The importance of innovation in international textile firms Natalia Vila and Ines Kuster University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Abstract Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse the importance of innovation for firms involved in international marketing. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 154 general managers in the textile sector were interviewed on two main groups of questions: entry forms when going abroad; and innovative decisions in products, strategies, processes, and markets. Univariate (ANOVA) and multivariate (discriminant analysis) methods were used. Findings – The present results have demonstrated that not all types of innovation dimensions are required to find new clients in new countries. Research limitations/implications – This study has been based on a mature sector, as is the textile sector in Spain. The results obtained should be understood in this framework. Practical implications – These results should lead managers to adopt sophisticated entry modes (higher internationalisation degrees), even if they are still young enterprises, without new state of the art products, and without new market demands. Originality/value – This paper examines whether more innovative and less innovative enterprises correspond to high internationalised and less internationalised enterprises. This means, in line with Jeong, that the standarisation principles supported by Levvit should be questioned, given that innovations are in fact prometed when yo go abroad. Keywords Textile industry, Innovation, Managers Paper type Research paper Introduction Most internationalisation theories are rooted in industrial organisation and the economy and have developed spectacularly since the 1970s with the growth in North American multinational investment in Europe and exports by small European enterprises to neighbouring countries (Axinn and Matthyssens, 2002). Internationalisation is traditionally viewed as a “process through which a firm moves from operating solely in its domestic marketplace to international markets” (Javalgi et al., 2003, p. 185). Moore et al. (2000) point to various explanations for this internationalisation process and state that the first decision to be taken hinges on the degree of homogeneity/differentiation required in an international expansion strategy. In terms of the differentiation strategy, firms start to think about innovation because they want to offer different things in different markets, and this is the essence of the innovation framework. Despite the fact that innovation has been a burning topic in professional and academic fields, there is still room for further exploration of the applicability of internationalisation theory to innovation as both concepts seem to be The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm This paper has been financed by the Project CTIDA 2002/156, Oficina Ciencia y Tecnologı ´a (Generalitat Valenciana). The importance of innovation 17 Received February 2005 Revised September 2005 and January 2006 European Journal of Marketing Vol. 41 No. 1/2, 2007 pp. 17-36 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0309-0566 DOI 10.1108/03090560710718094