The objective of this article is to compare companies with and without R & D departments in terms of the combination of resources for innovation in the Colombian manufacturing industry. We therefore analyze the relationships between variables at the individual, group and organizational levels and organizational fields as well as innovative performance from the stand-point of organizational behavior, using information from the Second Survey of Technological Development (Segunda Encuesta de Desarrollo Tecnologico - EDIT II) of Colombia. We find a set of firms with R & D departments that show a high degree of innovation associated with the defined variables in terms of inter-organizational networks, organizational culture, training, number of people with doctorates employed and the size of the firms.