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External search strategies remain ineffective without the ability of the firm to communicate and share internally what has been absorbed from the environment. However, most of the literature remains silent on the advantages (and disadvantages) firms may get when they combine internal integration mechanisms and innovative management practices into their efforts to search for external knowledge inflows with the aim of product innovation. To bridge this gap, this work has investigated the external knowledge search practices firms deploy to innovate their products, exploring the relationships among the use of such practices, some internal organizational characteristics and innovation performance. In so doing, the paper raises two key findings. First, there is a complementarity between the use of search practices and practices used to facilitate horizontal cross-functional integration and to encourage, address and …