that the most innovative firms simultaneously develop technological, marketing and complementary competencies. The implications of our findings are valuable to the firms aligning their competencies with their strategy, as well as to policy makers in technology following countries.