Inter-organizational Innovation Research Articles

Inter-organizational innovation and cloud computing

Firms are increasingly shifting from the ‘closed’ innovation paradigm, in which their innovation design and implementation activities were based on their own internal knowledge resources, skills and production facilities, towards the inter-organizational ‘open’ innovation paradigm, which is based to a significant degree on collaboration with other organizations, aiming at the exploitation of external knowledge resources, skills and production facilities as well. This paper investigates empirically the effects of firm’s inter-organizational collaboration for the design and implementation of innovations, and also use of ICT for supporting this collaboration, on firm’s propensity to adopt cloud computing (CC), and in this way it examines in an ‘objective’ manner to what extent firms regard CC as a cost-effective means of supporting inter-organizational collaboration for the design and implementation of innovation. Our study is based on a dataset collected in the e-Business Survey of the European Commission from 676 European firms from the glass, ceramics and cement manufacturing sectors. It has been concluded that firms of these sectors regard CC as a cost-effective means of supporting collaboration with other firms for the design of innovations in their products, services and processes, and also of reducing the costs and increasing the capabilities and flexibility of already existing electronic support of inter-organizational innovation design collaboration. Furthermore, our results indicate that firms find CC useful for the reduction of the costs and the increase of the capabilities and flexibility of their existing electronic support of the complex operations required for the inter-organizational implementation of innovations.

The effects of innovation by inter-organizational knowledge management

Inter-organizational knowledge sharing and innovation are critical for organizational survival, and innovation processes involve not only techniques and experiment, but also knowledge-based processes to promote new behavioral models. However, there are limited studies on how different types of knowledge management (KM) applications fit the business context and achieve innovation through inter-organizational knowledge sharing. This paper studies the effects of inter-organizational KM on strategic knowledge sharing among allied organizations for innovation to understand the correlation between inter-organizational KM applications in line with factors of KM governance and inter-organizational innovation. A multiple-case study on two Asian companies, with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) questionnaire design for interviews and focus group discussion was adopted to collect and analyze the data. The findings address how organizations could adopt inter-organizational KM approaches and practical principles to improve the realization of innovation and serve as guidance for organizations in strategic alliances to employ inter-organizational KM for improving innovative performance.

Managing Interorganizational Innovation Projects: Mitigating the Negative Effects of Equivocality Through Knowledge Search Strategies

Equivocality, or divergent interpretations and understandings of tasks and knowledge, has negative effects on performance because it increases conflicts and creates communication and coordination challenges in inter-organizational innovation projects. However, equivocality may also stimulate team members to discuss beliefs and interpretations in ways that provide improved understanding of knowledge and tasks. We theorize that mitigation of negative effects of equivocality on project performance is conditional on explorative or exploitative knowledge search mode. Exploitative search (increasing search depth) allows for rapid learning based on the partners’ existing knowledge, but it also limits a team’s ability to interpret and combine diverse knowledge. Explorative search (increasing search breadth), on the other hand, allows for novel combinations of diverse knowledge and thereby alleviates the negative effect of equivocality on performance. Based on quantitative data from 251 respondents in 52 heavy-engineering innovation projects in four multinational corporations based in Sweden and from their 29 collaborating partner firms worldwide, we find that equivocality reduces project performance, but that joint explorative search mitigates the negative effect of equivocality on project performance. However, we do not find support for the moderation effect of exploitative search on the relationship between equivocality and project performance. Theoretical and managerial contributions as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are presented.

The Role of Unabsorbed Slack in Internal and Collaborative Innovation Processes — A Resource-Based Framework

Extant research has highlighted the critical role of unabsorbed slack resources in internal innovation processes. In recent years, many firms have continued to open up their innovation processes to actively collaborate with external partners. In light of a limited understanding of the determinants of collaborative innovation, we provide new theoretical arguments about the relationship of unabsorbed slack resources with internal and collaborative innovation processes. Specifically, we draw on resource-based and competence-based logic and develop a conceptual framework for intraorganizational and interorganizational innovation with propositions for the impact of unabsorbed slack resources on internal and external knowledge acquisition and commercialization processes. The arguments underscore the critical role of excess resources in collaborative innovation, and they highlight the need for a fine-grained examination of the impact of unabsorbed slack resources in innovation processes. The arguments are particularly important in light of a renewed interest in essential enablers and barriers to collaborative innovation processes.

Influence of Transactional and Moral Orientations on Innovation Performance in Supply Chains

Innovation performance for inter-organizational effect is one way to enhance strategic competitiveness. It is generally agreed that the development of innovation performance facilitates such sustainable management among inter-organization in supply chains. This paper presents a research model comprises five research hypotheses with four constructs, including transactional orientation, moral orientation, dynamic capability and innovation performance. The constructs are measured by well-supported measures in the literature. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze survey data collected from 260 manufacturing firms that were among the top 1,000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms of 2012 listed by Business Weekly. The results of the empirical study suggest that transactional and moral orientation is critical in ensuring the inter-organizational innovation performance as it promotes the dynamic capability in the process.

Behavioral coordination mechanism of inter-organizational knowledge innovation in real estate projects

According to the behavioral coordination and decision-making issues occurring in the process of inter-organizational knowledge innovation in real estate projects, we employed differential game method, chose the knowledge innovation behavior between owners and contractors for the study and made a comparative analysis on the result. The research result showed that: under the model of behavioral coordination and cooperation, the performance of knowledge innovation behavior of owners and contractors, relative gains and the increment of the overall project value of the supply chain of real estate projects were more favorable than the corresponding numbers under the model of non-cooperative decision-making. Then we analyzed the value range of distribution coefficient which enabled the relative gains of owners and contractors to achieve Pareto optimality and the project value increment of knowledge innovation behavior.

The interplay of structural and relational governance in innovation alliances

Abstract The present paper aims to extend the discussion in the governance literature about whether structural and relational governance mechanisms complement or substitute each other in innovation alliances. Where structural governance mechanisms refer to the division of tasks within the alliance and to upfront contractual and non-contractual input, output and risk-related agreements, relational governance mechanisms refer to trust, using informal norms and rules for coordination purposes. In innovation literature much attention has been paid to relational governance, which is expected to offer more of the flexibility needed for innovation than the regulations in structural governance that are perceived as rigid. However, the authors argue that the essential role of structural governance as a solid basis for creating trust, especially in alliances in which the partners do not know each other, is clearly underexposed in management literature. To fill this gap, a model conceptualizing the innovation alliance from inception to performance was tested using Partial Least Squares, employing a cross-sectional dataset of 94 innovation alliances in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria. The results do indeed show the essential role of structural agreements in creating a platform for trust on which relational governance can strive, while a clear task division can help to reduce the complexity of the inter-organizational innovation process, by reducing the interdependency of the partners. Both structural mechanisms ease communication among the alliance partners, leading to a higher level of knowledge exchange, and ultimately leading to better alliance performance.

Architectural knowledge: key flows and processes in designing an inter-organisational technological platform

The main objective of this study is to identify which knowledge flows are key elements for designing an inter-organisational technological platform. It mobilises : the literature of platform strategies and the architectural innovation theory. In the literature, the technological platform already exists, is the property of only one firm, and is the starting point for an inter-organisational innovation process because it is enhanced and enriched by niche players. This paper considers the case of a digital business ecosystem where the technological platform does not already exist and is co-designed. We study the design process of an inter-organisational technological platform and, more specifically, its emergence, its development, and its potential evolution. The aim is to know how and under which conditions and with what objective an emerging technological platform is fundamental to the analysis of the emergence of the business ecosystem and the strategic positioning of each member.

Boundary emergence in inter-organizational innovation

Purpose – Inter-organizational innovation is becoming an attractive development form in view of the complexity of many of today’s innovations. However, inter-organizational innovation does not often lead to the desired results. To understand this paradoxical situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine a high-novelty R & D collaboration between multiple organizations with focus on the occurrence of knowledge boundaries and their underlying mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on a grounded longitudinal study of an inter-organizational R & D team. Participant observation data, interviews, and document data have been collected over three years. Findings – The study identified six different knowledge boundaries characterized by processes of sensemaking, strategizing, and group identification. These three processes were all rooted in continuous attempts at the individual level to reduce uncertainty, and the findings therefore highlight the unexpected consequences of uncertainty reduction. Uncertainty reduction through sensemaking, strategizing, and group identification may reduce the uncertainty at the individual level but also provoke the emergence of knowledge boundaries at the team level, thereby impeding knowledge exchange. Furthermore, the knowledge integration literature highlights that knowledge boundaries are relational, but the identification of a cognitive boundary indicates that some problems are so complex that a knowledge boundary is delimited to the single individual. Originality/value – Most research on knowledge boundaries has focussed on the elimination of knowledge boundaries through boundary objects and boundary spanners, but only little attention has been given to the underlying mechanisms of boundary emergence and dynamics. In this paper, it is argued that to efficiently manage knowledge boundaries, an understanding of their underlying mechanisms is needed.

Interorganizational Innovation: The Role of Suppliers in Enhancing Buyer Innovation Performance

Are buyers able to leverage the innovations of their upstream suppliers to improve their own innovation performance? Grounded in the Knowledge-Based View and Organizational Learning Theory, we develop and test a model investigating the relationship between supplier and buyer innovation. Previous literature suggests firms are able to utilize external sources of knowledge to drive internal innovation, but these studies are largely focused on R&D partnerships and alliances with universities or specialist firms. We examine the ability of firms to positively impact their innovation performance by leveraging suppliers’ innovation. We then consider how different relationship characteristics of the supply chain dyad moderate this relationship. Combining archival data on manufacturing supply chain relationships with US patent data, we use econometric methods to empirically demonstrate the positive impact a supplier’s level of innovation has on a downstream buyer firm’s innovation performance. Furthermore, we find ...

Inter-organisational innovation processes in the European food and drink industry

Although the food and drink (F&D) industry is Europe's largest manufacturing sector, few studies have explored its innovation activities so far. Starting from the widespread assumption that F&D manufacturers are supplier dominated 'a la Pavitt', we formulated hypotheses about their innovation activities. These were tested through Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests on data drawn from a sample of 54,088 manufacturing firms (7,301 of which operating in the F&D industry) in 14 European countries, participating in Eurostat's 2008 Community Innovation Survey. The results confirm the supplier dominated nature of F&D firms, although also show that some largely anecdotal assumptions about the F&D industry's pattern of innovation cannot be empirically supported.

Revealing correlations between structure and innovation attitude in inter-organisational innovation networks

Innovation networks constitute a valid structure in which to foster members' abilities to interact and cooperate, reducing environmental uncertainty and enhancing ways to deal with the challenges that derive from economic change. This paper analyses the correlation between the structure of inter-organisational innovation networks and innovation performance. We consider the correlations between weighted quantities and the underlying structure of the network to describe hierarchies and organisational principles, arguing for their influence on innovation. To attest the effectiveness of the approach we propose, as a case study, the Enterprise Europe Network, describing its architecture along with its quantitative information.

On the influence of nodes' characteristic in inter-organisational innovation networks structure

This paper studies inter-organisational innovation networks, investigating the relations between the structure of the connections among members and a given node's characteristic. Such relations are used to provide some insights into the attitude of network innovation. We propose an original methodology that considers nodes belonging to two different classes detecting the available configurations. The intensity of connections, as an additional layer of information, is also included to examine its relative influence on the network topology. We complete the analysis through the introduction of a qualitative intensity/connectance matrix that attempts to connote the innovation attitude of the network. We test the methodology on a real case study, discussing the detected configuration and the implication in terms of innovation attitude.

HOW CONTRACTS AND CULTURE MEDIATE JOINT TRANSACTIONS OF INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS

Although the literature suggests that matters of contracting and governance in strategic innovation partnerships are interrelated and that governance of partnerships generally occurs with contractual heterogeneity, our understanding about the specific relationships between contracting and the partnership culture that facilitates joint transactions is rather vague. In this study, we clarify how the complexity of contractual agreements between partners in conjunction with the alignment of their innovation objectives and the ambiguity inherent in their mutual contributions to the partnership can be used to predict the culture of the partnership. We find that innovation partnerships result to be one of four types: bureaucratic, market, clan, or adhocracy. Our result emphasises the central role of contractual complexity as a suitable and relevant concept to capture the nature of inter-organisational innovation partnerships.

Co-operation over distance? The spatial dimension of inter-organizational innovation collaboration

In the literature, there is a controversy about the role of space in innovation collaboration. With a longitudinal study of 47 inter-organizational innovation groups in Germany, we examine the link between the spatial composition of group members and group characteristics that are important to perform innovation projects. Hence, conceptually and methodologically, we use social-psychological concepts in the field of spatial economics. We find that the share of regional partners is per se not a determining factor for the formation of a functional working group with the necessary characteristics to be successful. But very often regional groups are small and show shortcomings in their partner structure.

Interorganizational innovation across geographic and cognitive boundaries: does firm size matter?

A key trend of recent literature is the increased use of interorganizational relationships to achieve organizational objectives. While the phenomenon of collaborative innovation has attracted significant academic interest in recent years, little research has been undertaken to examine how widespread the collaborative phenomenon is relative to organizational size or the diversity of partner organizations being leveraged for collaborative innovation activity. Consequently, this paper seeks to address two research questions. Firstly, the extent to which collaborative innovation is occurring within different sized firms that are research and development active, and secondly, are these different sized firms engaging in collaborative innovation activities with different types of partner organization. The results support earlier studies regarding the increasing practice by industry leveraging interorganizational collaborations in order to support innovation. Findings highlight that large‐scale firms are more active than SMEs in leveraging external resources for innovation and that small‐sized firms are the firm category least active in the practice. In addition, findings indicate that when small and medium‐ sized enterprises (SMEs) are collaborating, they leverage both vertical and horizontal partner linkages but that the sector is constrained by geographic distance in terms of the diversity of its collaborating partners.

Strategic intellectual capital management as a driver of organisational innovation

The significance of intangible resources for business success has evidently increased. Analyses have indicated some intellectual capital factors as the most prominent and important, yet the impact on the intra- and inter-organisational innovation ecosystems has not been analysed thoroughly. This contribution seeks to close this gap and draw conclusions with regard to drivers of innovation and related differences between manufacturing and service enterprises. The analysis of the correlation between intellectual capital and innovation capabilities allows statements regarding those intellectual capital factors, onto which enterprises should focus to foster innovation. The qualitative content-related analysis of the 38 intellectual capital statements of German enterprises with regard to new and different types of innovation management methodologies allows the identification of existing gaps in intellectual capital management.

Organizing Collaboration in Inter-Organizational Innovation Networks, from Orchestration to Choreography

Innovation networks constitute a valid structure within which to foster members' abilities to interact and cooperate, in order to reduce environmental uncertainty and face the challenges that derive from economic change. Network members take advantage of their participation in the system by creating and extracting value when performing certain deliberate and purposeful activities. Traditionally the interactions between network members are represented in a hierarchical structure with a prominent member performing a leadership role in managing the system. Recently, more complex organizations have emerged in which the power of the decisions is spread among all partners. In this paper, we overcome the single hub model and propose a new organizational framework called “choreography”, which takes into account all network members, extending the roles of coordination and management throughout the entire network. We consider a real inter-organizational innovation network as an eligible case study which supports the choreography model.

The emergence of boundary clusters in inter-organizational innovation

Firms that want to innovate often do so by conducting cooperative innovation activities with business partners. In such inter-organizational cooperations, business partners depend on each other's knowledge and bring in different types of expertise. In our research we focus on the knowledge exchanges across knowledge boundaries in inter-organizational activities for innovation. Information systems (IS) play an important role as enablers in this context. The concept of boundary objects has been used to describe interactions between actors with varying information and knowledge needs. While the vital role of boundary objects has been recognized in IS literature, the process of emergence of boundary-spanning has received less attention. Recent literature has hinted that, contrary to initial conceptualizations, boundary objects may not manifest as only single information technology artifacts. In this study, we offer the view of boundary objects as a cluster of several artifacts. By means of a qualitative case study, we describe the process of emergence of such boundary clusters and provide evidence for how they advance inter-organizational innovation activities. We describe how such clusters emerge from differences and dependencies in the knowledge of cooperating actors and explore the clusters' significance to knowledge exchanges in inter-organizational innovation contexts. In doing so, we offer an explanation of cluster emergence which links the interplay of artifacts, uses, practices, and knowledge to the coordination of cooperative inter-organizational innovation activities.

Assessing inter-organizational innovation performance through relational governance and dynamic capabilities in supply chains

Purpose– This paper aims to examine the factors influencing innovation performance and implementation in inter-organizational relationships.Design/methodology/approach– A novel research model comprises five research hypotheses with four constructs, including information technology infrastructure flexibility, institutional orientation, dynamic capabilities and innovation performance. The hypotheses are tested on data collected from 260 of the top 1,000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms in 2011 listed byBusiness Weeklyin Taiwan, using structural equation modeling.Findings– The study provides insight into how supply chain members should reinforce their dynamic capabilities and relational and institutional view of relational governance so as to improve their value-based relationships and in turn enhance innovation performance.Research limitations/implications– The empirical study is conducted on supply chains, with data collected from Taiwan's manufacturing firms. With the research model developed, cross-industrial studies can be conducted to investigate whether differences exist in relation to the inter-relationship effects that affect inter-organizational innovation performance.Practical implications– The study provides useful insights into how supply chain members should reinforce their value-based relationships by focusing on activities that would enhance information technology infrastructure flexibility and institutional orientation, and improve activities that would reinforce the activities of dynamic capabilities, in order to achieve the competitive advantage of inter-organizational innovation performance.Originality/value– The novel research model developed may serve as a starting point for future theoretical and empirical research and measures for describing and modeling the role of value-based relationships from the relational and institutional view of relational governance and dynamic capabilities, which is not dealt with in previous studies.