Dyadic Relationships for Collaborative Innovation: Lessons from the Danish Wind Industry

Abstract

Local and global businesses need to innovate otherwise they perish. Simply stated, companies need to open their doors to external partners to combine internal and external ideas for achieving values. However, establishing collaborative innovations with external partners in supply networks is not an easy task to execute for managers. This study examines different dyadic relationships within the Danish wind industry to highlight facilitators and barriers of such collaborations. Our data revealed that high vertical integration during the last two decades in the industry has limited the suppliers’ R&D competencies. Additionally, more vertical complexity in upstream supply is required for involving suppliers in other tiers than the first one in innovation projects. Low order volume is another barrier for taking advantage of suppliers’ R&D competencies as they prefer to allocate more resources to innovation projects in other industries with higher order volumes such as automotive industry. Other barriers for establishing collaborative innovations in the industry are information leakage, IPRs, intra-organizational communication, and lack of commitment.