The impact of investments in innovation practices on competitive advantage

In an increasingly competitive environment, technical innovation in products and processes is by a vast number of manufacturing companies regarded as one of the most powerful enablers to differentiate from competitors and achieve competitive advantage. Accordingly, some manufacturing companies spend significant amounts of investments in innovation projects. In this paper, we examine the relationship between financial investments in innovation practices and competitive advantage. The results show that there is not a significant correlation between both constructs and higher financial investments do not necessarily lead to an increased competitive advantage.