Knowledge Inflows Research Articles

Varieties of corporate innovation systems and their interplay with global and national systems: Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft’s strategies to produce and appropriate artificial intelligence

The widely accepted globalization of innovation entails two interrelated undertheorized aspects: (1) the capacity of certain firms to orchestrate transnational innovation systems appropriating successful results, which some have explained with the concept of corporate innovation systems (CIS), and (2) the co-existence of such globalization with those CIS and national innovation systems. I address these matters analysing US Big Tech artificial intelligence (AI) CIS showing that they combine multiple mechanisms to co-produce and appropriate AI. I propose ‘frenemy’ to describe Microsoft’s strategy because many Chinese organizations and even direct competitors integrate its CIS. ‘University’ symbolises Google’s strategy, given its focus on fundamental AI, its central place in the AI research field and appropriation mechanisms that are not translating into clear business advantages. ‘Secrecy’ defines Amazon’s strategy, maximizing knowledge inflows while minimizing outflows. Facebook, with the narrowest AI CIS, exhibits an ‘application-centred’ strategy. Ultimately, this paper contributes to understanding the multiple mechanisms used by leading corporations for controlling and shaping frontier transnational knowledge production and appropriation. By doing so, it advances our knowledge of the interplay between different innovation spheres (national, global and corporate) and highlights the dangers of CIS’s encroachment of national and global systems.

Explicating the factors influencing successful implementation and management of sustainable innovation practices in research intensive organizations

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the factors that contribute to the successful implementation and management of sustainable innovation in research-intensive sectors such as the life sciences industry.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted through a combination of two methods. The first was qualitative interviews of 21 sustainability experts and leaders in the life sciences industry who were responsible for implementing sustainable innovation. They were selected through nonprobabilistic purposive sampling. The second method was thematic content analysis using the MAXQDA software.FindingsThe study identified that successful implementation of sustainable innovation in research-intensive firms begins with the alignment of the executive vision for sustainability with the business objectives of the research-intensive firm. Furthermore, implementation of sustainability practices is identified as a function of organizational reconfigurations that facilitate purposeful inflow and outflow of ideas and knowledge between internal firm resources and external stakeholders, anchored by the objectives of the research-intensive firm.Research limitations/implicationsThe study explicated factors only within life sciences industry based on qualitative interviews. The study offers scope for cross-sector quantitative evaluation.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first studies to systematically delineate the underlying factors that govern successful implementation of sustainable innovation in research-intensive industries, through integration of the resource-based view and stakeholder theory and thereby provide a framework for research-intensive organizations to implement sustainable innovation practices.

Open innovation networks: a driver for knowledge mobilisation in schools?

PurposeIn organisational and innovation research, the term “open innovation” refers to the inflow and outflow of knowledge to and from organisations: with open innovation theory suggesting active exchanges of knowledge with external actors leads to the development of exploitable new ideas. In the field of education, however, the exchange of knowledge with external parties represents a paradigm shift. In response, this article presents findings from research design to explore the nature and composition of school innovation networks, and the effects of such these networks on knowledge mobilisation.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on data from a representative random sample of 411 German school leaders. Respondents were asked to detail their engagement in open and closed innovation activity and their school's external collaborations during the last 12 months. A latent class distal outcome model was developed to examine whether different types of collaboration associate with different knowledge mobilisation processes.FindingsThe study findings suggest that schools in Germany mainly use internal knowledge for innovation, with external knowledge exchange taking place on a very limited basis. Knowledge mobilisation varies depending on the innovation network. The authors use the findings to indicate new insights for how schools can further innovate learning and teaching in future.Originality/valueAlthough there is increasing discussion on Professional Learning Networks in schools, the discourse on knowledge mobilisation within educational networks is limited, making concept of open innovation so far completely absent from discourses on school improvement. This paper initiates the population of this new research space.

Interconnected digital twins and the future of digital manufacturing: Insights from a Delphi study

AbstractDigital twins (DTs) are virtual representations of real‐world entities like production assets, processes, or products. They are updated at a defined fidelity and frequency along the entire life cycle from development and engineering over the production or implementation of a product or process until its usage stage. Interconnected digital twins (IDTs) are DTs shared and connected across organizations with the objective to create holistic simulation and decision models of an entire physical system. In this paper, we investigate how IDTs shape future digital manufacturing scenarios and impact innovation management. We present the results of a real‐time Delphi study, analyzing quantitative and qualitative estimates on a set of 24 projections, forecasting the future of digital manufacturing with a projection horizon towards 2030. Using this data and 22 additional use cases of IDTs in manufacturing companies, we present a baseline scenario where our Delphi panel reached a consensus, representing a likely future of digital manufacturing in 2030. By analyzing projections where our expert panels' evaluations vary widely, we identify key design decisions that may impact innovation management along the dimensions of variation, choice, and control in digital manufacturing. We explain how IDTs will impact external knowledge inflows, the emergence and governance of industrial data spaces, and the potential of data‐driven and AI‐enabled applications for prediction and regulation to drive better decision‐making and continuous innovation.

Russia’s participation in economic globalization: new reversal of tendencies

The article analyzes the most important shifts in the indicators of globalization of the world economy. The author attempts to give a retrospective analysis of Russia's participation in international trade, the movement of capital, labor, knowledge and its monetary and settlement relations with the outside world over the past 3 decades. The author comes to the conclusion that the globalization of the Russian economy in the last 3 decades has brought the country a lot of wins and losses, the balance of which was formed in different ways. But 2022 became after the mid-1990s. another turning point in this process and, along with positive changes (acceleration of import substitution), this turning point carries threats, first of all, a reduction in the inflow of knowledge and capital. The turning point in the globalization of the Russian economy that has emerged in recent years and occurred in 2022 is caused mainly by political, not economic reasons.

A Temporal Perspective on Boundary Spanning: Engagement Dynamics and Implications for Knowledge Transfer

This study adopts a temporal perspective to investigate how boundary spanners can increase the inflow of external knowledge by engaging with both external and internal parties. We add to prior work on knowledge transfer by shifting the focus from engagement levels to investigating engagement dynamics, especially the degree of switching between external and internal engagement across consecutive time periods. Drawing from a cognitive perspective, we argue that switching strongly between engagement types is associated with a segmented knowledge structure that enables quick and efficient categorical processing when knowledge can simply be “channeled” from source to recipient units. In contrast, weak or no switching is associated with a blended knowledge structure and more reflective processing, which is particularly helpful when knowledge transfer requires more translation and transformation. Correspondingly, we adopt a contingency perspective and theorize that the cognitive advantages associated with stronger versus weaker switching weigh differently, contingent on the stickiness of knowledge to be transferred and the nature of boundary-spanning activities that vary in importance over time. Fixed effects models of eight waves of original survey data reveal that, in line with our theorizing, the association between switching and knowledge transfer becomes increasingly negative (1) the more boundary spanners access knowledge that is transspecialist in nature, (2) the greater the organizational distance between source and recipient units, and (3) in later phases of the boundary-spanning process. Funding: This work was supported by the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research–Competence Center for Research in Energy, Society and Transition (SCCER CREST) [Grant 1155000154]. The work was also financially supported by a seed grant from the Bits and Watts Initiative within the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1677 .

Digital units and digital innovation: Balancing fluidity and stability for the Creation, Conversion, and Dissemination of sticky knowledge

The creation and dissemination of knowledge is critical for enabling digital innovation in firms. Yet, many digital units fail to do so. We analyze multiple interviews with functional experts and digital unit members from eight firms to explore how digital units enable organizational digital transformation. Findings emphasize that strong structural separation and poor strategizing of the digital unit solidify existing schemes while not reducing organizational rigidities. This leads to knowledge becoming difficult or sticky to exchange. Successful digital innovation depends on knowledge creation and exchange among experts, non-experts, and managers. Digital units must find and integrate experts from digital technology and functional domains and convert their tacit knowledge into digital innovation requirements. We highlight the need for balance between fluidity and stability, as sticky knowledge conversion requires long-term relationships, while digital innovation demands fluid knowledge inflows and outflows. Thus, we contribute to digital unit research which emphasizes strong cross-functional exchanges.

Board Interlock Tenure and Firm Internationalization

ABSTRACTTo overcome liabilities of foreignness and outsidership during internationalization, board interlock is an effective conduit of foreign knowledge inflows and organizational learning that firms require. We focus on the time dimension of such influence and hypothesize that the tenure of board interlocks with firms with experience in outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in a country promotes the OFDI decision of the focal firm to that particular country. However, such an effect diminishes as the tenure of interlock ties increases. Moreover, as an alternative knowledge source, OFDI knowledge from the focal firm's neighboring region may weaken the baseline effect. Based on longitudinal data of listed firms in China, our empirical results support the hypotheses. This study enriches the literature on social network learning by identifying its temporal nature and the substitution between different knowledge sources. It also demonstrates the importance of rotating a firm's board members, so that knowledge acquisition and learning remain fresh.

Local and vertical networking as drivers of innovativeness and growth in rural businesses

Rural businesses tend to rely on ‘collaborative strategies’ to cope with their adverse locational effects. They are known to sustain strong local ties, and some rural businesses also have ‘pipelines’ to faraway places. While, in general, the effects of ‘networking,’ especially for small rural businesses, have been intensively studied, there still remain important gaps in the literature, which we seek to address: first, ‘networks’ are often conceptualized rather broadly; second, different types of networks have been looked at in isolation; and third, the outcomes of networking remain unclear. Based on a survey of rural microbusinesses in Germany (n = 166), we shed light on the various collaborative strategies that these businesses sustain. We simultaneously estimate the effects of horizontal, vertical and private networks on business growth and innovativeness in a structural equation mode (SEM). This is important because overwhelmingly, rural development programs focus on the establishment of localized business networks alone, neglecting the important knowledge inflows along the vertical business chain. Indeed, our results show that vertical networks and horizontal networks are both strongly associated with innovativeness and subsequently growth. This calls for a balanced strategy to support rural entrepreneurs, combining regional cooperation and integration in extra-regional value chains.

Executives’ Foreign Work Experience and International Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This study conducts a quantitative study on international knowledge spillovers by executives with foreign work experiences at Chinese firms. We use companies’ foreign patent citations as a proxy for international knowledge inflows and match the data with companies’ executives with foreign work experience. The results show that executives with overseas work experience generate international knowledge inflows to the firm; this linkage is influenced by the innovation capacities of the outflow countries and specific positions of the firm’s executives. The knowledge inflows enhance firms’ innovation capacities, as evidenced by an increase in the number of patent applications and citations.

Will goal clarity lower team innovation? A moderated mediation model of inter-team trust

PurposeBased on two dominant perspectives, team climate and knowledge integration, on team innovation, this study aims to propose a moderated mediation model to examine the interactive effect of inter-team trust and goal clarity on team innovation through knowledge inflows into a team. Considering the two perspectives at the same time will provide a more complete picture on our understanding on team innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe research model is tested on 150 retail teams of a large apparel firm. Data are collected from two separate surveys, one to store managers and one to store staff members. Moderation mediation regression analysis is conducted on the survey data.FindingsThe regression analysis identified both a positive direct effect of goal clarity on innovation, and a negative moderating effect of goal clarity on the mediation of knowledge inflows between inter-team trust and innovation. In other words, inter-team trust is positively related to team innovation through knowledge inflows when goal clarity is low.Originality/valueIn this study, the authors identify an indirect and negative role of goal clarity on team innovation, and examine the mechanism and boundary of inter-team trust on team innovation. Managers are advised to foster a trusting environment and be aware of cognitive bias in their teams so that their teams can be more innovative.

National Innovation Demonstration Zone policy and city innovation capability – a quasi-natural experimental analysis

PurposeThis paper aims to understand the relationship between the National Innovation Demonstration Zone policy and city innovation capability and the underlying mechanisms.Design/methodology/approach This paper collects panel data of 283 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2018 for the quasi-natural experiment of National Independent Demonstration Zone (NIDZ) policy. It applies the difference-in-difference (DID) method to study the impact of NIDZ policy on city innovation capability and its underlying mechanism to enhance it.FindingsThe empirical result indicates that the establishment of NIDZ significantly enhances the city's innovation capability, which was verified through a series of robustness tests. The mechanism analysis shows that the NIDZ promote the inflow and outflow of knowledge, which implies NIDZ enhances the innovation capability of cities by facilitating the innovation sharing impact. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the higher degree of digitalization, the higher the government service level induce a more favourable policy effect. The policy effect is more significant in the cities with a higher marketization or the eastern developed region.Practical implicationsThis study’s empirical findings suggest that it is essential to improve the digital infrastructure to accomplish the digital transformation and upgrading of NIDZ. The government should improve the service efficiency and reshape the city market environment to ensure the fair competition of science and technology enterprises.Originality/valueThe paper first proposed and empirically tested that innovation sharing is an important mechanism that can significantly enhance the city innovation capability. The authors analyse the heterogeneity of NIDZ from four aspects: digitalization level, marketization level, government service level, and regional development and expanded research boundaries.

Competitor Intelligence and Product Innovation: The Role of Open-Mindedness and Interfunctional Coordination

Drawing on the central themes of open innovation of the knowledge inflows and outflows for a firm’s innovative achievement, this research investigates the application of external knowledge (i.e. competitor intelligence) for product innovation. We posit that open-mindedness and inter-functional coordination mediate the relationship between competitor intelligence and product innovation. We further explore the joint moderating effect of the dynamic emerging market environment on the effects of open-mindedness and inter-functional coordination on product innovation. Survey data were collected from 284 executives from Chinese IT SMEs. Analysis methods of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) are applied. Results showed that competitor intelligence has a positive and direct effect on product innovation, and their relationships can be further strengthened by the mediators—open-mindedness and inter-functional coordination. In testing the interaction with the dynamic emerging market, we found that the external environment interacts positively with open-mindedness, but negatively with inter-functional coordination on the effect on product innovation. This research enriches our understanding of external knowledge inflow for open innovation application. It contextualises the positive impact of being an open-minded and inter-functional coordinated on a firm’s product innovation. Managerial implications and future research avenues are discussed

Capturing information on global knowledge flows from patent transfers: An empirical study using USPTO patents

In the global open innovation environment, one of the main characteristics of the knowledge-based economy is to pay more attention to the importance of global knowledge flows. This paper investigates global knowledge flows from the perspective of patent transfers, which can not only reflect the patents' economic value but also explore explicit and tacit knowledge flows comprehensively. This paper begins with the premise that global knowledge flows include the internal absorption of knowledge (IAK), knowledge outflows (KOFs) and knowledge inflows (KIFs) based on a dataset derived from United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during 2002 and 2016. Then, a global knowledge flow network is constructed by integrating patent transfer analysis and social network analysis. Our results show that more and more inventors and assignees are involved in the global knowledge flow network, China and India's ranking in the list of knowledge creators and users rises rapidly, cross-border knowledge flows will become a new trend; the rapid development of G06F (electric digital data processing), H04L (transmission of digital information) and other technological fields has accelerated the global knowledge flows; at present, the United States is the largest net knowledge inflow participant, the United Kingdom is the largest net knowledge outflow participant; the characteristics of a small-world effect in the cross-border knowledge flow network composed of 35 major participants become increasingly obvious. Our findings have clear policy implications. Establishing a global knowledge flow network is needed in order to promote global knowledge transfers, absorption and sharing.

Knowledge sharing in project work: the dynamic interplay of knowledge domains and skills

PurposeThis study aims to illuminate the currently poorly understood inflow of knowledge originating from project managers across the value chain of construction projects. The primary purpose is to identify the domains of knowledge that project managers’ need to share in their management activities, the skills they need to develop in their sharing practices and how these relate to each other across different phases of a construction project.Design/methodology/approachKnowledge domains, skills and the relationships between them were identified following an inductive methodology, a combination of grounded theory and case study, and through the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 21 project managers and participants within a single construction project.FindingsThe outcome is a novel framework that theorizes the dynamic interplay between knowledge domains and the skills that facilitate knowledge sharing (KS) for successful project work throughout the construction project.Originality/valueThe combined effects of task heterogeneity, knowledge interdependencies and temporariness require paying increased attention to how knowledge domains and KS skills impact project performance. This paper addresses gaps in developing an integrative understanding of the nature of the domains of knowledge that need to be shared in a project context, the key skills contributing to KS and more importantly, how they evolve and are interpreted and reinterpreted throughout the project and assist KS practice in projects.

Patent citing patterns of foreign firms: an analysis of Indian IT services industry

ABSTRACT This study captures the origin and pattern of foreign knowledge inflows to the Indian IT services industry using patent citation data. It examines the patterns of backward patent citations by the US origin and non-US origin foreign IT services firms operating in India using the USPTO patent citation data from 2013 to 2017. To analyze the citing patterns of firms, we classified backward citations into two categories: self-citations and non-self-citations. Our study finds that patents granted to the US origin firms hold a relatively higher number of backward citations and a higher average number of inventors. It indicates that the Indian IT services industry receives more complex technology inflows from the US origin firms compared to non-US origin firms. It also shows a positive relationship between self-citations and lowers patent grant lag. Further, this study suggests that more self-citations by the US origin firms reinforce more patents that develop a patent cycle for a firm. Therefore, the US origin firms in the Indian IT services industry dominate in patenting activities at USPTO.

Глобальные потоки технологического знания: место России

Technological knowledge, which is the basis for new technologies and innovation, is an important component of economic success — both on corporate and national levels. Such a role stimulates various actors to participate actively in the global race for talents who have this technological knowledge. The paper discusses if Russia is a successful participant of the race. It analyses the two datasets of patent documents (as for 2010–2019): 1) with Russian inventors and foreign assignees — to study the ‘outflow’ of technological knowledge from the country, and 2) with foreign inventors and Russian assignees — to measure the scope of its inflow. The results of the study demonstrate that Russia is still more a donor for the leading countries, than a recipient of technological knowledge from abroad. Russian inventors are actively involved into collaboration with foreign companies, being in demand in many global corporations, especially in the ICT field. The inflow of technological knowledge is less intense, and its key source is the post-soviet countries, in geographical proximity to Russia. One of the possible reasons for this disproportion is a lack of organizations in the country, capable to compete for talents on the global arena. Due to a specific business climate and a low interest of Russian business in R&D and innovation, an important role in recruitment of high-skilled specialists from abroad is played by the leading universities. Research institutes (including those of Russian Academy of Sciences) seem to be in the least advantaged position.

International knowledge spillovers

Abstract How important is foreign knowledge for domestic innovation outcomes? How is this relation shaped by globalization and the attendant intensification of international competition? Our empirical approach extends the previous literature by analyzing a large panel comprising industries in both advanced and emerging economies over the past two decades. We find that barriers to the domestic diffusion of foreign knowledge have fallen significantly for emerging economies. For all countries, and especially for emerging economies, inflows of foreign knowledge have a growing and quantitatively important impact on domestic innovation. Controlling for the amount of domestic R&D, we find evidence that increases in international competitive pressure at the industry level had a positive effect on domestic innovation outcomes.

Knowledge management practices by middle managers to attain organizational ambidexterity

ABSTRACT This study explores how middle managers deal with knowledge inflows whilst striving to achieve ambidexterity. This is enabled through a two-dimensional conceptual framework involving knowledge sources (vertical or horizontal) and acquisition activities (structural and contextual). We based our study upon interviews conducted with 64 managers from hypermarket retailers in China, in addition to field observations and secondary data. Our findings reveal that these middle managers leverage different combinations of structural and contextual mechanisms to govern the vertical (top-down and bottom-up) knowledge inflows within their business units. Structural mechanisms comprise differentiation and integration. For their part, contextual mechanisms consist of a combination of discipline, stretch, support and trust. These combinations also enable horizontal knowledge inflows to be managed from outside the business unit. These also enable middle managers’ ambidexterity, first at the business unit level and second at the organization level. Our findings offer managerial guidelines for handling knowledge inflows from various sources and with different patterns. They also assist middle managers with their contribution to their firms’ pursuit of organizational ambidexterity.

Waiving intellectual property rights: Boom or bust for medical innovation?

Proposals to waive intellectual property rights (IPRs) on coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19)-related developments have gained considerable support among politicians, including from US President Biden, academics, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the media, and the general public. However, there are surprisingly few reflections about the short- and long-term consequences for medical innovation, particularly the development of new drugs and vaccines. In this feature, I reflect on the consequences for innovative entrepreneurial companies, the incentives to innovate, and consequences for international knowledge flows to low- and middle-income countries. I conclude that waiving IPRs reduces opportunities for entrepreneurial companies to attract sufficient funding for developing medical innovations. Low- and middle-income countries might suffer reduced knowledge inflows in the absence of IPRs that undermine their ability to develop medical innovations.