Orchestrating Innovation Networks: A Dual Network-Field Perspective

Abstract

The advent of the digital age has fueled the networked aspect of innovation at an unprecedented scale. In this paper, we examine how organizations orchestrate different types of innovation networks to achieve superior outcomes. We argue that innovation networks are embedded in institutional fields, which in turn imprint those networks with a constellation of beliefs and practices that network actors hold in common. As such, network orchestration is contextualized within the relational and institutional settings within which it takes place. We distinguish among three innovation network types along the exploration-exploitation continuum: research networks, application networks, and dominant design networks. We then analyze the three innovation networks in terms of both their network and field attributes and highlight the corresponding variance of orchestration processes. Importantly, we propose that each innovation network has a distinctive orchestration anchor, a field-level concept, that guides and prioritizes the network orchestration processes for different innovation networks.