Innovation activities in high-technology industries such as semiconductors, biotechnology or electronic design automation (EDA) are diverse and driven by a variety of determinants. This, together with the cumulative and rapid nature of innovation in those industries, makes innovation management a very challenging task (Yoshikawa, 2003 ). For example, in the semiconductor industry, levels of research and development (R&D) input are strongly affected by the highly cyclical nature of the industry, which experienced its most severe downturn in 2000 and 2001. R&D expenditure dropped signifi cantly in this period and has not recovered so far. In parallel, there is also evidence of innovation-related acquisition activity in the industry (Bloningen and Taylor, 2000 ; Sanchanta, 2007).