An Integrative Approach to Innovation Network Orchestration

Abstract

This paper builds on the view that network members should not be conceptualized as entities that merely respond to inducements and constraints arising from the network structure. As part of an emergent research stream that acknowledges the essential structure-player duality in building and evolving innovation networks, this paper examines how firms orchestrate different types of innovation networks. The paper argues that different innovation network structures need to be matched with different player actions, i.e. orchestration processes. Towards this purpose, the paper distinguishes among three innovation network types: research networks, application networks, and dominant design networks. Those networks are analyzed based on their structural, relational, and community composition and subsequently matched to the orchestration processes. Furthermore, I propose that each innovation network has a distinctive orchestration anchor, a network-level concept, that that guides and prioritizes the network orchestration processes for the different innovation network types.