On the role of innovation in the generation of value-added trade opportunities

Innovation and exports are closely related concepts that are frequently explored in the academic literature, particularly in the fields of economics, business strategy, and intellectual property management. The purpose of this paper is to explore these concepts via two complementary approaches. First, while the relationship between innovation and exports is well established, the specific contributions of different stages of innovation remain underexplored. We therefore use the principle of relatedness and examine how different stages of innovation—namely technology, market, and design activities—are related to export specialisation. The results show that technology- and market-related capabilities serve as key drivers of new export specialisation. Second, we conducted an in-depth survey of Greek inventors with the aim to identify the motives, challenges and opportunities they face throughout the complex process of patenting and valorisation. The study reveals significant differences in the patenting motivations of Greek inventors according to their affiliation. Independent inventors and university-affiliated researchers see patents primarily as tools for commercialisation, exploiting them through licensing or sales. In contrast, large companies focus on strategic patenting to protect products and block competitors.