Fierce competition in a globalized market has made it extremely important for companies to acquire competitive advantages in order to achieve consumer preference. One of the ways to obtain such an advantage in relation to competitors is through differentiation. To this end, organizations must engage in their innovation activities. However, generating innovation is an arduous task to be done in isolation and for this reason some companies have organized themselves into clusters (in Brazil known as local productive arrangements - APL) to facilitate the search for innovation, productivity and better financial results. In this perspective, the objective of this research is to compare the productivity and performance of product innovation, of Brazilian companies inserted or not in clusters, considering the implemented internal and external R&D strategies. Through an Structural Equation Modelling, using the multigroup technique, it was possible to obtain results that support the positive effect of internal and external R&D in the innovation performance, in addition to supporting the hypothesis that innovation performance, regardless of whether or not inserted in a cluster, positively impacts the productivity of companies. It was concluded, according to the results, the increase in the intensity of R&D, both internal and external, are fundamental to increase the firm s innovation performance. This in turn, the higher it is, the greater the productivity of the firm. On the other hand, the moderating effect of absorptive capacity proved beneficial only for companies in a cluster.