Vocational Education and Innovation

The impact of vocational education on firms’ innovation capability is a controversial topic in the scientific literature. Various studies describe vocational education as firm-specific and strongly focused on established technologies. Thus, researchers typically do not expect vocational education to positively impact innovation. These studies see vocational education as an obstacle to developing new and improved products and processes. However, certain kinds of vocational education, for example, vocational education and training (VET) in Germany and Switzerland, cover general knowledge and regularly include new technologies. This type of vocational education supports the generation of innovation in firms.

The focal points of this research include the analysis of vocational education systems, in general, and the analysis of firms as providers of vocational education, in particular. Thereby the focus is on the inclusion of vocational education in the innovation processes of firms.

Selected Publications and Work in Progress

Rupietta, C., & Backes-Gellner, U. (2019). Combining knowledge stock and knowledge flow to generate superior incremental innovation performance— Evidence from Swiss manufacturing. Journal of Business Research, 94, 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.04.003 

Rupietta, C., & Backes-Gellner, U. (2019). How firms’ participation in apprenticeship training fosters knowledge diffusion and innovation. Journal of Business Economics, 89(5), 569–597. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-018-0924-6 

Rupietta, C., Meuer, J., & Backes-Gellner, U. (2021). How do apprentices moderate the influence of organizational innovation on the technological innovation process? Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40461-020-00107-7