Firms without research and development (R&D) have frequently been neglected by mainstream innovation research. The small number of existing studies provides only fragmented and sometimes even contradictory findings, because they assume that non-R&D-performing firms show a  “typical”, homogeneous innovation pattern. Oliver Som challenges this assumption. Based on current firm-level data of the German  industry, he provides pioneer quantitative evidence of five heterogeneous innovation patterns of non-R&D-performers. The findings impressively underline the need for future innovation research, -management and -policy to extend their view on innovation beyond the scope of R&D.