Category
innovation-networks
1324 entries tagged innovation-networks.
Articles — 1294
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Choreography in Inter-Organizational Innovation Networks
Introduces 'choreography' as a concept for inter-organizational innovation networks — a self-organizing coordination mechanism that shapes connectivity and cohesion among hubs, semi-peripheral, and peripheral members lacking hierarchical authority.
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Designing and Orchestrating Embedded Innovation Networks: An Inquiry into Microfranchising in Bangladesh
Longitudinal case study of an emerging microfranchise network in Bangladesh facilitated by CARE, used to examine how innovation networks are designed and orchestrated in resource-scarce settings to deliver agricultural inputs to small-scale poor farmers.
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Innovation and Networking in Peripheral Areas — a Case Study of Emergence and Change in Rural Manufacturing
Case study of rural manufacturing in a peripheral region, tracing how innovation and networking emerge and change. Foundational reference for thinking about innovation systems beyond core regions.
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Innovation networks for social impact: An empirical study on multi-actor collaboration in projects for smart cities
Examines what drives the formation of innovation networks for smart-city projects involving companies, government, and society. Identifies searching, acting, and convincing as core activities; argues smart-city innovation requires public-private-citizen configuration.
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Management of innovation networks: a case study of different approaches
Empirical case study of two software-business SMEs with contrasting approaches to managing innovation networks. Surfaces six dimensions for mapping innovation network management: duration, rewards, fundamental meaning, organisational nature, planning/control/trust, and hierarchy.
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Role of Networks of Rural Innovation in Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals: A Quadruple Helix Case Study
Quadruple helix (academia, government, industry, community) case study of a Chinese rural revitalisation program, finding that multi-actor collaboration around agricultural science, entrepreneurship, and tourism advanced 11 of the 17 SDGs.
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Creating value in ecosystems: Crossing the chasm between knowledge and business ecosystems
Studies 138 innovative start-ups in Flanders to compare their knowledge ecosystem and business ecosystem. Finds the knowledge ecosystem well-structured but the business ecosystem nearly absent locally — implications for ecosystem policy.
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Why do Social Innovations in Rural Development Matter and Should They be Considered More Seriously in Rural Development Research? – Proposal for a Stronger Focus on Social Innovations in Rural Development Research
Social innovations—new organizational forms, practices, and services—are critical drivers of rural development but remain underexamined in rural research. The author defines social innovation conceptually, models its process, and argues that weak social innovation capacity constrains rural community vitality in developed countries. An actor-oriented network approach offers a promising methodology for studying how social innovations emerge and function in rural contexts.
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Strengthening agricultural innovation capacity: are innovation brokers the answer?
Innovation brokers—intermediaries who connect actors in agricultural systems—emerge as key players in strengthening innovation capacity. Using Dutch agriculture as a case study, the paper argues that brokers facilitate interaction between farmers, researchers, and other stakeholders. The authors conclude that innovation brokerage works in developing countries too, but requires public investment and supportive policies that enable local embedding and institutional learning.
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INNOVATION PLATFORMS: EXPERIENCES WITH THEIR INSTITUTIONAL EMBEDDING IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT
Innovation Platforms bring farmers, researchers, and stakeholders together to drive systemic agricultural innovation in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds that successful platforms require fundamental institutional changes within agricultural research organizations—including new mandates, incentives, procedures, and funding structures. Without these changes, platforms risk becoming superficial rebranding of traditional technology-focused approaches rather than enabling genuine paradigm shifts toward system-oriented development.
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Advances in Knowledge Brokering in the Agricultural Sector: Towards Innovation System Facilitation
Agricultural extension has evolved from pushing research findings to farmers toward collaborative models that recognize innovation emerges from interactions among multiple actors. Knowledge brokers now facilitate systemic change by building linkages and creating enabling contexts for technical, social, and institutional innovation. This innovation systems approach applies beyond agriculture to other sectors, requiring knowledge brokers to move beyond research uptake to broader innovation facilitation activities.
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Beyond knowledge brokering: an exploratory study on innovation intermediaries in an evolving smallholder agricultural system in Kenya
In Kenya's agricultural sector, 22 intermediary organizations support smallholder innovation through roles beyond knowledge distribution. These organizations foster interaction among diverse actors and drive technological, organizational, and institutional change. The study identifies four intermediation arrangements: technology broker, systemic broker, enterprise development support, and input access support. Innovation brokering requires policy support but should avoid one-size-fits-all approaches.
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Networks, Technology, and Entrepreneurship: A Field Quasi-experiment among Women in Rural India
A seven-year field experiment in 20 rural Indian villages tested how women's social networks and ICT use affect entrepreneurship. Family and community ties boosted business creation and profits, while ties to powerful men hindered them. ICT access dramatically increased new ventures—160 in intervention villages versus 40 in controls. The strongest results emerged when women had strong community networks combined with ICT access, effects that strengthened over time.
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Agriculture in the developing world: Connecting innovations in plant research to downstream applications
Plant genomics and molecular breeding offer powerful tools to improve crops for poor farmers in developing regions. The paper argues that translating these innovations into real benefits requires better collaboration between public and private plant scientists, new funding mechanisms, and targeted research on abiotic and biotic stresses. While private companies have successfully developed improved maize and cotton varieties, the public sector must build capacity to apply these same techniques to crops serving the poorest farmers.
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SUPPORTING AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION IN UGANDA TO RESPOND TO CLIMATE RISK: LINKING CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY WITH FARMER PERCEPTIONS
Farmers in southwest Uganda perceived significant climate change over 20 years, reporting increased temperatures and greater rainfall variability, particularly in the March-May season. Climate data confirmed rising temperatures but showed less dramatic rainfall changes than farmers reported. The study reveals gaps between farmer perceptions and meteorological measurements stem from different definitions of risk—farmers focus on rainfall distribution for crop production while scientists measure long-term statistical means. Understanding these differences improves communication about climate risk to support agricultural innovation.
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Social network analysis of multi-stakeholder platforms in agricultural research for development: Opportunities and constraints for innovation and scaling
Multi-stakeholder platforms in Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo show structural weaknesses that limit their innovation and scaling capacity. Social network analysis reveals that NGOs dominate while the private sector is underrepresented, connections between local and higher government levels are weak, and influential actors often remain disconnected. Organizations central to knowledge exchange attract collaboration, but innovation scaling occurs mainly within single organization types rather than across different sectors.
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Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture: Processes of Co-evolution, Joint Reflection and Facilitation
Agricultural innovation requires moving beyond top-down knowledge transfer from researchers to farmers. This editorial introduces research on Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA), where farmers actively participate as innovators rather than passive technology adopters. The papers examine how joint learning and reflection among diverse actors—researchers, advisors, and producers—can support sustainable agricultural transitions and strengthen institutional support for collaborative innovation in rural Europe.
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Opening design and innovation processes in agriculture: Insights from design and management sciences and future directions
Agricultural innovation requires more open, participatory design processes that move beyond traditional approaches. This paper synthesizes research on co-design and co-innovation in agriculture, drawing insights from management and design sciences. It identifies three priorities: expanding design tools to engage multiple senses, opening innovation networks to support sustainability transitions while addressing power dynamics, and including non-human actors like materials and ecosystems in innovation processes.
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Organic Farmer Networks: Facilitating Learning and Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture
Organic farmer networks in northeastern New York State drive agricultural innovation through social learning and participatory problem-solving. The study shows how farmers learn from each other and adopt sustainable practices within these networks. The research identifies opportunities for agricultural extension services to support organic farmer management by leveraging these existing social learning processes.
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Structural Conditions for Collaboration and Learning in Innovation Networks: Using an Innovation System Performance Lens to Analyse Agricultural Knowledge Systems
This study examines structural conditions in eight European agricultural innovation systems that enable or block collaboration and learning in multidisciplinary networks. Using an Innovation System Failure Matrix, researchers identified key barriers including insufficient funding, fragmentation between actors, and weak evaluation criteria for collaborative networks. The findings show each country's system has distinct features, requiring tailored policy approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions for promoting collaboration.
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Tapping the full potential of the digital revolution for agricultural extension: an emerging innovation agenda
Agricultural extension in the Global South can leverage digital technologies far more effectively by adopting user-centred design and problem-oriented approaches. The paper reviews why many agro-advisory initiatives failed—typically because they pushed specific technologies rather than addressing actual user communication needs. It identifies eight emerging ICT applications for agricultural extension and emphasizes that successful digital innovation requires supportive institutions alongside technological development.
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Digitalisation in the New Zealand Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System: Initial understandings and emerging organisational responses to digital agriculture
Agricultural knowledge providers in New Zealand understand digital agriculture primarily as farm-focused, despite its broader disruptive potential. Organizations respond with ad-hoc adaptations to capabilities and services rather than strategic planning. The study reveals that uncertainty about digital agriculture's early development drives reactive rather than proactive approaches. Agricultural innovation systems should better support knowledge providers in developing deliberate digitalization strategies that anticipate future scenarios and reshape business models.
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Community-driven social innovation and quadruple helix coordination in rural development. Case study on LEADER group Aktion Österbotten
Social innovations in rural areas emerge through collaboration between universities, industry, government, and civil society—the quadruple helix model. This study of Finland's LEADER programme shows that community-driven projects succeed when local knowledge combines with external actors' expertise. Cultural events, nature activities, and social gatherings strengthen community identity and spark entrepreneurial ventures in tourism and social services. Local community involvement proved decisive for project success.
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Agricultural Innovation Systems: An Investment Sourcebook
This World Bank reference guide explains agricultural innovation systems and their key components. It emphasizes that successful systems require collaboration through national coordination, innovation networks, market access, and farmer organization capacity. Agricultural education and training are critical for building human resources that enable these systems to function effectively.
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Social-Capital Mobilization and Income Returns to Entrepreneurship: The Case of Return Migration in Rural China
Return migrants in rural China who acquire skills during urban labor migration mobilize local social capital more effectively to start businesses. Social capital generates income returns comparable to investment capital and acquired skills. The study demonstrates that temporary migration serves as a rural development strategy by enabling families to accumulate both human capital and social networks that support entrepreneurship upon return.
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Entrepreneurship Within Urban and Rural Areas: Creative People and Social Networks
Creativity drives entrepreneurship in urban areas but not rural areas, despite urban environments being more competitive and supportive. Social networks prove especially critical for rural entrepreneurs, likely because rural areas have stronger personal ties but fewer institutional support systems. Creativity itself does not improve survival rates for new businesses in either setting.
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Exploring business models for open innovation in rural living labs
Living Labs are user-centered innovation environments where rural communities collaborate with stakeholders to develop solutions through rapid prototyping. The paper identifies critical business model design elements needed to sustain these partnerships while protecting intellectual property. It provides practical guidance on structuring open innovation initiatives that balance collaborative development with commercial interests, enabling rural regions to benefit from participatory innovation.
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Social Innovation and Food Provisioning during Covid-19: The Case of Urban–Rural Initiatives in the Province of Naples
During Covid-19 lockdowns in Naples, Italy, self-organized urban-rural initiatives emerged to improve food access when mobility was restricted. The paper maps these initiatives and identifies Masseria Ferraioli, which distributes vegetables from mafia-confiscated land to people unable to afford food, as a leading social innovation example. Local communities and volunteer associations proved essential in addressing food provisioning challenges and reviving interest in local food systems.
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Innovation intermediation in a digital age: Comparing public and private new-ICT platforms for agricultural extension in Ghana
Two new-ICT platforms for agricultural extension in Ghana—one public, one private—were compared to assess their innovation-intermediation roles. While both platforms aimed to support demand articulation and matching, their effectiveness was limited by social, organizational, and institutional factors rather than technical capacity. Informal farmer-led initiatives using WhatsApp and Telegram proved more successful at transforming interaction patterns and achieving collective goals than formally designed platforms.
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Social Innovation and Sustainable Rural Development: The Case of a Brazilian Agroecology Network
The Ecovida Agroecology Network in Southern Brazil demonstrates how social innovation drives rural development. This network of farming families, NGOs, and consumer organizations created innovations in horizontal governance, participatory organic certification, and local market relationships. These innovations influenced public policy and strengthened rural-urban cooperation, showing that collaborative food networks can challenge industrial agriculture while meeting consumer demand for healthy food.
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Theory and application of Agricultural Innovation Platforms for improved irrigation scheme management in Southern Africa
Agricultural Innovation Platforms enable small-scale irrigation scheme actors in Southern Africa to collaborate, experiment, and learn together. By fostering interaction between previously disconnected subsystems and stakeholders, these platforms build adaptive capacity, increase market-oriented production, and help farmers escape poverty more effectively than traditional infrastructure-focused interventions.
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Externality Effects of Education: Dynamics of the Adoption and Diffusion of an Innovation in Rural Ethiopia
Education drives agricultural innovation adoption in rural Ethiopia through two mechanisms. Household education determines timing of fertilizer adoption, while community-level education encourages uneducated farmers to adopt sooner by providing visible examples. Educated farmers act as early innovators and effective adopters, creating positive externalities that accelerate technology diffusion across communities regardless of individual farmer education levels.
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Agricultural Extension, Collective Action and Innovation Systems: Lessons on Network Brokering from Peru and Mexico
Extension services in Peru and Mexico show that fostering agricultural innovation requires more than collective action alone. Peru's approach, using NGO brokers and trusted local farmers called Kamayoq, successfully built innovation networks among diverse value chain actors. Mexico's linear seed-transfer model created collective action but no innovation networks. The research concludes that extension must combine collective action with active networking to shift from technology transfer toward genuine agricultural innovation systems.
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Innovation, Cooperation, and the Perceived Benefits and Costs of Sustainable Agriculture Practices
Farmers' adoption of sustainable agriculture practices depends on their perceptions of benefits and costs, shaped by social networks and cooperation. The study shows that innovation spreads through farmer networks, and perceived advantages—environmental, economic, or social—drive adoption decisions. Cooperation among farmers strengthens commitment to sustainable methods, while perceived costs and risks create barriers to change.
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Diagnostics barriers and innovations in rural areas: insights from junior medical doctors on the frontlines of rural care in Peru
Rural doctors in Peru identify three major barriers to diagnosis: lack of point-of-care diagnostic tools for diseases like malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis; health system failures including limited funding and specialist shortages; and patient barriers to accessing referral care. Doctors propose point-of-care equipment and telemedicine as solutions, but note that technological fixes alone cannot address underlying social, organizational, and policy problems.
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Interactions between Niche and Regime: An Analysis of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture across Europe
This study examines how 17 learning and innovation networks for sustainable agriculture across Europe interact with mainstream agricultural systems. The researchers found five distinct interaction modes based on compatibility levels, which determine how sustainable practices spread into conventional agriculture. Effective interaction requires specific connecting processes like certification, regulatory exemptions, and networking support. The findings suggest agricultural transition happens through multiple adaptive changes rather than wholesale regime replacement.
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Tourism and Community Leadership in Rural Regions: Linking Mobility, Entrepreneurship, Tourism Development and Community Well-Being
Analysis of 47 rural tourism case studies reveals that community entrepreneurs—not simply local or outsider status—drive positive tourism outcomes. Social and human capital matter more than financial investment. Governance structures prove critical for long-term success. The local-outsider distinction fails to explain tourism development effectiveness. Community entrepreneurs best support both tourism growth and destination well-being.
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Sustainable Rural Telehealth Innovation: A Public Health Case Study
This case study of Georgia's largest public health district from 1988 to 2008 shows how telehealth became sustainable in rural areas. Strong collaboration within the district, with local communities, and external partners drove adoption. Local champions overcame barriers by seizing technological and financial opportunities. External funding supported initial implementation and expansion. The combination of internal collaboration, external partnerships, and opportunistic use of available resources enabled lasting telehealth innovation.
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Transition Management and Social Innovation in Rural Areas: Lessons from Social Farming
Social farming in Italy demonstrates how rural areas can manage transitions toward sustainability by integrating agricultural, health, and education sectors. The study shows that linking public and private actors through collective learning creates social innovation and new economic value. Extension services must be redesigned to support these cross-sector partnerships, helping rural communities adapt to welfare state challenges and build inclusive, sustainable development.
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Innovation, cooperation, and the structure of three regional sustainable agriculture networks in California
Wine grape growers in three California regions form networks that support sustainability through multiple mechanisms: central actors diffuse innovations, closed triangles solve cooperation problems, and boundary-spanning ties connect specialized system components. Network structures vary by region based on geography and institutional history, affecting capacity to respond to environmental change.
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Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development
This paper revisits the 'Farmer First' approach to agricultural research and development, examining how farmer-led innovation shapes the design and implementation of agricultural technologies and practices. The work argues that centering farmer knowledge and participation in research processes produces more effective and sustainable agricultural innovations adapted to local conditions and needs.
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The potential of management networks in the innovation and competitiveness of rural tourism: a case study on the<i>Valle del Jerte</i>(Spain)
Rural tourism businesses in Valle del Jerte, Spain form management networks that boost competitiveness and innovation. Through social network analysis, the study shows that these cooperative structures create cohesive destinations where businesses share resources and develop innovative local responses to global market pressures. Networking enables rural tourism enterprises to overcome traditional obstacles and strengthen their competitiveness as tourism products.
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Key actors in community-driven social innovation in rural areas in the Nordic countries
Nordic rural communities facing demographic decline and service closures have developed social innovation projects. Analysis of 18 projects reveals that community members, civil society organizations, and local government drive project initiation, while civil society organizations dominate implementation. Success depends on local actors' ability to generate ideas, secure resources, and manage decisions effectively.
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Social Innovation in Rural Regions: Urban Impulses and Cross‐Border Constellations of Actors
Social innovation in rural German regions emerges through cross-border networks of actors and urban influences rather than in isolation. Ethnographic research in the Eifel, Lower Lusatia, and Uckermark regions shows that rural communities adopt knowledge and practices from urban areas, creating hybrid rural-urban innovations. These connections strengthen rural-urban relationships and reduce traditional antagonisms between them.
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Open Innovation in Agribusiness: Barriers and Challenges in the Transition to Agriculture 4.0
This study examines how open innovation enables Agriculture 4.0 adoption in agribusiness. Internet of Things technology shows the strongest potential for implementation. The main barrier is insufficient operator knowledge and skills, requiring training investment. Existing technology infrastructure and system integration facilitate adoption. The authors recommend agribusiness stakeholders collaborate with engineering solution providers through open innovation frameworks to overcome barriers and accelerate the transition to digitalized farming.
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‘Sharing the space’ in the agricultural knowledge and innovation system: multi-actor innovation partnerships with farmers and foresters in Europe
This paper reviews 200 European agricultural and forestry partnerships involving farmers and foresters to assess how multi-actor networks foster knowledge sharing and co-innovation. The researchers found that various EU and non-EU funding instruments effectively engage users in collaborative innovation across agriculture, forestry, and value chains. The study reveals that successful co-innovation requires recognizing diverse partnership approaches—both formal and informal—and better coordination between programs to reach currently underengaged actor groups.
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Agricultural innovation systems and farm technology adoption: findings from a study of the Ghanaian plantain sector
This study examines technology adoption in Ghana's plantain sector using social network analysis and innovation systems theory. The researchers found weak innovation systems where farmers occupy central network positions but lack influence. Social network capital significantly drives adoption of improved farm technologies. The study recommends strengthening connections between focal farmers, research institutions, and extension agents through targeted policies to enhance technology dissemination.
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Learning and Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Development: The Use of the Concepts of Boundary Work and Boundary Objects
Boundary work and boundary objects—tools that bridge different groups and perspectives—drive learning and innovation in multi-actor agricultural networks. Analysis of six case studies shows these mechanisms take diverse forms depending on context and goals, helping align conflicting viewpoints, secure external support, and advance sustainable agriculture. Skilled facilitation of boundary work strengthens both internal network cohesion and external communication.
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Local development through rural entrepreneurship, from the Triple Helix perspective
University-industry-government collaboration programs effectively support rural entrepreneurs by creating knowledge-rich environments that benefit both individual businesses and local communities. Nascent rural entrepreneurs value this Triple Helix partnership and recognize their own contributions to economic, social, and cultural development. The study reveals how low-tech rural entrepreneurs experience and benefit from multi-stakeholder collaboration at the micro level.
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Scaling Up Agricultural Innovation for Inclusive Livelihood and Productivity Outcomes in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Case of Nigeria
Agricultural innovation programs in Nigeria significantly improved rural smallholder farmers' incomes, productivity, and income diversification through better market linkages and capacity building. When programs ended, farmers lost these gains and income diversity declined. The study recommends integrating agricultural innovation system concepts into all public extension and research programs to sustain rural livelihoods.
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Developing a Conceptual Partner Matching Framework for Digital Green Innovation of Agricultural High-End Equipment Manufacturing System Toward Agriculture 5.0: A Novel Niche Field Model Combined With Fuzzy VIKOR
This paper develops a partner matching framework for agricultural equipment manufacturers pursuing digital green innovation. Using niche theory and fuzzy VIKOR analysis, the authors identify three core elements—technology superposition, mutual benefit, and mutual trust—that enable knowledge transfer from research institutes to industry. The framework helps manufacturers select innovation partners and implement digital green strategies in high-end equipment development.
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Social innovation in rural governance: A comparative case study across the marginalised rural EU
Rural marginalisation across the EU intensified after 2008, as traditional state governance failed to serve remote communities. This study examines how beyond-the-state governance systems—horizontal, networked, and collaborative—address this gap. Comparing three marginalised regions in Austria, Portugal, and Greece, the authors identify key factors enabling socially innovative governance: decentralised government structures, strong interregional networks, stakeholder discourse, and institutional stability. The findings reveal conditions necessary for embedding social innovation in rural governance.
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Smart Villagers as Actors of Digital Social Innovation in Rural Areas
Rural inhabitants drive digital social innovation to address problems like poor mobility, demographic decline, and digital inequality. Two German villages demonstrate how local innovators—termed Smart Villagers—create solutions like community apps and car-sharing systems. These bottom-up actors work as drivers, supporters, and users, collaborating with external professionals. The research shows Smart Villagers are motivated and skilled but require outside support to sustain their initiatives.
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Organizational Path Constitution in Technological Innovation: Evidence from Rural Telehealth1
This paper develops a theory of how technological innovation paths form within organizations, using a rural telehealth case study. It combines path dependence (historical constraints) with path creation (deliberate actor choices) to explain how organizations transform innovation patterns, merge or separate paths, and sometimes become locked into dominant patterns they struggle to escape.
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Participatory design of digital innovation in agricultural research-for-development: insights from practice
Participatory design methodologies improve ICT adoption in agriculture, but implementing them in smallholder farming contexts creates real challenges. The authors document tensions between design ideals and project realities in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, including mismatched stakeholder expectations, top-down hierarchies, neglected digital ecosystems, and poor software reuse. They offer practical guidance for agricultural researchers to conduct more effective participatory design processes that produce meaningful digital innovations.
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Revealing power dynamics and staging conflicts in agricultural system transitions: Case studies of innovation platforms in New Zealand
Innovation platforms in New Zealand's agricultural sector reveal how power dynamics shape agricultural transitions toward sustainability. When actors strategically stage conflicts of interest, they can shift power relations from one-sided to mutual dependency, enabling actors to acknowledge and solve disagreements. Platforms that fail to stage conflicts maintain antagonistic power relations and block progress. The research shows that power relations are dynamic, context-specific forces that fundamentally shape transition outcomes, not merely tools wielded by incumbent actors.
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Climate change stimulated agricultural innovation and exchange across Asia
Climate cooling events across Eurasia between 3750 and 2000 years ago reduced crop yields and forced ancient farmers to innovate. Farmers on the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia diversified their crops in response. Chinese farmers developed new cropping systems and grain transport networks connecting north and south. In areas with worse conditions, communities shifted toward pastoralism and long-distance trade networks. These innovations emerged directly from farmers adapting to climate-driven productivity losses.
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Looking at Agricultural Innovation Platforms through an Innovation Champion Lens
Innovation platforms bring agricultural stakeholders together to drive change, but the role of 'innovation champion' within these platforms remains poorly understood. This study analyzes three West African innovation platforms and identifies different types of champions using management science frameworks. The authors find that existing champion categories don't fully capture agricultural innovation dynamics, suggesting new categories may be needed and that champion interactions deserve further investigation.
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Innovation as a booster of rural artisan entrepreneurship: a case study of black pottery
Young artisan entrepreneurs in northern Portugal have revitalized black pottery production by introducing design and process innovations while preserving traditional knowledge and local culture. These innovators built networks with other young artisans, generating commercial growth and contributing to rural development. The study shows that innovation, entrepreneurial behavior, and artisan networks are essential drivers of rural artisan business success.
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Evaluating Brazilian Agriculturalists’ IoT Smart Agriculture Adoption Barriers: Understanding Stakeholder Salience Prior to Launching an Innovation
Brazilian agriculturalists who adopted IoT smart agriculture technologies were educated, tech-savvy opinion leaders. Successful innovations were simple, easy to communicate, socially accepted, and highly functional. Observability, compatibility, and low complexity drove adoption decisions. Farmers cited excessive complexity and poor compatibility as main barriers. The study recommends targeting opinion leaders, simplifying technologies, and expanding farmer education programs.
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INNOVATION PLATFORMS IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT
Innovation platforms bring together agricultural stakeholders to learn, negotiate, and solve development challenges collaboratively. However, this study warns they are not universally applicable. The authors provide a decision-support tool for agencies to critically assess when innovation platforms are genuinely needed versus when simpler, cheaper alternatives exist. The tool helps determine what resources and conditions are necessary for platforms to succeed in achieving agricultural development outcomes.
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DO MATURE INNOVATION PLATFORMS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT? A META-ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES
Innovation Platforms in agricultural research for development generate local enthusiasm and bring stakeholders together, but rarely achieve impact at scale. The study analyzed eight mature platforms across three continents and found that while they can produce locally adapted, economically feasible innovations, scaling remains limited. Platforms work best when demand-driven, participatory, and embedded in broader extension networks. The authors call for rigorous measurement of platform performance to understand what process designs actually work.
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The long way to innovation adoption: insights from precision agriculture
Italian farms adopt precision agriculture technologies at low rates despite their potential for sustainable soil management. This study uses the awareness-knowledge-adoption-product framework to identify barriers to adoption, including farm characteristics, socio-economic factors, and psychological complexity. The research finds that agricultural knowledge and innovation systems play a critical mediating role in promoting technology uptake, and strengthening these systems across all adoption phases could increase farmer understanding and reduce adoption barriers.
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Understanding Smallholder Farmers’ Intention to Adopt Agricultural Apps: The Role of Mastery Approach and Innovation Hubs in Mexico
Mexican smallholder farmers' willingness to adopt agricultural advice apps depends primarily on their assessment of technical infrastructure and ability to learn through the app. Performance expectations drive adoption across all farmers. Mastery-approach goals matter only for younger farmers and those outside innovation hubs. Innovation hubs reduce the importance of learning motivation, suggesting they provide alternative knowledge pathways for adoption decisions.
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Community Matters: Successful Entrepreneurship in Remote Rural US Locations
Rural entrepreneurs in remote US towns succeed more when motivated by family income and flexibility rather than wealth or personal challenge. Entrepreneurs in communities with strong bridging social capital—networks connecting diverse groups—perform better because these connections help retain skilled workers, reduce costs, access capital, and build customer loyalty. Community characteristics matter more than general rural disadvantages in explaining entrepreneurial success.
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Big Data and Climate Smart Agriculture-Status and Implications for Agricultural Research and Innovation in India
Big data analytics can accelerate agricultural research and innovation for climate-smart agriculture in India. Climate-smart agriculture integrates technologies and practices that boost farm productivity and incomes while building resilience to climate change and reducing emissions. The paper argues that combining big data analytics with climate science enables farmers and scientists to make data-driven decisions at the farm level, transforming agriculture toward sustainability and climate resilience.
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Technological innovations in agriculture: the application of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence for grain traceability and protection
Blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies are transforming grain agriculture by creating transparent, immutable supply chain records and enabling AI-driven risk prediction and dynamic insurance contracts. Smart contracts automate financing based on preset conditions, improving grain quality, preventing fraud, and optimizing logistics. Together, these technologies build more sustainable and resilient agricultural systems that address climate change, price volatility, and supply chain transparency demands.
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Big Data: Fueling the Next Evolution of Agricultural Innovation
Big Data technologies and sensing systems are transforming agriculture by making farm-level measurement and decision-making economically viable. Advanced analytics applied to diverse data sources create value for farmers and society through improved economic returns and reduced environmental impact. However, how value gets distributed across the agricultural sector depends on organizational collaboration and intellectual property rules, which remain uncertain.
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Lessons on Transdisciplinary Research in a Co-Innovation Programme in the New Zealand Agricultural Sector
New Zealand's agricultural R&D programme implements co-innovation through six innovation platforms using an agricultural innovation systems approach. The programme faces three main challenges: managing complex multi-stakeholder networks, aligning rigid research funding procedures with flexible co-innovation needs, and shifting participants from linear to interactive innovation thinking. The authors conclude that learning-by-doing is essential, and institutional changes to national R&D structures are needed to support co-innovation through updated policies, instruments, and incentives.
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Agricultural innovation platform as a tool for development oriented research: Lessons and challenges in the formation and operationalization
Agricultural Innovation Platforms (AIPs) bring together multiple stakeholders to address agricultural development challenges through integrated research. This study documents the formation and operation of AIPs across Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, identifying six key stages from problem identification through implementation. Success depends on recognizing indigenous knowledge, involving local leadership, ensuring strong facilitation, and building stakeholder capacity. Market-led approaches accelerated results, while major obstacles included limited stakeholder skills and dependency mentality.
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The Power of Experience: Farmers' Knowledge and Sustainable Innovations in Agriculture
Farmers' knowledge plays a crucial role in developing sustainable agricultural innovations. The paper outlines why farmer expertise matters, explains how it differs from scientific knowledge, and proposes practical methods for scientists and farmers to collaborate effectively. It concludes by identifying institutional changes needed in agricultural knowledge systems to support this integration.
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Making Land Rights Accessible: Social Movements and Political-Legal Innovation in the Rural Philippines
Social movements in the rural Philippines overcame obstacles to land reform by combining political and legal strategies with support networks for rights advocacy. The paper shows that agrarian reform laws can be effectively implemented when rural poor claimants access mobilization support structures and pursue integrated strategies that activate state actors and resist elite opposition. However, these strategies have inherent limits.
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The role of soil water monitoring tools and agricultural innovation platforms in improving food security and income of farmers in smallholder irrigation schemes in Tanzania
Soil water monitoring tools and agricultural innovation platforms significantly improve food security and household income for smallholder farmers in Tanzania's irrigation schemes. The study combined quantitative data from farmer field books and household surveys with qualitative focus group data across two schemes. Both interventions together, and the innovation platform alone, demonstrably enhanced farmers' food security and income outcomes.
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How to Strengthen Innovation Support Services in Agriculture with Regard to Multi-Stakeholder Approaches
The EU AgriSpin project analyzed 57 agricultural innovation case studies to identify effective innovation support services. The research shows that support needs vary by innovation phase: early stages require network building and innovator support, while later phases need training and credit services. Brokering functions and knowledge co-production services prove essential for helping farmers and value chains innovate across farm, supply chain, and territorial levels.
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Compositional dynamics of multilevel innovation platforms in agricultural research for development
Innovation platforms in agricultural research for development require multilevel stakeholder engagement across community and national levels to fulfill key innovation system functions. The study of platforms in Central Africa reveals that different functions demand strategic involvement of specific stakeholders at particular levels, rather than equal participation across all groups. Research and dissemination activities dominated the functional sequence in these platforms, distinguishing them from business-oriented innovation platforms.
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Lessons for co-innovation in agricultural innovation systems: a multiple case study analysis and a conceptual model
This study examines three agricultural innovation projects in New Zealand to identify what makes co-innovation successful. The researchers found that effective co-innovation requires network-level capability and legitimacy, clear understanding of actor priorities, and sufficient resources. Project leaders must include the right mix of stakeholders and foster open dialogue to build shared vision. The paper presents a conceptual model to guide future co-innovation efforts in agricultural systems.
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A paradigm shift in African agricultural research for development: the role of innovation platforms
Agricultural research organizations in Africa shifted from focusing solely on technology efficiency to using multi-stakeholder innovation platforms that address institutional barriers. Case studies of maize and cassava value chains in West and Central Africa show that yields and incomes increased significantly when platforms combined three capacity-building interventions: learning workshops for policymakers, skills training for facilitators, and coaching support. Success required facilitators to master observation, testing, and refinement of platform processes using practical, visualizable tools.
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Promoting innovations in agriculture: Living labs in the development of rural areas
Living Labs represent an effective approach for developing agricultural innovations in rural areas. This systematic review of 18 studies shows that agricultural Living Labs vary significantly by geography, theme, and organization. The research identifies two core dimensions: the innovation process and the actors involved. The findings emphasize that successful agricultural Living Labs require examining how different actors interact and adapting flexible approaches to fit specific local agricultural contexts for sustainable development.
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Gendered Intra‐Household Decision‐Making Dynamics in Agricultural Innovation Processes: Assets, Norms and Bargaining Power
This study examines how household members make decisions about adopting agricultural innovations among smallholder farmers in Uganda. Men dominate decision-making about which innovations to adopt and how to use outputs, particularly for income-generating crops. These patterns reflect and reinforce existing gender inequalities in asset ownership and are shaped by social norms and control over production resources.
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What can rural agencies do to address the additional costs of rural services? A typology of rural service innovation
Rural health and social care agencies face higher costs delivering services across sparsely populated areas while meeting national quality standards. This paper identifies six categories of service innovations that rural agencies have developed to address these challenges. The typology reveals practical approaches at the health and social care interface, offering models for transferring successful practices between regions and directing future research.
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Rural women entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review and beyond
This systematic literature review examines 192 academic papers on rural women entrepreneurship published over 20 years. Research interest surged in the last decade, with India leading in publication volume and the United Kingdom in citation impact. Studies focus on factors influencing entrepreneurship, gender effects, and government support schemes. The review identifies underexplored areas including entrepreneurial education, microcredit, and information technology's impact on rural women entrepreneurs.
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Social Media for Enhancing Innovation in Agri-food and Rural Development: Current Dynamics in Ontario, Canada
Social media adoption in Ontario's agri-food and rural sectors remains in early stages with significant barriers. Analysis of 50 online communities reveals that farmers, entrepreneurs, scientists, and rural workers struggle to collaborate effectively on Web 2.0 platforms. Key obstacles include feedback gaps, conflicting stakeholder views on credibility and risk, and insufficient capacity to develop appropriate applications. The paper concludes that user-oriented, autonomous social media tools are essential for enabling genuine innovation in rural systems.
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A research agenda for evaluating living labs as an open innovation model for environmental and agricultural sustainability
Living labs—collaborative spaces where stakeholders co-create and test innovations in real-world settings—show promise for addressing environmental and agricultural challenges. This paper presents a research agenda developed through expert consultation to identify gaps in how living labs are evaluated and made effective. The authors find that living labs remain underutilized in environmental and agricultural sectors and call for better understanding of stakeholder diversity, evaluation methods, and conditions that enable their success.
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Exploring farmer perceptions of agricultural innovations for maize-legume intensification in the mid-hills region of Nepal
Maize-legume intercropping in Nepal's mid-hills faces low adoption of proven innovations despite their productivity benefits. Researchers conducted two-year on-farm trials with farmer participation, finding that tested innovations increased yields significantly. Active farmer involvement improved their perceptions and adoption interest. However, final adoption remained limited by labor scarcity, input availability, and cultural preferences, especially for resource-poor farmers. The study demonstrates that context-specific, participatory research design is essential for rural innovation impact.
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Innovation systems and technical efficiency in developing‐country agriculture
This study analyzes how agricultural innovation systems affect technical efficiency across 85 developing countries from 2004 to 2011. Mobile phone subscriptions and scientific research output both improve agricultural production efficiency. Countries in the lower technological class achieve 44% efficiency compared to 62% in the higher class, revealing substantial room for productivity gains through efficiency-focused investments in innovation infrastructure.
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The system of rice intensification as a sustainable agricultural innovation: introducing, adapting and scaling up a system of rice intensification practices in the Timbuktu region of Mali
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was successfully introduced and scaled in Mali's Timbuktu region over three years, growing from 1 to 450 farmers. SRI increases rice yields while reducing seeds, water, and chemical inputs through single young transplants, wide spacing, compost, mechanical weeding, and intermittent irrigation. Success depended on technical adaptation, farmer training, government collaboration, and funding. Farmers achieved significantly higher yields and income, and the approach inspired further local innovations in sustainable rice production.
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Introducing ‘microAKIS’: a farmer-centric approach to understanding the contribution of advice to agricultural innovation
This paper introduces microAKIS, a farmer-centered framework for analyzing how agricultural advice systems contribute to innovation on farms. The approach shifts focus from institutional structures to individual farmer experiences and decision-making, examining how advisory services actually influence farmers' adoption of new practices and technologies. The framework helps identify which advice mechanisms most effectively support agricultural innovation at the farm level.
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Organisational Innovation Systems for multi-actor co-innovation in European agriculture, forestry and related sectors: Diversity and common attributes
This study examined 200 multi-actor co-innovation partnerships across European agriculture and forestry sectors. Partnerships succeeded when they brought together actors with complementary knowledge, involved stakeholders throughout the innovation process, and fostered effective knowledge sharing. Most partnerships co-designed objectives, prioritized communication beyond their boundaries, and received external funding. The research reveals that current policy interpretations of agricultural knowledge systems may not adequately reflect regional differences in how European co-innovation partnerships actually operate.
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Scaling practices within agricultural innovation platforms: Between pushing and pulling
Innovation platforms in Rwanda combine two scaling approaches: push strategies that solve immediate problems and pull strategies that build networks across multiple levels. The study finds that platforms most effectively increase farmer revenues when their activities align with government policies and existing conditions. Successful scaling requires protected spaces, flexibility to handle complexity, and strategic balance between both approaches to transform agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Capital factors and rural women entrepreneurship development
Human, social, institutional, and financial capital all significantly influence rural women's entrepreneurship decisions and success. A study of seven handloom entrepreneurs in Manipur, India found these capital factors are interconnected; integrating them strengthens entrepreneurial outcomes. The importance of each capital type varies depending on whether women had prior entrepreneurial experience.
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Entrepreneurial Origin and the Configuration of Innovation in Rural Areas: The Case of Cumbria, North West England
Rural entrepreneurs in Cumbria, England access innovation knowledge from beyond their region, creating innovation systems that cross regional and national boundaries. New arrivals and immigrants innovate most frequently, while locally born and returnee entrepreneurs show lower innovation rates. The study reveals that rural areas possess weaker local knowledge systems but entrepreneurs overcome this by tapping nonlocal infrastructure, suggesting innovation systems are constructed by individual actors rather than confined to regional boundaries.
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Contribution of farmers' experiments and innovations to Cuba's agricultural innovation system
Farmers in Cuba conduct their own experiments and innovations that significantly contribute to the country's agricultural system. The study found that government support for participatory knowledge development, combined with interactive meetings like farmer field schools, enables knowledge exchange between farmers and researchers. This multi-stakeholder approach institutionalizes farmer knowledge and builds resilience in farming systems.
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Agricultural Innovation Platforms in West Africa
Innovation platforms in West Africa can create institutional change benefiting smallholders when researchers initiate them with clear principles and deep value chain analysis. Effective platforms combine technical and entrepreneurial support for smallholders with strategic mobilization of high-level actors for regulatory and market backing. Success depends on the platform's maturity and the operating environment; contentious settings limit mobilization efforts.
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THE SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) AS A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION
The System of Rice Intensification, developed in Madagascar, now reaches 500,000 farmers across 20+ countries who increase rice production while reducing external inputs and costs. Rather than examining the innovation itself, this paper analyzes the transnational system of innovation that emerged around SRI. Farmers voluntarily extended the methodology to peers, adapted it to reduce labor demands, and applied it to rainfed rice and other crops. Diverse organizations formed innovative alliances to disseminate and adjust the methodology, driving global adoption despite institutional resistance.
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Agricultural Innovations for Sustainable Crop Production Intensification
Sustainable crop production intensification requires linking farmers' local knowledge with science-based innovations through institutional arrangements. The paper reviews agronomic practices supporting sustainable systems, including crop selection, ecosystem-based farming, pest management, nutrient management, and irrigation technologies. It proposes seven contextual changes that demand examination of how agricultural innovation occurs and spreads to farm level.
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The Role of Actors in Social Innovation in Rural Areas
Social innovation in rural areas depends on specific types of actors playing distinct roles. This study interviewed key informants from three socially innovative initiatives in rural Spain and Scotland. Local actors and processes prove central, while facilitators and neutral intermediaries significantly impact outcomes. Social economy organizations coordinate networks effectively, and public sector involvement through LEADER programs shapes how rural communities address social needs and opportunities.
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Stimulating small-scale farmer innovation and adaptation with Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA): Lessons from successful implementation in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and South Asia
PICSA is a participatory approach that trains smallholder farmers to use climate and weather information for agricultural decision-making. Evaluations across seven countries show 87% of trained farmers made beneficial changes to crops, livestock, or livelihoods. The approach succeeds by treating farmers as decision-makers, tailoring information to local contexts, and strengthening extension and meteorological services. Over 200,000 farmers in 23 countries have been trained, and the method is now integrated into policy and training programs.
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A Systematic Literature Review of the IoT in Agriculture—Global Adoption, Innovations, Security, and Privacy Challenges
This systematic review examines Internet of Things applications in agriculture from 2018 to 2023, analyzing 96 papers. IoT technology connects agricultural equipment, sensors, and specialists to improve production, reduce costs, and increase efficiency in remote regions. The review covers enabling technologies, machine learning applications, security challenges, and implementation barriers. It synthesizes current developments and future directions for IoT-based agricultural systems.
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Enhanced learning from multi‐stakeholder partnerships: Lessons from the Enabling Rural Innovation in Africa programme
Multi-stakeholder partnerships in rural innovation require structured learning approaches to succeed. The Enabling Rural Innovation programme in Africa identified five key success factors: shared vision, strong leadership support, demonstrated benefits, investment in human and social capital, and joint resource mobilization. Major challenges include staff turnover, personality conflicts, institutional differences, and sustaining private sector engagement. Participatory reflection practices help organizations build partnership capacity and drive innovation.
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Farms and Learning Partnerships in Farming Systems Projects: A Response to the Challenges of Complexity in Agricultural Innovation
Learning partnerships between farmers, researchers, and extension advisors effectively address complexity in agricultural innovation. The paper examines two Australian dairy industry case studies and finds that successful partnerships require active negotiation of learning roles and specialized facilitation. Commercial farms serving as learning partners help innovation projects tackle competing demands of productivity, environmental sustainability, and societal expectations.
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How Programme Teams Progress Agricultural Innovation in the Australian Dairy Industry
Programme teams in the Australian dairy sector bring together researchers, extension workers, farmers, and policymakers to drive agricultural innovation. These teams identify stakeholder needs, design change strategies, and pilot solutions—integrating research-led and demand-pull approaches. This semi-formal governance mechanism overcomes institutional weaknesses that favor simple technology adoption, though investment in such innovation capacity remains low and inconsistent across dairy domains.
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Rural Community Participation, Social Networks, and Broadband Use: Examples from Localized and National Survey Data
Broadband access independently increases volunteering in rural communities, separate from the effects of social network size. The study analyzed three datasets to examine how internet connectivity influences community participation, which is particularly vital in rural areas. Results show broadband and social networks operate as distinct factors driving rural civic engagement.
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The green side of social innovation: Using sustainable development goals to classify environmental impacts of rural grassroots initiatives
Rural grassroots social innovations across Europe and the Mediterranean region deliver measurable environmental benefits. Analyzing 238 initiatives, the researchers found that 68% directly address sustainable development goals, with the strongest impacts in natural resource management, sustainable food production, and land access. The study demonstrates that SDG classification effectively categorizes and communicates the environmental value of community-led rural innovations.
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On the role of key players in rural social innovation processes
Rural social innovation projects succeed when led by assertive key players embedded in strong communities capable of collective action. This study of two German communities building rural infrastructure systems reveals that key players navigate internal opposition and external barriers by combining micro-, meso-, and macro-level strategies. Communities seeking independence from remote political and economic control benefit most when leaders and residents work together to overcome resistance to novel approaches.
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Social Capital, Financial Literacy, and Rural Household Entrepreneurship: A Mediating Effect Analysis
Social capital promotes rural entrepreneurship in China by improving financial literacy among household members. The study uses survey data to show that bridging social capital—connections across different groups—increases entrepreneurial activity. Information and communication technologies amplify this effect by facilitating knowledge sharing. The findings support policies encouraging entrepreneurship through social networks and digital infrastructure in rural areas.
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The influence of multi-stakeholder platforms on farmers' innovation and rural development in emerging economies: a systematic literature review
Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) in emerging economies create interfaces connecting diverse actors to support farmer innovation. This systematic review of 44 studies finds that MSPs achieve different innovation outcomes depending on their organizational goals and activities. The research identifies key gaps: disciplinary fragmentation, linear thinking, insufficient attention to informal institutions, and overlooked power dynamics that affect how MSPs influence farmer innovation.
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Developing capacity for agricultural market chain innovation: Experience with the ‘PMCA’ in Uganda
The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), originally developed in the Andes to drive pro-poor agricultural innovation, was successfully adapted and applied in Uganda to stimulate technological and institutional innovation in local commodity chains. The approach requires intensive capacity development that builds social networks, shifts attitudes, and develops both technical and social skills among researchers, farmers, market agents, and policymakers working together across the value chain.
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Supporting bottom-up innovative initiatives throughout the spiral of innovations: Lessons from rural Greece
Bottom-up innovative initiatives emerge in rural areas even under difficult conditions. The Spiral of Innovations framework, applied non-linearly, helps track how these initiatives develop. Innovation Support Services tailored to each initiative and its development stage prove critical for success. Networking between diverse actors—farmers, researchers, businesses, policymakers—drives innovation co-generation and strengthens rural economies.
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New challenges for public research organisations in agricultural innovation in developing economies: Evidence from Embrapa in Brazil's soybean industry
Brazil's agricultural research organization Embrapa possesses diverse technological capabilities for soybean innovation, varying in novelty and complexity across different technologies and distributed across multiple units. The paper argues that as global food demand rises and innovation becomes increasingly interdependent, indigenous public research organizations like Embrapa must fundamentally reorganize how they manage these capabilities to better support agricultural innovation and productivity growth in developing economies.
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Connecting for Innovation: Four Universities Collaboratively Preparing Pre-service Teachers to Teach in Rural and Remote Western Australia
Four Western Australian universities collaborated to improve teacher preparation for rural and remote employment. They created seven curriculum modules aligned with professional teaching standards, established cross-institutional field experiences, and built a community of practice connecting universities, schools, and the education department. The project enhanced university capacity to prepare graduates for rural placements and demonstrated how collaborative research can inform policy and program development.
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Intermediation for technology diffusion and user innovation in a developing rural economy: a social learning perspective
Academic research centers can effectively transfer technology to rural small businesses by acting as intermediaries that broker, facilitate, and configure technology for end-users. A study of fish farming businesses in rural Colombia shows that intermediation activities help users adopt and adapt technology through social learning. The research identifies specific design components that optimize technology transfer from universities to rural industries in developing economies.
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Micro-entrepreneurship, new media technologies, and the reproduction and reconfiguration of gender in rural China
Rural Chinese micro-entrepreneurs use new media technologies like mobile phones and the internet to start businesses, but gender inequalities persist. Women and men face unequal access to capital and social networks despite technology's potential. While some women gain economic opportunities and challenge traditional gender norms through technology use, deeply entrenched power differentials mean technology often reproduces rather than overcomes existing gender hierarchies.
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Toward Sustainability: Novelties, Areas of Learning and Innovation in Urban Agriculture
Urban agriculture in U.S. cities generates innovations across four key areas: financing, production technology, market development, and social acceptance. Researchers interviewed practitioners in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago to identify how they overcome obstacles and drive change. The study finds that urban agriculture novelties can enhance positive impacts on cities and create opportunities for social learning and broader societal transformation.
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The evolution of the MasAgro hubs: responsiveness and serendipity as drivers of agricultural innovation in a dynamic and heterogeneous context
The MasAgro program in Mexico evolved from a narrow technology focus to a broader innovation system approach by adapting to local contexts and opportunities. Hub managers drove this shift through responsive management, creating diverse partnerships and technology portfolios suited to different regions. The research shows that effective large-scale agricultural programs require stable macro-level vision combined with flexibility at implementation levels to accommodate farmer diversity and institutional change.
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Assessment of the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) approach: Case studies from Malawi and Uganda
The Enabling Rural Innovation approach strengthens rural communities in Malawi and Uganda by linking smallholder farmers to markets and building entrepreneurial capacity. Results show households increased incomes and assets, farmers gained market analysis and negotiation skills, and gender decision-making became more shared at household and community levels. Women acquired skills at lower rates than men. Participatory research boosted farmer investments in soil fertility technologies.
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Public private partnerships for agricultural innovation: concepts and experiences from 124 cases in Latin America
Public-private partnerships for agricultural innovation in Latin America often lack clear cost-benefit planning despite forming frequently. The paper identifies four conditions for successful partnerships: no single partner can achieve goals alone, partners gain more than they invest, synergy exists, and gains distribute proportionally. Evidence shows private companies participate readily because investments are low or tax-deductible, but both parties need coherent planning to improve partnership viability.
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The role of living labs in cultivating inclusive and responsible innovation in precision agriculture
Living labs serve as effective platforms for developing precision agriculture technologies that meet farmer and community needs. Researchers used an interdisciplinary approach combining farmer interviews, field data collection, experiments with payment incentives, design workshops, and extension activities. The methodology produced sustainable solutions that balance social, economic, and environmental concerns. Including diverse experts and engaging farmers throughout the innovation process proved essential for creating trustworthy, responsible agricultural technologies.
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Testing a Framework to Co-Construct Social Innovation Actions: Insights from Seven Marginalized Rural Areas
This study tested a governance framework for developing social innovation actions across seven marginalized rural areas in Europe and the Mediterranean. The researchers found that early-stage support for social innovators and local actors is critical for addressing rural challenges. Defining social innovations requires ongoing engagement and refinement. Feasibility assessments helped identify key success factors: managing social networks, ensuring financial sustainability, and building local knowledge. The framework's lessons apply broadly across rural sectors.
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Building farmers' capacity for innovation generation: Insights from rural Ghana
Rural farmers in Ghana who participate in farmer field forums—a participatory extension approach—generate significantly more innovations than non-participants, with 27% higher probability of innovation and 49% more innovation practices implemented. Education and risk preference also drive farmer innovation. However, the program shows no spillover benefits to non-participants, raising cost-effectiveness concerns. Policies should build farmer innovation capacity through institutional arrangements enabling stakeholder interaction and learning.
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Exploring social innovation through co-creation in rural India using action research
Co-creation workshops in rural Indian villages successfully generated socially innovative solutions to development challenges. The study used action research and co-design techniques to involve citizens in identifying innovative ideas. The authors developed a framework showing how facilitated co-creation effectively produces social innovation, offering practitioners a replicable method for designing more impactful public policies in disadvantaged rural communities.
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Gendered processes of agricultural innovation in the Northern uplands of Vietnam
Ethnic minority women in Vietnam's Northern uplands develop agricultural innovations through informal networks and family structures rather than formal institutions. Their innovations are incremental, small-scale, and linked to entrepreneurship, strengthening their household position and economy. Understanding these gendered innovation processes reveals that women's approaches differ fundamentally from men's, requiring policymakers to redesign agricultural support programs to fit women's actual practices and preferences rather than imposing standardized packages.
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Managing indigenous knowledge for sustainable agricultural development in developing countries: Knowledge management approaches in the social context
Indigenous knowledge about agriculture in Tanzania is shared through weak, informal networks, causing significant knowledge loss. The study found that gender, location, culture, trust, and ICT access shape how farmers acquire and share agricultural knowledge. Knowledge management approaches can integrate indigenous knowledge with other systems while accounting for these differences, supporting sustainable agricultural development in developing countries.
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Industry relatedness, FDI liberalization and the indigenous innovation process in China
This study examines how Chinese firms innovate through related industries, particularly when foreign ownership restrictions ease. The research shows that R&D investment drives innovation output, which boosts productivity. Related industries consistently support innovation across all stages. When FDI liberalization occurs, firms increasingly leverage relatedness to adapt foreign technologies locally, recombine knowledge from adjacent sectors, and solve organizational challenges—strengthening their indigenous innovation capacity.
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Organizational culture, organizational citizenship behavior, knowledge sharing and innovation: a study of indigenous people production organizations
This study examines how organizational culture, citizenship behavior, knowledge sharing, and innovation interact within Indigenous peoples' production organizations. Using data from 139 Indigenous workers, the research finds that organizational culture directly influences both citizenship behavior and innovation, while knowledge sharing alone does not drive innovation. Organizational citizenship behavior mediates the relationship between culture and knowledge sharing, suggesting these organizations motivate staff participation but need stronger mechanisms to translate that into innovation performance.
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Participatory science and innovation for improved sanitation and hygiene: process and outcome evaluation of project SHINE, a school-based intervention in Rural Tanzania
Project SHINE engaged pastoralist students and communities in rural Tanzania through participatory science education to develop sustainable sanitation and hygiene improvements. Students showed significant behavioral changes including reduced unhygienic practices, increased handwashing intention, and improved social communication about sanitation. Youth demonstrated strong leadership and communities participated enthusiastically. Locally-developed projects like soap-making from local materials proved viable for long-term health and livelihood gains.
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Making heart-lung machines work in India: Imports, indigenous innovation and the challenge of replicating cardiac surgery in Bombay, 1952-1962
Two Bombay surgeons successfully performed open-heart surgery using heart-lung machines in 1962, despite India's restrictions on foreign imports and currency exchange. Kersi Dastur leveraged local Parsi manufacturing networks while PK Sen used Rockefeller Foundation connections to access international training and equipment. Both faced steep learning curves adapting imported technology to local conditions. Their success required substantial resources and reflected nationalist politics valuing indigenous innovation alongside imported technology.
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Using developmental evaluation to enhance continuous reflection, learning and adaptation of an innovation platform in Australian Indigenous primary healthcare
This paper describes how developmental evaluation enhanced an innovation platform designed to improve primary healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. The platform brought together diverse stakeholders to address complex health challenges through collaborative decision-making and quality improvement. Developmental evaluation provided real-time feedback that guided continuous adaptation of the platform's formation and functioning, proving well-suited to evaluating complex multi-stakeholder networks.
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Enhancing innovation between scientific and indigenous knowledge: pioneer NGOs in India
Local communities in Tamil Nadu, India combine traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge through supportive networks to innovate health practices and environmental conservation. These networks create "ethnomedicine capacity"—the ability of local stakeholders to actively generate and share knowledge. Integration of local and scientific knowledge proves crucial for sustainable adoption. Networks enhance social capital and enable development, though unequal power relations risk transforming traditions into commodities controlled by new elites.
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Social Ties and Indigenous Innovation in China's Transition Economy: The Moderating Effects of Learning Intent
This study examines how social network ties influence indigenous innovation in Chinese firms. The researchers analyzed 270 companies and found that business network ties show an inverted U-shaped relationship with all three innovation patterns (original, integrative, and re-innovation), while institutional ties affect them differently. Learning intent moderates these relationships, strengthening or weakening the effects of social ties on innovation outcomes.
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Foreign and Indigenous Innovation in China: Some Evidence from Shanghai
China's policy push for indigenous innovation aims to reduce reliance on foreign technology and move beyond low-cost manufacturing. This paper examines multinational R&D centers in Shanghai to assess their innovation contributions and potential unintended consequences. The authors investigate whether policies using market access and procurement to capture global R&D activity within China will achieve their goals or create unexpected problems.
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Effects of intellectual capital and university knowledge in indigenous innovation: evidence from Indian SMEs
Intellectual capital and university partnerships both strengthen indigenous innovation in Indian SMEs, with their combined effect exceeding individual contributions. Dysfunctional competition amplifies intellectual capital's impact on innovation, while environmental uncertainty weakens university knowledge's effect. Indigenous innovation directly improves business performance, with competitive intensity enhancing this relationship but uncertainty reducing it.
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Implications of China's innovation policy shift: Does “indigenous” mean closed?
China's indigenous innovation policy encourages firms to develop new technologies domestically, but companies adopt different strategies. Firms using closed innovation collaborate locally through personal networks and learning-by-doing, while open innovation firms partner across distances using science and technology-based learning. This reveals that indigenous innovation in China is not uniform—some firms remain geographically isolated while others engage globally.
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Water insecurity, food insecurity and social capital associated with a group-led microfinance programme in semi-rural Kenya
A microfinance programme in semi-rural Kenya reduced water and food insecurity through increased social capital. Higher social capital—measured by group cohesion, trust, and mutual support—directly lowered water insecurity, which in turn reduced food insecurity. The findings suggest that programmes building social connections can address interconnected food and water security challenges in rural low- and middle-income communities.
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High performance work systems, workforce productivity, and innovation: a comparison of MNCs and indigenous firms
Foreign-owned multinational corporations in Ireland adopt high-performance work systems more extensively than Irish-owned firms, resulting in higher workforce productivity and innovation rates. The study shows that differences in organizational effectiveness between foreign and indigenous firms are explained by variations in how intensively they use these human resource practices.
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Living Labs for Rural Areas: Contextualization of Living Lab Frameworks, Concepts and Practices
Living Labs—participatory spaces for co-creating innovation—offer rural areas a framework for sustainable development and smart village initiatives. The paper argues that Living Labs can bridge rural-urban opportunity gaps, drive digital transformation, support circular economy practices, and foster local self-sufficiency. Community engagement and social change emerge as essential elements for enabling sustainable rural living through these collaborative innovation environments.
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Context matters: Co-creating nature-based solutions in rural living labs
Rural living labs co-create nature-based solutions with local stakeholders, but context shapes these processes differently than in urban settings. This study identifies eighteen contextual factors influencing co-creation in rural areas, including stakeholder engagement challenges. The authors recommend treating co-creation as a dynamic interplay of interconnected local factors rather than a standardized approach, arguing this place-based method increases the success and real-world impact of nature-based solutions in rural territories.
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Digitalization and Social Innovation in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Indonesia*
Digital technology adoption in rural Indonesia stimulates new social and institutional practices. The study finds that different technologies create varying adoption complexities and skill requirements, generating challenges that prompt collective learning. Cultural values significantly influence whether communities embrace digital innovation or maintain existing practices, with openness to change facilitating legitimacy for new solutions.
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From Social Entrepreneurship to Social Innovation: The Role of Social Capital. Study Case in Colombian Rural Communities Victim of Armed Conflict
Social enterprises in rural Colombian communities affected by armed conflict generate social capital by integrating into social networks. This social capital enables interactive learning, institutional change, and social innovation. The study demonstrates that social entrepreneurs who build strong network connections develop enhanced capabilities that transform their enterprises into successful social innovations addressing community needs.
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Understanding the process of social innovation in rural regions: some Hungarian case studies
This paper examines social innovation processes in rural Hungary through case studies in the Balaton Uplands region. The research identifies key actors—entrepreneurs, scientists, and local action group managers—who drive innovation in this tourism-focused area. The innovations studied include GIS systems, smartphone applications, and entrepreneurial networks that leverage the region's natural, human, and social resources.
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Living labs fostering open innovation and rural development: Methodology and results
Rural living labs enable user-driven ICT innovation for economic and social development through open partnerships among stakeholders. The paper presents three case studies from Hungary, South Africa, and Spain, examining how living labs are established, how users participate, and what innovations emerge. Successful approaches include stakeholder platforms, user communities, cyclic innovation processes, and participatory action research—all requiring strong adaptation to local contexts.
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Living labs as instruments for business and social innovation in rural areas
Living labs methodology applied across seven rural European and South African regions successfully supported business and social innovation. A collaborative platform using open service-oriented architecture enabled rural communities to share services and applications. The study demonstrates that living labs accelerated innovation processes and rural development outcomes, with a common methodology supporting launch, operation, experimentation, and monitoring across diverse rural settings.
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Risks Identification and Management Related to Rural Innovation Projects through Social Networks Analysis: A Case Study in Spain
This study identifies and maps risks in rural innovation projects by analyzing stakeholder networks. Using a Spanish irrigation optimization project as a case study, researchers conducted interviews and applied social network analysis to uncover risk factors. The analysis revealed that technical, economic, and time-related risks were most significant, concentrated among irrigation communities and project developers. The approach provides a visual framework for rural innovation managers to better assess and mitigate project risks.
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Rural Living Labs: Inclusive Digital Transformation in the Countryside
Rural areas lag behind cities in digital transformation research and implementation. This study develops a Rural Living Lab framework to support user-centered digitalization in sparsely populated regions. Based on the DigiBy project in northern Sweden, the authors identify five key components for designing digital transformation pilots: rural context, digitalization, governance and business models, facilitating methods, and multi-stakeholder engagement. The framework helps rural communities understand and apply digital opportunities for service development.
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A social innovation model for equitable access to quality health services for rural populations: a case from Sumapaz, a rural district of Bogota, Colombia
A social innovation model developed in rural Sumapaz, Colombia demonstrates how to achieve equitable healthcare access for vulnerable populations through community participation and holistic health approaches. The model addresses systemic gaps in care coordination and upstream health factors, enhancing service quality while generating broader community benefits in agriculture and development. The case shows that creative strategies can extend Universal Health Coverage to remote areas.
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The Role of Farmers’ Umbrella Organizations in Building Transformative Capacity around Grassroots Innovations in Rural Agri-Food Systems in Guatemala
Farmers' umbrella organizations in rural Guatemala catalyze transformative capacity for grassroots innovations in food systems. These organizations enable socio-technical transitions by creating shared sustainability visions, supporting experimentation, providing technical assistance, and connecting farmers across household, community, and institutional levels. Gender and generational gaps limit this potential and require further attention.
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Local Development Initiatives as Promoters of Social Innovation: Evidence from Two European Rural Regions
Local Action Groups and Local Development Associations in rural Austria and Portugal actively promote social innovation to address regional problems. These organizations drive rural development through community-led initiatives, though they face significant operational challenges. The study fills a gap in rural innovation research by demonstrating how local institutions catalyze social change in peripheral areas.
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Seeing the social capital in agricultural innovation systems: using SNA to visualise bonding and bridging ties in rural communities
This paper uses social network analysis to map information flows in rural Bolivian communities, revealing how bonding ties within community organizations and bridging ties to local institutions shape access to agricultural information. The analysis shows that different ethnic groups have distinct organizational structures, which development agencies can leverage to design targeted strategies for reaching marginalized farmers and improving their awareness of new technologies and market information.
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Social innovation in health: strengthening Community Systems for Universal Health Coverage in rural areas
Three case studies from the Philippines, Malawi, and Colombia demonstrate that social innovation in health strengthens rural community systems for universal health coverage. Community-led initiatives built local capacity through co-learning and leadership, with catalytic agents challenging power dynamics and enabling communities to become active agents rather than passive participants. These approaches improved health service access and quality for vulnerable populations while increasing community agency and empowerment.
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Converging for deterring land abandonment: a systematization of experiences of a rural grassroots innovation
Rural grassroots initiatives in Portugal's Alentejo region build resilience against land abandonment and degradation through participatory governance, shared sustainability vision, and social capital. The study documents how these socially innovative projects preserve traditional land management knowledge while creating ecological and social resilience in a climate-vulnerable area.
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“Marrying the ‘System of Innovation’ and micro enterprises in real world rural SADC”: an overview of collaborative SMME incubation in the Rural Living Lab of Sekhukhune
This paper examines a rural living lab in Sekhukhune that combines systems of innovation with small and medium enterprise incubation. The authors identify challenges in bridging formal innovation systems with the practical realities of rural small business operators. They advocate for more inclusive, collaborative approaches to rural development that engage real communities in their actual work environments.
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Digital social innovations in rural areas – process tracing and mapping critical junctures
Digital social innovation projects in rural areas succeed when they combine bottom-up community participation with strategic use of both digital and non-digital tools. The study identifies four critical factors: innovation can start locally or externally with different long-term effects; participatory processes are essential; blending digital and traditional approaches reduces barriers; and collaborative learning supports lasting institutionalization. These elements help rural digitalization projects create sustained impact beyond their initial scope.
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Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas
Farmers in marginalised rural areas engage in social innovation initiatives when two key conditions exist: unmet social needs and the presence of a local agency that facilitates relationships. This study tested that framework using Vàzapp', a rural hub in Southern Italy that connects farmers to revitalise their communities. The findings confirm that both factors drive farmer participation, offering policymakers and social innovators concrete guidance for designing similar projects elsewhere.
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A Canadian Rural Living Lab Hospital: Implementing solutions for improving rural emergency care
A rural hospital in Quebec established a living lab to develop and test solutions for improving emergency care in remote areas. The initiative brings together stakeholders to implement and evaluate innovations including simulation training, telemedicine, point-of-care ultrasound, and drone delivery. The authors expect these interventions to save lives, improve working conditions for rural healthcare staff, and serve as a model for other regions.
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A lightweight mobile e-procurement solution for rural small scale traders implemented using a living lab approach
Researchers developed a lightweight mobile e-procurement application for small-scale retailers in rural South Africa to improve stock replenishment processes. Using a living lab approach, they designed the system to match local mobile capabilities, user literacy levels, and business needs. The application successfully addressed practical challenges faced by rural traders by leveraging existing mobile connectivity and devices for data communication beyond basic voice and SMS.
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The role of universities in promoting rural innovation in Latin America
Universities in rural Latin America drive innovation by aligning diverse stakeholders with varying needs. The author examines Chiapas, Mexico, showing that successful rural innovation requires universities to coordinate effectively with different actors across the region, creating shared understanding and collaborative frameworks that address local development challenges.
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A Qualitative Analysis to Determine the Readiness of Rural Communities to Adopt ICTs: A Siyakhula Living Lab Case Study
Researchers assessed ICT readiness in rural South African schools and communities through the Siyakhula Living Lab initiative. Despite practical obstacles, communities demonstrated strong eagerness to adopt ICT and recognized its potential to improve their lives and economies. The assessment supported expansion of Digital Access Nodes—community ICT access points—revealing that educators and residents understood the connection between technology availability and economic and social advancement.
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Social innovation in service delivery to youth in remote and rural areas
This paper examines a social innovation program in Finland's Kainuu region that uses art and technology to reintegrate marginalized youth in remote areas facing population decline. Rather than pursuing purely economic goals, the program focuses on helping young people reconnect with their identities and rebuild self-worth. The analysis applies quadruple helix and social living labs frameworks to understand how regional governance institutions support youth art training.
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Empowering Rural Women Entrepreneurs Through Social Innovation Model
A social innovation model equipped rural women entrepreneurs in Malaysia's B40 income group with e-business and digital marketing skills through five training sessions. Participants learned to create and manage Facebook business pages, improving their marketing capabilities and business strategies. The intervention aimed to empower marginalized women entrepreneurs with practical knowledge in information technology and online commerce.
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Digitally Enabled Social Innovation: A Case Study of Community Empowerment in Rural China
This case study examines how rural communities in China achieve digitally enabled social innovation through self-organization. Researchers studied Daiji village, a successful Taobao Village, and identified a four-step bricolage mechanism: Recognition, Preparation, Recombination, and Governance. These steps enable communities to form and enact digital repertoires that generate social benefits and empower residents.
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Building Partnership for Social Innovation in Rural Development: Case Studies in Coastal Villages in Indonesia
Community partnerships in Indonesian coastal villages drive social innovation for marine resource development. The study of West Java and Gorontalo villages shows that collaboration between community members, village government, and private businesses creates social innovations that improve economic capacity and optimize marine resources. Strong partnerships accelerate coastal development and enable communities to overcome infrastructure limitations.
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Decentralized Wetland-Aquaponics Addressing Environmental Degradation and Food Security Challenges in Disadvantaged Rural Areas: A Nature-Based Solution Driven by Mediterranean Living Labs
Mediterranean living labs developed decentralized wetland-aquaponics systems to address environmental degradation and food insecurity in disadvantaged rural areas. The study demonstrates how participatory innovation ecosystems enable communities to co-design nature-based solutions that provide environmental and socioeconomic benefits. Public participation proved essential for ensuring solutions aligned with local values and were feasible in mountainous rural settings like Lebanon's Akkar al-Atika region.
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Public Institutions and Ngos Cooperation for Social Innovations in Post-Socialist Rural Poland
Public institutions in rural Poland implement social innovations to address community problems, often partnering with NGOs. A survey of 330 public institutions and 400 NGOs found that cooperation with NGOs does not distinguish institutions that successfully implemented social innovations from those that did not. The financial and human resources available to NGOs also had no significant effect on whether public institutions chose to collaborate with them.
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Digital Green: A Rural Video-Based Social Network for Farmer Training (<i>Innovations Case Narrative:</i> Digital Green)
Digital Green uses locally-produced videos to train farmers in rural South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, leveraging peer learning through visual demonstration. The approach combines video technology with community facilitation and integration into existing agricultural extension systems. Deployed in India, Ghana, and Ethiopia, it enables farmers without reliable internet or electricity to learn improved agricultural and health practices from neighbors' experiences.
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Living labs in integrated agriculture and tourism activities: Driving innovation for sustainable rural development
Living labs—structures that involve end-users directly in research and innovation—offer promise for rural development in Bulgaria. The paper analyzes living labs through SWOT analysis to assess their potential for driving sustainable agriculture and tourism in rural areas. It examines how living labs can encourage entrepreneurship, ensure quality and safety, and address the practical challenge of reviving rural regions through integrated agricultural and tourism activities.
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Knowledge sharing in open social innovation for sustainable development: evidence from rural social enterprises
Rural social enterprises in India use knowledge sharing to drive open social innovation across three stages: collaborating with stakeholders to identify needs and develop ecological solutions, refining market offerings through dynamic knowledge exchange, and expanding opportunities to address complex societal problems. Social enterprises act as orchestrators, evolving as open systems to maximize sustainable development impact in economically marginalized communities.
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Investigating the Impact of Social Capital, Cross-Sector Collaboration, and Leadership on Social Innovation in Rural Social Enterprises
Cross-sector collaboration and leadership significantly drive social innovation in Indonesian village social enterprises (BUMDes), according to research surveying 280 enterprise directors and community members in West Java. Surprisingly, social capital showed no significant effect on innovation outcomes. The study also documents declining community trust in rural Indonesia. These findings provide empirical evidence for understanding social innovation drivers in developing-country rural enterprises.
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ARA-O-RAN: End-to-End Programmable O-RAN Living Lab for Agriculture and Rural Communities
ARA-O-RAN is a new wireless testbed built on open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture designed specifically for rural and agricultural applications. The testbed combines outdoor testing across farmland and rural communities with an indoor sandbox, enabling researchers to develop and test wireless technologies that address rural connectivity challenges. It supports end-to-end programmability and aligns with national spectrum policy goals for rural innovation.
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Determinants and problems of well-being of farming population in Poland and local social innovations in rural areases
This study identifies key factors affecting farmer well-being in Poland: access to health and social services, internet connectivity, farm succession, and community trust. Researchers interviewed farmers and local leaders in three counties to understand how these factors impact physical, mental, and social well-being. Social innovations—including activity diversification, community integration, and mobile healthcare services—successfully improved farmers' quality of life.
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Incorporating Praxis into Community Engagement- Self Monitoring: A Case Study on Applied Social Innovation in Rural Philippines
A Philippine health initiative trained community monitors to track and evaluate local health innovations in rural areas. Monitors improved their ability to analyze community health needs and advocate for solutions through capacity-building and reflection sessions. The strategy proved feasible and sustainable when communities received adequate financial support and training, enabling residents to participate meaningfully in health decisions and strengthen local health systems.
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Living lab approaches in rural healthcare: a scoping review
Living labs use user-centered co-design to solve real-world healthcare problems in rural areas. This scoping review examined 11 studies from 2016–2025 across Canada, the USA, Australia, Guatemala, Uganda, and France/Portugal. Studies applied various methodologies including theory-driven frameworks, participatory research, and human-centered design to address cardiovascular disease, diabetes, perinatal care, and other conditions. Most studies did not explicitly use the living lab term, revealing limited adoption of this approach in rural healthcare innovation.
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Empowering Rural Communities through Social Innovations: Social Innovation as a Design Tool in the Extension Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Nepal
Social innovation empowers rural Nepali farmers by shifting agricultural extension from traditional top-down methods to participatory, community-led approaches. Mobile advisory services and farmer field schools that integrate local knowledge demonstrate effectiveness in boosting productivity while building resilience. Collaborative problem-solving among stakeholders improves agricultural outcomes, food security, and rural livelihoods while addressing climate change and infrastructure gaps.
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Transformative social innovation and rural collaborative workspaces: assembling community economies in Austria and Greece
Rural collaborative workspaces in Austria and Greece demonstrate transformative potential through social innovation processes. Community-led workspaces strengthen rural actors' capacities, shift individual perspectives toward collective action, and reshape economic relationships. The study finds these spaces can foster community economies by changing social relations and economic subjectivities. However, workspaces need greater institutional support and resources to progress beyond early transformation stages and achieve lasting societal impact.
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A social innovation to empower community-led monitoring and mobilization for HIV prevention in rural Kenya: experimenting to reduce the HIV prevention policy-implementation gap
A social innovation program in rural Kenya combined microfinance, psychological training, and leadership development across 39 villages to reduce HIV stigma and increase prevention uptake. The intervention reached over 10,000 participants and successfully decreased blame and discrimination attitudes, with reduced stigma predicting higher HIV testing rates. Participants formed community committees dedicated to preventing HIV and reducing stigma in their villages, demonstrating how community-led efforts can bridge the gap between HIV prevention policy and actual implementation.
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Determinants of Social Entrepreneurship in Rural West Java: The Role of Agent of Change, Technology and Innovations, and Communication Chanel
This study identifies what drives social entrepreneurship in rural West Java's microhydro power program. Using structural equation modeling on 200 participants, the research finds that change agent characteristics and technology/innovation features significantly influence community dialogue and collective action, which in turn shape social entrepreneurship adoption. Community dialogue emerges as the strongest predictor of entrepreneurial behavior, though large-group decision-making can suppress individual initiative.
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Social media in rural life: Design innovation for participatory cultural communication in China
Rural communities in Hunan Province, China use social media and e-commerce platforms to share cultural heritage and agricultural products. Researchers analyzed over 120 videos and images posted by villagers practicing traditional Huayao cross stitch. Design innovation—through cultural image-building, content guidance, and community facilitation—addresses gaps in how rural people communicate their culture digitally, enabling sustainable promotion of local traditions globally.
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Living Lab, interrupted? Exploring new methods for postdigital exchange on WeChat with urban-rural Living Labs in China and Germany during COVID-19
This paper tests a postdigital ethnographic method using WeChat photo exchanges to engage with Living Labs in China and Germany during COVID-19. Researchers created a photo-sharing group where participants documented everyday experiences, revealing the approach effectively builds rapport and captures local practices. However, the method faced challenges around trust, bias, and ethics. The authors propose four design principles for conducting Living Lab research when in-person collaboration is impossible.
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New Model of Home Hospice Care—Social Innovation in Rural Areas: Facing Depopulation and a Services Crisis in Poland
Researchers studied a social innovation in rural Eastern Poland that improves end-of-life care in depopulating areas. The model combines home hospice teams, local support networks, and a new Dependent Care Coordinator role. The initiative expanded service access, strengthened coordination between health and social care, and reduced staff burden. However, workforce shortages, fragmented institutions, and resistance to palliative care limit its ability to scale and sustain long-term.
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Social innovation strategies to improve agroecological product marketing: A case study in rural Colombia
This study identifies social innovation strategies to improve agroecological product marketing in rural Colombia. Researchers worked with a women's microentrepreneur association to uncover barriers including limited resources, certification obstacles, and weak promotion. They co-designed solutions with producers: product diversification, digital marketing adoption, and network strengthening. Social innovation proved effective at overcoming structural barriers and boosting competitiveness for rural agroecological producers.
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Fostering CraftsDesign-Based Social Innovation in Rural Communities through Participatory Workshops
This paper presents a participatory workshop method designed to foster social innovation in rural communities through crafts and design. Researchers conducted three pilot workshops across Spain and Portugal with designers and experts, testing a toolkit featuring a canvas and card deck to help participants co-create sustainable solutions. The method leverages local cultural heritage and resources to address rural challenges, training participants to develop context-specific innovations that engage local crafts, skills, and community agents.
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Social Innovation and Sustainable Rural Development in India: Challenges and Opportunities
Social enterprises in rural India integrate business principles with social objectives to address persistent challenges like unemployment, low income, and poor infrastructure. The study finds that social innovation, skill development, and financial inclusion are central to empowering rural communities. Government initiatives support these enterprises, but barriers to growth remain, requiring policy attention to achieve inclusive rural development.
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Beyond the scalpel: redefining surgical training for tomorrow01. Perceptions and the impact of early mentorship of medical students in neurosurgery: a qualitative study02. Mentorship in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery: a scoping review03. From pipeline to practice: a scoping review of interventions to increase underrepresented minority representation in surgery04. Integrating grassroots advocacy initiatives into academic medical conferences: a model for building equity into academia05. The influence of a student research and networking conference on women medical students’ interest in surgery06. Assessing well-being among the breast cancer and melanoma care team07. Cutting-Edge: a podcast dedicated to global and rural surgical needs08. The impact of a night float call system within an orthopedic residency program: a prospective analysis on resident wellness, satisfaction, and education09. From fatigue to function: designing Canada’s first surgical ergonomics curriculum for medical students10. Mapping wellness initiatives in North American ophthalmology residency programs: an environmental scan11. Accelerating diagnostic competency in pediatric musculoskeletal radiograph interpretation among orthopedic postgraduate trainees12. A systematic review of artificial intelligence applications in gastrointestinal endoscopy training13. InSight: a resident-led slit-lamp workshop for preclerkship medical students14. Artificial intelligence in surgical education: insights and applications for otolaryngology – head and neck surgery and beyond15. Workload-adapted laparoscopic training: a trade-off between in-training gains and post-training skill transfer16. Skill assessment of operators: in-training bimanual coordination predicts post-training laparoscopic skill17. Microsurgery simulation program for medical students: Start sooner rather than later?18. Guiding the surgical innovation process: a systematic review and analysis of the current frameworks19. Operating on moving platforms: how whole-body motion and distractions affect surgical precision and cognitive workload20. Expanding Clerkship Active Recall Decks in Surgery (CARDS): 1 year of growth and integration in surgical education21. An innovative virtual platform for teaching surgical suturing in French22. Asynchronous online learning to supplement musculoskeletal education for rural general practice23. Peer-led anatomy education: effectiveness of virtual review sessions and mock exams for dissection and prosection-based learners24. Development of an online curriculum for teaching the National Undergraduate Surgical Learning Objectives in thoracic surgery using Surgery 10125. Can you tube it? Evaluating the educational quality of YouTube videos on thoracoscopic esophageal atresia repair in pediatric surgery26. The role of telemedicine in surgical care across rural and urban settings: a scoping review27. Summarizing EPA feedback with LLMs: a quality improvement study in general surgery28. Automated assessment of medical student performance on suturing activities using multimodal vision-language models29. Multiple choice examinations in surgery: correlations with academic success30. Delivery of a plastic and reconstructive surgery case-based learning curriculum for medical students31. Comparing the impact of formal versus informal mentorship in surgery: a study of medical students and surgical residents32. Effectiveness of a near-peer teaching model in a 1-day otolaryngology emergencies workshop for medical students33. Building simulation literacy for future surgical education leaders: identifying competencies and observable practice activities to inform targeted educational offerings34. A novel pelvic hand-sewn bowel anastomosis simulator for surgical training35. Evaluating specialized extended reality as a teaching tool for undergraduate medical education36. Practising together: a theory-informed exploratory study of how simulation for high-acuity, low-opportunity events in cardiac surgery can transfer to safe entrustment37. Teaching strategies for flexible nasolaryngoscopy training in medical students and residents: a scoping review38. Peer-taught surgical skills at the beginner level for medical students: a pilot randomized controlled study39. Exploring the definition of service in postgraduate obstetrics and gynecology residency
Early mentorship and clinical exposure significantly shape medical students' interest in neurosurgery and counter negative stereotypes. Female students face particular barriers related to family planning concerns and underrepresentation. Curricular gaps limit early exploration of the field. The study recommends preclerkship electives, expanded clerkship access, simulation training, conference funding, and structured mentorship with diverse role models to increase interest and diversity in neurosurgery.
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A Living Lab-inspired Double Diamond approach to co-creating cross-border rural digital policy
Researchers used a Living Lab-inspired Double Diamond design approach to co-create digital policy for rural border regions in Sweden and Finland. Through participatory workshops, field visits, and stakeholder engagement, they identified that trust-based facilitation, informal communication, and institutional learning are critical for rural policy development. The study produced a draft policy framework with a prioritization matrix aligned to sustainable development goals and demonstrated a transferable methodology for inclusive digital policy in underrepresented rural areas.
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Developing a Living Lab for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration in Sport, Physical Activity, and Health in the Rural Region Zeeland
This project establishes a Living Lab in rural Zeeland to strengthen collaboration between sport, education, and health sectors in promoting physical activity. Researchers, professionals, policymakers, and citizens work together to identify local challenges like low sports participation and declining youth motor skills. Using participatory action research, the initiative develops real-world solutions through co-creation, continuously evaluates outcomes, and scales successful approaches across regions.
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Digital technologies in agricultural knowledge management and innovation systems at the rural household level in Northern Ethiopia
This study examines digital technology adoption among 601 smallholder farming households in rural Ethiopia. Mobile phones and radio dominate usage at over 30%, while advanced tools like internet platforms reach under 10%. Male-headed households, better education, proximity to markets and universities, cooperative membership, and electricity access significantly boost adoption. The research shows rural digitalization remains early-stage and recommends strengthening infrastructure, farmer education, extension services, and cooperatives to improve agricultural knowledge sharing and innovation.
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CONTRIBUTION OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS IN DISSIMINATION OF INNOVATIONS AMONG RURAL FARMERS IN SOUTHERN TARABA, AGRICULTURAL ZONE, NIGERIA
Digital platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube effectively disseminate agricultural innovations to rural farmers in Nigeria, improving yields and market access. However, poor internet connectivity, high data costs, and unstable electricity severely limit adoption. Younger farmers, smallholders, and full-time farmers adopt these platforms more readily. Strengthening ICT infrastructure and reducing data costs are essential for sustainable digital extension services.
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Social Innovation in Rural Development Policy: Strengthening Participation, Representation and Accountability
European rural development policies increasingly use community-led approaches like LEADER to build on local strengths, but these programs face criticism for being overly technical and constrained by national priorities. This paper examines two methods for improving participation and accountability in place-based rural innovation: Northern Ireland's Community-led Local Development program and the Social Value Engine tool. Both approaches aim to strengthen community inclusion, accountability, and representation in rural development processes.
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Rural digital social innovation for health and social care: A systematic review
This systematic review of 25 studies examines how digital technology enables social innovation in rural health and social care. Healthcare innovations typically address geographical distance between providers and patients through collaborative processes, while community initiatives tackle local challenges through grassroots efforts. Most innovations showed positive outcomes on health service use and community health. Digital tools expanded innovation scope and reach, but success required substantial human investment and genuine rural community engagement alongside technology.
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Innovación Social en Áreas Rurales: El proyecto ESIRA (Social innovation in rural areas. The ESIRA Project)
ESIRA is a four-year European project (2024–2027) funded by Horizon Europe that promotes social innovation in rural areas across eight countries. It establishes community-led Innovation Spaces where local actors conduct self-diagnosis and identify opportunities in social economy, entrepreneurship, culture, digitalization, and green transition. Through participatory multi-actor platforms, rural communities lead initiatives to build resilient, prosperous regions with inclusive policies and collaborative social returns.
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Empowering Change: How Women-Led Social Innovations Are Advancing Gender Equality in Rural Areas
Women-led social innovations drive gender equality progress in rural communities. These initiatives address local challenges through grassroots solutions, creating economic opportunities and social change. The paper examines how women entrepreneurs and community leaders implement innovations that improve livelihoods, strengthen social networks, and challenge traditional barriers, demonstrating that rural women are key agents of sustainable development.
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Inclusive Innovation for the Sustainable Strengthening of Prickly Pear Cultivation in Rural Areas of Colombia: A Case Study in Sonsón, Antioquia
This study develops an inclusive innovation model to strengthen prickly pear cultivation in rural Colombia by combining preservation of traditional knowledge, social context, and practical use. Using mixed methods including surveys, focus groups, and agent-based modeling, the researchers identify smallholder farmers and inclusive intermediaries as key actors. The model reduces power imbalances in the value chain, improves farmer associations and market access, and redistributes profits toward producers while protecting traditional knowledge and supporting endogenous rural development.
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Co-designing and implementing biomass circularity at the territorial level through rural living labs: Insights from a transdisciplinary and participatory approach in Madagascar
Rural living labs in Madagascar's Central Highlands enable communities to co-design and implement biomass circularity strategies tailored to local conditions. The transdisciplinary and participatory approach helps rural stakeholders identify biomass potential, design circular systems, and assess environmental and economic impacts. This addresses a critical gap in tools available to Global South communities for reducing import dependence and achieving sustainable rural development.
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Living labs para o desenvolvimento rural: co-construção participativa no município de Altônia, Paraná
Researchers in Altônia, Brazil established a living lab—a participatory innovation space—to strengthen local agricultural systems through co-creation with farmers, municipal officials, and university staff. Through workshops, participatory mapping, and facilitated dialogue, the team developed practical actions for rural development. The work shows that living labs shift development from top-down technology transfer to collaborative problem-solving that values local knowledge, offering a replicable model for rural innovation in agricultural regions.
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Taste of the isles: community engagement and digital innovation in rural food and drink services
Three digital initiatives developed with the Outer Hebrides Tourism Community improved visibility for food producers, crofters, and service providers while enhancing community engagement and access to digital markets. The projects combined visual storytelling with community co-design to overcome limited digital infrastructure and financial constraints, strengthening economic and social resilience across the islands and demonstrating how rural food and drink services can adopt digital innovation.
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Transformative social innovation and rural collaborative workspace assemblages as a means of prefiguring community economies
Rural collaborative workspaces in Austria and Greece function as sites of social innovation that transform community economies. These community-led spaces shift individual perspectives toward collective action and build local capacities. The study finds they hold transformative potential by changing social relations and economic subjectivities, though they need stronger institutional support to move beyond early developmental stages.
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Enhancing the digitalization of rural areas by utilizing the potential of the knowledge, business, and innovation ecosystems.
Rural digitalization requires integrating knowledge, business, and innovation ecosystems. This case study of Pecorino Toscano cheese production in Tuscany examines how these three ecosystem types interact to support agricultural innovation. The research develops a theoretical framework showing how universities and research centers, businesses creating value networks, and innovation actors work together to drive digital and green transitions in rural agri-food systems.
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Social innovation and governance in the context of a rural third sector organization in Zumpahuacán, State of Mexico
A rural third-sector organization in Mexico's State of Mexico drives social innovation and governance through collective action, community identity, and actor relationships. The study identifies intercommunity organization linked with external actors as the key mechanism enabling social innovation to address poverty, marginalization, and inequality at the local level.
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Laboratory of Social Innovation in Water Engineering and its effect on the provision of drinking water service in rural areas and marginalized urban areas
A social innovation laboratory in water engineering trained students to design and build drinking water systems for rural and marginalized communities lacking access. The laboratory focused on sustainable water supply solutions, connecting water sources to underserved areas. Results demonstrate that students developed both technical and cross-disciplinary competencies in water sustainability through hands-on project work addressing real community needs.
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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL AND INNOVATIONS FOR TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL AREAS IN BULGARIA
Social capital—built through trust, cooperation, and civic engagement—drives rural transformation in Bulgaria. The paper examines how social networks and collective voluntary action revive depopulated settlements and restore community identity after economic transition. Local action groups and social innovations enable community-led development by strengthening social bonds and fostering cooperation among rural residents, particularly during crises.
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Sustainable Rural Living Lab: Indian Case Studies
This paper examines Living Labs as spaces for participatory innovation in rural India, analyzing three case studies: cardamom dryer, cooking stove, and farm reservoir design. The authors map European Living Lab evaluation criteria to the Extended Business Model Canvas to identify characteristics of rural Living Labs. They propose a framework for developing sustainable rural Living Labs that support community-driven innovation in agricultural and domestic technologies.
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Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among U.K. manufacturing firms
U.K. manufacturing firms that search widely for external ideas and sources show better innovation performance, but only up to a point. Beyond optimal breadth and depth of external search, performance declines. The relationship follows an inverted U-shape, meaning firms benefit from open innovation strategies but face diminishing returns when searching too extensively.
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Collaboration Networks, Structural Holes, and Innovation: A Longitudinal Study
This longitudinal study of chemical industry firms shows that direct and indirect business relationships both boost innovation output. However, structural holes—disconnections between a firm's partners—reduce innovation in interfirm collaboration networks. The research demonstrates that network structure significantly affects innovation performance, and optimal network design depends on what firms aim to achieve.
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KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER IN INTRAORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS: EFFECTS OF NETWORK POSITION AND ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY ON BUSINESS UNIT INNOVATION AND PERFORMANCE.
Business units within large organizations benefit from knowledge transfer with other units. Units positioned centrally in organizational networks and those with strong absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize and apply external knowledge—innovate more effectively and perform better. Strategic network positioning and internal learning capacity drive innovation outcomes across organizational units.
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Open Innovation: The New Imperative For Creating and Profiting From Technology
This paper introduces open innovation as a strategic approach for technology development and commercialization. Organizations increasingly leverage external knowledge sources alongside internal R&D to create and profit from innovations. The framework challenges traditional closed innovation models and demonstrates how firms can accelerate innovation cycles and improve financial returns by opening their innovation processes to external partners and contributors.
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Value creation in innovation ecosystems: how the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations
Firm performance in innovation ecosystems depends on where external innovators face challenges. The authors analyze semiconductor lithography equipment from 1962 to 2005 across nine technology generations. They find that upstream component challenges benefit technology leaders, while downstream complement challenges harm them. Vertical integration becomes more effective at managing ecosystem interdependence as technologies mature.
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Open Source Software and the “Private-Collective” Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science
Open source software development represents a hybrid innovation model combining private investment and collective action. Developers solve their own problems while freely sharing innovations without capturing private returns, creating public goods. This private-collective model offers society advantages of both approaches and raises new research questions for organization science. The authors provide guidance on accessing open source project data and conducting empirical studies.
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Beyond high tech: early adopters of open innovation in other industries
Open innovation—where companies source ideas from outside their organization and commercialize internal ideas externally—has been studied mainly in high-tech industries. This paper identifies early adopters of open innovation in non-tech sectors, showing that open innovation practices work across traditional and mature industries. The authors document successful adoption practices and clarify that open innovation does not simply mean outsourcing R&D.
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Absorptive capacity, learning, and performance in international joint ventures
This paper examines how international joint ventures learn and perform by breaking absorptive capacity into three components: understanding new knowledge (influenced by trust and relative capacity), assimilating knowledge (shaped by learning structures), and applying knowledge (driven by strategy and training). A longitudinal study of Hungarian joint ventures confirms that understanding and application affect performance, while trust and management support correlate with performance but not learning itself.
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On the Fintech Revolution: Interpreting the Forces of Innovation, Disruption, and Transformation in Financial Services
Financial services are undergoing major disruption through fintech innovations in payments, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, lending, and investment management. The paper presents a mapping approach to assess transformation across four areas: operations, technology (payments and cross-border transfers), lending and deposits (including peer-to-peer lending), and investments (including robo-advisory). Traditional financial firms risk losing dominance if they fail to adapt to these efficiency and customer-centered changes.
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Open R&D and open innovation: exploring the phenomenon
Open innovation—where organizations combine internal and external knowledge for R&D—has become strategically important. Research shows three main processes: outside-in (acquiring external knowledge), inside-out (sharing internal knowledge), and coupled approaches. The paper argues that organizations must understand where open innovation creates value and adapt their R&D management methods accordingly, considering strategic, organizational, and business implications.
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Social Networks, the <i>Tertius Iungens</i> Orientation, and Involvement in Innovation
This study examines how people's social network positions and behaviors influence their involvement in organizational innovation. The research finds that individuals who actively connect disconnected colleagues and facilitate coordination between already-connected people—a "tertius iungens" orientation—are more likely to drive innovation. Dense networks and diverse social knowledge also predict innovation involvement. The findings challenge structural holes theory by showing that connecting people benefits innovation more than exploiting network gaps for personal advantage.
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Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem.
Innovation ecosystems require firms to coordinate with complementary innovators to create customer value, but this coordination introduces three types of risk: initiative risks, interdependence risks, and integration risks. The HDTV failure demonstrates how even superior technology fails without complementary products and infrastructure. Companies that systematically assess ecosystem risks holistically can develop more realistic expectations, better contingency plans, and robust innovation strategies that lead to profitable outcomes.
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Orchestrating Innovation Networks
Hub firms actively orchestrate innovation networks by managing knowledge mobility, innovation appropriability, and network stability. Rather than treating network members as passive responders to incentives, this framework recognizes firms as dynamic agents that shape and are shaped by network structures. Orchestration enables value creation and extraction across loosely coupled autonomous firms without hierarchical control.
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The future of open innovation
Open innovation practices are gaining traction across organizations and research institutions. This overview synthesizes nine key perspectives needed to strengthen open innovation theory and examines recent evidence about how open innovation actually works in practice and organizational settings.
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Innovation in Innovation: The Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations
Universities, industry, and government increasingly collaborate in a 'Triple Helix' model that drives innovation. Universities now actively commercialize knowledge and incubate technology firms. Companies invest in research and training as they advance technologically. Government functions as both entrepreneur and venture capitalist alongside its regulatory role. This interactive approach replaces linear innovation models, with institutions adopting each other's practices to create hybrid innovation ecosystems.
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The keystone advantage: what the new dynamics of business ecosystems mean for strategy, innovation, and sustainability
Companies operating in complex business networks can achieve long-term success by adopting a keystone strategy—actively maintaining ecosystem health rather than competing narrowly. Drawing from biological ecosystems, the authors argue that firms protecting their entire network's wellbeing simultaneously secure their own survival and competitive advantage.
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Interfirm Collaboration Networks: The Impact of Large-Scale Network Structure on Firm Innovation
Firms embedded in alliance networks with both dense local clustering and broad reach—short average distances to many other firms—produce more patents than those in less-connected networks. The study tracked 1,106 firms across 11 industry alliance networks longitudinally, showing that network structure directly influences innovation output by balancing local cooperation with access to diverse knowledge sources.
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University–industry relationships and open innovation: Towards a research agenda
Universities and industries increasingly collaborate to drive innovation through networks and partnerships. This paper examines how these relationships work across different industries and scientific fields, distinguishing them from technology transfer or hiring. The authors find collaborative research, research centers, and consulting are common practices, but organizational dynamics remain poorly understood. They propose a research agenda focusing on how universities and firms find and match with each other, and how to effectively manage these collaborations.
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Open Innovation and Strategy
This paper examines open innovation as a strategic approach where organizations leverage external ideas and technologies alongside internal capabilities. The authors argue that open innovation models fundamentally reshape how companies develop and commercialize innovations, moving beyond traditional closed research and development practices to create value through collaborative networks and external partnerships.
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PERSPECTIVE—Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field
This paper reviews twenty years of research on absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge. The authors identify major gaps in existing literature: most studies focus on tangible outcomes while neglecting organizational design and individual-level factors. They propose an integrative model showing how individual, organizational, and inter-organizational factors work together across multiple levels to influence innovation and firm performance, and call for research bridging micro and macro antecedents.
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Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software
Firms face three core challenges when pursuing open innovation: exploiting internal innovations, integrating external innovations, and motivating outsiders to contribute. The authors examine how software firms resolve these challenges through four strategies: pooled R&D, spinouts, selling complements, and attracting donated complements. These approaches show how companies can invest in shared intellectual property while maintaining competitive advantage, with lessons applicable across industries.
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The open book of social innovation
This volume catalogs hundreds of methods and tools for social innovation being used globally, creating a knowledge base of diverse initiatives. It showcases entrepreneurs, campaigners, organizations, and movements worldwide addressing pressing social issues through innovative approaches, demonstrating the vitality and diversity of the emerging social innovation economy.
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From Creativity to Innovation: The Social Network Drivers of the Four Phases of the Idea Journey
Social networks influence innovation differently across four distinct phases: idea generation, elaboration, championing, and implementation. Each phase requires different network characteristics—cognitive flexibility, support, influence, and shared vision respectively. Network features beneficial in one phase become detrimental in another. Successful innovators navigate this paradox by reframing their approach and activating different network strengths at appropriate moments, moving ideas from conception to tangible field-changing outcomes.
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Towards a Theory of Open Innovation: Three Core Process Archetypes
Open innovation involves companies moving beyond internal R&D by integrating external knowledge sources and commercializing ideas outside their boundaries. This study of 124 companies identifies three core processes: outside-in (acquiring external knowledge from suppliers and customers), inside-out (licensing and selling intellectual property externally), and coupled (forming alliances where companies exchange complementary innovations). These patterns show how companies transform rigid boundaries into permeable structures enabling knowledge flow.
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A Capability‐Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive Capacity
This paper develops a capability-based framework for open innovation by extending absorptive capacity theory. The authors identify six critical knowledge capacities—inventive, absorptive, transformative, connective, innovative, and desorptive—that firms use to manage knowledge both internally and externally. Knowledge management capacity acts as a dynamic capability that reconfigures these six capacities over time. The framework explains why firms differ in their innovation performance, alliance strategies, and organizational boundaries.
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Absorptive Capacity Configurations in Supply Chains: Gearing for Partner-Enabled Market Knowledge Creation1
Supply chain partners create market knowledge by sharing information through interlinked processes and IT infrastructure. This study identifies five distinct partnership configurations—collectors, connectors, crunchers, coercers, and collaborators—based on their absorptive capacity and capability platforms. The configurations differ in how they acquire, assimilate, and exploit partner knowledge to drive innovation and operational efficiency. Rich information sharing and coordination mechanisms determine success in partner-enabled knowledge creation.
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Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate To Each Other?
This paper introduces the Quintuple Helix framework, expanding on earlier Triple and Quadruple Helix models. It integrates universities, industry, government, media/culture, and the natural environment into a unified system for understanding knowledge and innovation. The framework positions eco-innovation and eco-entrepreneurship within sustainable development and social ecology, showing how environmental considerations must shape innovation policy and practice.
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Open Platform Strategies and Innovation: Granting Access vs. Devolving Control
This study examines how technology platform owners can foster innovation through two strategies: granting access to independent developers or relinquishing control entirely. Using data from 21 handheld computing systems between 1990 and 2004, the research finds that granting access to hardware developers accelerates new device development up to fivefold, while giving up control produces smaller incremental gains. The findings reveal that these two opening strategies activate different economic mechanisms.
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Building Dynamic Capabilities: Innovation Driven by Individual-, Firm-, and Network-Level Effects
This study examines how innovation emerges from individual, firm, and network-level factors simultaneously. Using 22 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology data, the authors find that innovation drivers exist across all three levels and can either substitute for each other or reinforce one another. The research challenges the assumption that different analytical levels operate independently, showing instead that they interact to shape innovative output.
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The open innovation research landscape: established perspectives and emerging themes across different levels of analysis
This paper reviews open innovation research across organizational, inter-organizational, and ecosystem levels of analysis. The authors identify established perspectives and emerging themes, arguing that future research must integrate insights across multiple analytical levels rather than studying open innovation in isolation. They propose new research categories and cross-domain questions to advance the field.
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A Longitudinal Study of the Influence of Alliance Network Structure and Composition on Firm Exploratory Innovation
A longitudinal study of 77 telecommunications equipment manufacturers shows that firms with technologically diverse alliance partners generate more exploratory innovation. When a firm's partners are also connected to each other (network closure), this diversity effect strengthens. The research demonstrates that firms can simultaneously benefit from both access to diverse information and tightly connected networks to drive innovation.
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Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity
Manufacturing firms perform best when balancing internal technology development with external sourcing, following an inverted U-shaped relationship. However, a firm's absorptive capacity—its ability to recognize and integrate external knowledge—moderates this effect. Companies with stronger absorptive capacity gain greater performance benefits from balanced technology sourcing strategies than those with weaker capacity.
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The Logic of Open Innovation: Managing Intellectual Property
Companies must shift from closed, internal innovation models to open innovation approaches that leverage external R&D and knowledge. As commercially valuable knowledge spreads rapidly, firms managing intellectual property through open innovation—which emphasizes external partnerships and internal incentive systems—better maintain their innovation capacity than those relying solely on internal capabilities.
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The role of technology in the shift towards open innovation: the case of Procter & Gamble
This paper examines Procter & Gamble's 'Connect and Develop' open innovation strategy to understand how technology enables collaborative innovation. The authors identify two key technological roles: information and communications technologies that facilitate knowledge exchange across distributed partners, and specialized 'innovation technologies' including data mining, simulation, prototyping, and visualization tools that support product development. The study reveals that technology is fundamental to implementing open innovation, not merely supportive.
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Social Media, Knowledge Sharing, and Innovation: Toward a Theory of Communication Visibility
Enterprise social networking sites increase communication visibility within organizations, allowing employees to see others' messages and network connections. This visibility enhances metaknowledge—understanding who knows what and whom. Workers then learn vicariously from colleagues, recombine ideas more effectively, avoid duplicating efforts, and proactively aggregate information. These changes lead to more innovative products and services in knowledge-economy work.
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Digital product innovation within four classes of innovation networks
Digital technologies reshape how innovation networks create and share knowledge by reducing communication costs, increasing connectivity, and accelerating convergence across diverse participants. The authors identify four types of digitally-enabled innovation networks—project, clan, federated, and anarchic—each requiring different approaches to knowledge sharing and integration. Digital infrastructures support these networks through representational flexibility, semantic coherence, traceability, knowledge brokering, and linguistic calibration.
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Brokerage, Boundary Spanning, and Leadership in Open Innovation Communities
Leaders in open innovation communities need strong technical skills first, then must integrate their communities to prevent fragmentation. Two social positions enable this: brokers who connect disparate groups, and boundary spanners who link different technological areas. Boundary spanners advance to leadership more readily than brokers because they avoid the trust deficits brokers face, though physical interaction can help brokers overcome this disadvantage. The study tracked careers in the Internet Engineering Task Force from 1986 to 2002.
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Knowledge sharing, absorptive capacity, and innovation capability: an empirical study of Taiwan's knowledge-intensive industries
This study examines how knowledge sharing drives innovation in Taiwan's knowledge-intensive industries. Using data from 170 firms across electronics, financial insurance, and medical sectors, the researchers found that absorptive capacity acts as the critical mechanism linking knowledge sharing to innovation capability. Knowledge sharing directly strengthens absorptive capacity, which then enables firms to innovate more effectively. The relationship holds consistently across different industries.
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Microfoundations of Internal and External Absorptive Capacity Routines
Organizations develop absorptive capacity—the ability to learn from and apply new knowledge—through specific internal and external routines. This paper identifies how firms balance creating knowledge internally with acquiring and assimilating external knowledge. The authors argue that successful early adopters of innovations implement complementary configurations of these routines, while most firms remain imitators because they fail to develop the right combination of organizational practices.
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Explicating Open Innovation: Clarifying an Emerging Paradigm for Understanding Innovation
This paper clarifies the open innovation paradigm, defining it as a distributed innovation process involving purposively managed knowledge flows across organizational boundaries using both monetary and non-monetary mechanisms aligned with business models. The authors review academic literature since 2003, address critiques and divergent views on open innovation, and extend the research agenda by identifying new subjects and units of analysis for future investigation.
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Knowledge Networks, Collaboration Networks, and Exploratory Innovation
Innovation depends on two distinct networks within firms: collaboration networks between researchers and knowledge networks linking knowledge elements. Using patent data from a microprocessor manufacturer, the study finds that structural holes in collaboration networks boost exploratory innovation, while structural holes in knowledge networks reduce it. Moderate centrality in knowledge networks maximizes exploration, but high centrality in collaboration networks decreases it. The two networks shape where researchers search for new discoveries.
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Open Innovation in Practice: An Analysis of Strategic Approaches to Technology Transactions
This study surveyed 154 companies to identify how firms actually practice open innovation through technology transactions. The research reveals that companies pursue distinct strategic approaches by balancing two activities: acquiring external technology and commercializing their own technological knowledge. The findings show that open innovation operates as an integrated process rather than separate acquisition or exploitation activities, providing the first large-scale empirical picture of how firms strategically manage technology transactions across their innovation processes.
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Open Innovation: Past Research, Current Debates, and Future Directions.
This paper reviews open innovation research and debates whether it represents a sustainable business practice or temporary management fashion. The author examines key topics including technology transactions, user innovation, business models, and innovation markets. The paper develops a conceptual framework addressing critical open innovation processes and their management implications across organizational, project, and individual levels.
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Determinants of User Innovation and Innovation Sharing in a Local Market
This study examines user innovation in library OPAC systems in Australia, finding that 26% of users modify their systems in ways manufacturers consider commercially valuable. The researchers identify characteristics distinguishing innovating users from non-innovators, including technical capability and leading-edge status. Many innovators freely share their modifications with other users. The findings suggest that even in follower markets, users generate significant innovations worthy of commercial attention.
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Managing Open Innovation
Industrial innovation increasingly relies on external knowledge sources and market channels, creating uncertainty in evaluating early-stage projects. Companies typically minimize false positives but neglect false negatives, losing potential value. New metrics can help firms better leverage external innovation sources and capture value from rejected projects through alternative business models.
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Innovation by User Communities: Learning From Open-Source Software
User communities can develop complex products independently of manufacturers, as demonstrated by open-source software like Apache and user-designed windsurfing equipment. The paper examines how these loosely organized groups innovate to meet shared needs, sometimes collaborating with manufacturers and sometimes not. The Internet amplifies their capacity for collaboration and distribution, creating economic value that traditional business models struggle to explain.
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Wakes of Innovation in Project Networks: The Case of Digital 3-D Representations in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
When architect Frank Gehry adopted digital 3-D representations in construction projects, it triggered cascading innovations across multiple firms and communities involved in building. The new technology created separate innovation paths within different groups, enabled knowledge-sharing between them, and allowed innovations to spread across the entire project network. This demonstrates how changes in shared digital tools can spark unpredictable waves of innovation in complex, distributed systems.
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Incremental and Radical Innovation in Coopetition—The Role of Absorptive Capacity and Appropriability
Firms collaborating with competitors on innovation succeed differently based on two factors: absorptive capacity (ability to acquire external knowledge) and appropriability (ability to protect innovations from imitation). A Finnish cross-industry survey shows both factors boost incremental innovation outcomes. For radical innovation, strong appropriability matters most, though absorptive capacity helps when appropriability is already high. Firms pursuing incremental innovation should balance knowledge sharing with protection; those pursuing radical innovation should prioritize protecting core knowledge.
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Closed or open innovation? Problem solving and the governance choice
Open and closed innovation represent distinct governance structures with different costs and benefits. The authors argue that innovation problems should be matched to appropriate governance forms based on problem type. They identify four open innovation models—markets, partnerships, contests, and user communities—and compare them with two closed forms: authority-based and consensus-based hierarchies. Each governance form uses different communication channels, incentives, and property rights mechanisms.
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How to Respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or the Second Information Technology Revolution? Dynamic New Combinations between Technology, Market, and Society through Open Innovation
Eleven international scholars define the Fourth Industrial Revolution and propose institutional, technological, and firm-level responses to it. The paper establishes a framework for understanding how organizations can adapt through open innovation by combining technology, market dynamics, and societal needs. Rather than providing final answers, it creates a template for ongoing research into industrial transformation.
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Horizontal innovation networks--by and for users
User communities can build independent innovation networks without manufacturers, developing and distributing products and solutions among themselves. Open source software demonstrates this model, and similar horizontal networks exist for physical products. The paper identifies three conditions enabling these user-driven networks to operate autonomously and presents evidence that such conditions frequently exist across the economy.
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Open Innovation: Where We've Been and Where We're Going
Open innovation, introduced in 2003, represents a shift in how companies approach industrial innovation by incorporating external ideas and partnerships. The concept has gained widespread adoption across academic research and business practice. This review examines the evolution of open innovation thinking and projects its future direction in organizational innovation strategies.
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Entrepreneurship in Innovation Ecosystems: Entrepreneurs’ Self–Regulatory Processes and Their Implications for New Venture Success
Entrepreneurs operating within innovation ecosystems face competing demands between ecosystem leaders' goals and their own venture objectives. This paper examines how entrepreneurs' self-regulatory processes help them navigate and balance these conflicting priorities to achieve new venture success.
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Networking as a Means to Strategy Change: The Case of Open Innovation in Mobile Telephony
Nokia used different innovation networks to manage technological change in mobile telephony between 1985 and 2002. The company pursued exploitation strategies for early-generation mobile development through stable, long-term partnerships, then shifted to exploration strategies for third-generation technologies using flexible networks with higher partner turnover. This open innovation approach enabled Nokia to become a world leader and adapt to radical market shifts.
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Social Capital and the Diffusion of Innovations Within Organizations: The Case of Computer Technology in Schools
This study examines how computer technology spreads within schools, finding that social capital—informal access to expertise and responsiveness to peer pressure—drives implementation as much as individual beliefs about the innovation's value. Teachers in schools share common goals and social systems that enable them to help each other and influence adoption decisions. Change agents promoting educational innovations should focus on building and leveraging these local social relationships.
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Absorptive Capacity and Information Systems Research: Review, Synthesis, and Directions for Future Research1
This paper reviews how absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to identify, assimilate, transform, and apply external knowledge—has been used in information systems research. The authors find inconsistent conceptualizations, measurement approaches, and applications across IS studies. They trace the construct's evolution in organizational literature, clarify its relationship to organizational learning, and provide a framework to help IS researchers apply absorptive capacity more effectively when studying information technology's organizational role.
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How collaborative innovation networks affect new product performance: Product innovation capability, process innovation capability, and absorptive capacity
Collaborative innovation networks improve new product performance through product and process innovation capabilities, but only when firms possess absorptive capacity to acquire external knowledge. Research on Iranian manufacturers found that collaboration with research organizations and competitors strengthens product innovation, while collaboration with research organizations and suppliers strengthens process innovation. Absorptive capacity acts as a critical condition enabling these benefits.
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Open-Source Software Development and Distributed Innovation
Open-source software development harnesses distributed intelligence across internet communities, achieving efficiency by avoiding restrictive intellectual property regimes and enabling concurrent design and testing. While projects risk fragmenting into competing versions, governance structures within open-source communities prevent this. The model offers developing countries a pathway to participate in cutting-edge innovation without traditional barriers.
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Expatriate Knowledge Transfer, Subsidiary Absorptive Capacity, and Subsidiary Performance
Expatriate managers transfer knowledge to foreign subsidiaries through three competencies: ability, motivation, and opportunity-seeking. This knowledge improves subsidiary performance, but only when the subsidiary has strong absorptive capacity to receive and use it. A study of British subsidiaries of Taiwanese firms confirms that absorptive capacity determines whether expatriate knowledge transfer actually boosts performance.
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Heterogeneity and Specificity of Inter‐Firm Knowledge Flows in Innovation Networks
This study examines how firms in Rome's aerospace cluster exchange different types of knowledge through innovation networks. Using social network analysis, the researchers found that technological, market, and managerial knowledge flow unevenly among collaborating partners. Most successful collaborations combine all three knowledge types, revealing that innovation requires diverse knowledge recombination. This pattern holds for both large companies and small-to-medium enterprises.
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Absorptive capacity and innovative performance: A human capital approach
This study examines how human capital affects firms' ability to absorb knowledge and innovate. Using data from 1,544 Danish manufacturing and service firms, the research finds that highly educated employees, strong human resource management practices, and partnerships with suppliers and research institutions boost innovation while reducing imitation. However, in science-based and ICT-intensive sectors, experienced managers actually hinder innovation, suggesting these high-tech fields require continuous skill updates.
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The influence of supply network structure on firm innovation
This study examines how supply network structure affects firm innovation in the electronics industry. Using social network analysis on 390 firms, the researchers found that firms with greater supply network accessibility and interconnectedness produce more innovation. A firm's ability to absorb knowledge and its partners' innovativeness further strengthen these effects. The findings show that embedded network relationships directly influence how knowledge and information flow through supply networks to drive innovation.
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Collaborative networked organisations and customer communities: value co-creation and co-innovation in the networking era
Collaborative networked organizations and virtual customer communities drive value creation and innovation by pooling complementary skills, knowledge, and technologies across networks. These strategic alliances enhance flexibility and adaptability to market changes and customer needs. The paper reviews value co-creation and co-innovation concepts and proposes a framework for 'experience-centric networks' that connect organizations with customer communities to enable sustainable, user-driven collaborative innovation.
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Getting Clear About Communities in Open Innovation
This paper examines how researchers define and use the concept of 'community' across open source software, user innovation, and open innovation studies. The authors review existing definitions of community—both stated and unstated—and identify gaps in how scholars apply this construct. They argue that clearer, more consistent definitions are needed to make research across these fields comparable and to guide future investigation.
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Strategic Management of Open Innovation: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective
This paper applies dynamic capabilities theory to explain how organizations strategically manage open innovation. The authors argue that understanding open innovation's benefits and limitations requires a strategic management lens. They develop a framework showing how dynamic capabilities help explain both success and failure in open innovation initiatives, drawing on papers presented at the World Open Innovation Conference.
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OPEN VERSUS CLOSED INNOVATION: A MODEL OF DISCOVERY AND DIVERGENCE.
Open innovation enables firms to discover product feature combinations that closed innovation misses. However, when partners have conflicting goals, open innovation limits the firm's control over technological direction. The optimal innovation approach depends on balancing discovery benefits against coordination costs from partner divergence.
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FDI spillovers in an emerging market: the role of foreign firms' country origin diversity and domestic firms' absorptive capacity
Foreign direct investment from diverse countries boosts productivity of domestic firms in emerging markets by exposing them to varied technologies and management practices. This spillover effect strengthens when domestic firms have greater absorptive capacity—particularly larger firms and those with intermediate technology gaps to foreign investors. Analysis of Chinese manufacturing firms from 1998–2003 confirms these relationships.
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Users' contributions to radical innovation: evidence from four cases in the field of medical equipment technology
Users in medical equipment technology drive radical innovation by inventing and co-developing new solutions. Innovative users possess diverse competencies, strong motivation, and operate within supportive environments. They act entrepreneurially by building and organizing innovation networks that transform radical concepts into prototypes and marketable products. Manufacturing firms can leverage these user-innovators in early-stage radical innovation projects.
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Value Creation and Value Capture in Open Innovation
Open innovation research has focused on collaborative invention but neglected how actors create and capture value from these collaborations. This paper argues that understanding value creation and capture is essential for sustaining open innovation and gaining competitive advantage. The authors clarify conceptual confusion around value capture and propose a framework linking open innovation to value creation and capture processes among interdependent actors.
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Does social capital matter for supply chain resilience? The role of absorptive capacity and marketing-supply chain management alignment
Social capital from business relationships improves supply chain resilience, but only when firms can absorb and apply external knowledge effectively. The study of 265 Turkish companies shows that strong alignment between marketing and supply chain management strengthens these relationships. Resilient supply chains directly boost organizational performance, making social capital valuable only when paired with absorptive capacity and internal coordination.
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Green innovation to respond to environmental regulation: How external knowledge adoption and green absorptive capacity matter?
Environmental regulations drive green innovation in manufacturing firms, but the mechanism depends on how firms adopt external knowledge. Using survey data from 237 Chinese manufacturers, the study finds that both command-and-control and market-based regulations increase external knowledge adoption, which then drives green product and process innovation. A firm's capacity to absorb and use green knowledge strengthens the effect of market-based regulations specifically.
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The Role of Networks in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Innovation and Firm Performance
Strong, diverse business networks boost innovation in small and medium enterprises, according to analysis of 1,435 SMEs over time. However, networks improve firm performance only indirectly—through their effect on innovation. SMEs should prioritize networks specifically for their innovation benefits rather than expecting direct performance gains.
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Living Labs as Open-Innovation Networks
Living labs function as open-innovation networks that help organizations understand user needs and develop business opportunities. These collaborative environments create competitive advantages by enabling companies to co-create solutions with users in real-world settings, emerging as a practical approach for innovation development that goes beyond traditional research methods.
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Democratizing Innovation: The Evolving Phenomenon of User Innovation
User-centered innovation, once dismissed as marginal, has become a major force reshaping how products and services develop. End users and user firms now drive significant innovation across many fields, competing with and feeding into traditional manufacturer-led innovation. Advances in computing and digital communication accelerate this shift, making user innovation an increasingly powerful economic and creative phenomenon.
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Outbound open innovation and its effect on firm performance: examining environmental influences
This study examines how firms benefit from outbound open innovation—transferring technology externally—and identifies environmental conditions that strengthen these benefits. Using data from 136 industrial firms, the research finds that technological turbulence, active technology markets, and competitive intensity all enhance the positive relationship between outbound open innovation and firm performance. Stronger patent protection, however, does not improve outcomes. The findings clarify when companies should pursue outbound open innovation strategies.
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Diffusion of Engineering Education Innovations: A Survey of Awareness and Adoption Rates in U.S. Engineering Departments
Engineering education innovations spread slowly despite decades of improvement efforts. A survey of U.S. engineering department chairs found 82 percent awareness but only 47 percent adoption of seven established innovations. Student-active pedagogies saw the highest adoption. Word-of-mouth and presentations proved more effective than publications for spreading awareness. Department chairs cited limited funding, faculty time constraints, and concerns about learning outcomes as key barriers to adoption.
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Living Lab: an open and citizen-centric approach for innovation
Living Labs represent a new approach to managing innovation that combines an innovation milieu with citizen-centered methods. The paper examines Botnia Living Lab and the FormIT approach, demonstrating how involving citizens in designing e-services for municipal governance strengthens innovation processes. Key structural components of Living Labs enhance both the innovation process and its underlying principles.
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Local Nodes in Global Networks: The Geography of Knowledge Flows in Biotechnology Innovation
This study examines how biotechnology firms in Canada innovate by analyzing knowledge flows from both local and global sources. The research finds that successful innovation depends on firms' internal technological capabilities and their ability to absorb external knowledge. While global networks matter significantly for innovation, local relationships prove especially critical for raising capital. The findings challenge the assumption that local networks alone drive innovation, showing instead that dynamic regions combine dense local interaction with strong international connections.
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Exploring open search strategies and perceived innovation performance from the perspective of inter‐organizational knowledge flows
The paper examines how companies access external knowledge to drive innovation. Using survey data from 184 Taiwanese electronics manufacturers, the authors find that focusing knowledge search on a few external sources strengthens incremental innovation, while searching broadly across many sources strengthens radical innovation. These findings clarify how different knowledge-gathering strategies produce different innovation outcomes.
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Open innovation and its effects on economic and sustainability innovation performance
This study examines how different external partners contribute to innovation performance in industrial firms. The researchers found that collaborating with universities, customers, NGOs, and intermediaries all improve both economic and sustainability innovation outcomes. Importantly, pursuing economic and sustainability goals simultaneously is not a conflict—firms can achieve both. The findings clarify which open innovation partnerships most effectively drive performance.
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The open innovation paradox: knowledge sharing and protection in R&D collaborations
Firms collaborating on R&D face a paradox: they must share knowledge to innovate together while protecting proprietary information. This study identifies how knowledge characteristics, collaboration structure, and relational factors create tension between openness and protection. The research finds that firms manage this paradox through strategies like layered collaboration schemes with inner and outer members, open knowledge exchange protocols, and licensing arrangements.
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Surmountable Chasms: Networks and Social Innovation for Resilient Systems
Networks facilitate social innovation by enabling cross-scale interactions that help communities escape rigid social structures and address complex problems. The paper argues that successful networks require institutional entrepreneurs with specific skills: pattern generation, relationship building, brokering knowledge and resources, and network recharging. These capabilities allow networks to increase resilience and improve human capacity to respond to systemic challenges.
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Opening up for competitive advantage – How Deutsche Telekom creates an open innovation ecosystem
Deutsche Telekom, Germany's national telecom operator, adopted open innovation practices to compete against declining revenues and market pressure. Through 15 interviews, researchers identified 11 open innovation instruments the company deployed. The study shows Deutsche Telekom successfully increased its innovation capacity by opening its development process to external creativity and knowledge sources, demonstrating how incumbent telecom firms can adapt to competitive threats.
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The role of venture capital firms in Silicon Valley's complex innovation network
Venture capital firms play five critical roles in Silicon Valley's innovation network: financing startups, selecting promising companies, facilitating collective learning, embedding firms within the ecosystem, and signaling quality to other investors. These functions create a robust system of interconnected economic agents—universities, large companies, laboratories, and startups—that explains Silicon Valley's sustained innovative success over seventy years and why other regions have failed to replicate it.
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The Relation among Organizational Culture, Knowledge Management, and Innovation Capability: Its Implication for Open Innovation
This study examined how organizational culture and knowledge management affect innovation capability in high-tech firms operating under open innovation models. Surveying 182 high-tech company representatives, the researchers found that knowledge management strongly correlates with innovation capability, and that organizational culture significantly influences knowledge management practices. Firms fostering open innovation cultures emphasizing trust, collaboration, and learning—supported by participative leadership—achieve more effective knowledge management and stronger innovation capabilities.
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Technology Alliance Portfolios and Financial Performance: Value‐Enhancing and Cost‐Increasing Effects of Open Innovation<sup>*</sup>
Belgian manufacturing firms using diverse technology alliances boost product innovation and financial performance indirectly, but face direct costs that initially outweigh gains. The study confirms that open innovation through external partnerships strengthens internal innovation efforts, yet managers must account for the substantial coordination and management expenses of maintaining multiple technology alliances alongside their long-term financial benefits.
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How constraints and knowledge impact open innovation
This study examines how resource constraints and external knowledge availability shape firms' innovation strategies and performance. Using survey data from Swiss companies, the researchers find that resource constraints reduce innovative performance but push firms toward broader, shallower searches for external knowledge. Abundant external knowledge boosts performance and creates a U-shaped relationship with search breadth and depth, meaning firms either search narrowly and deeply or broadly and shallowly.
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The role of digital technologies in open innovation processes: an exploratory multiple case study analysis
Digital technologies enable firms to manage open innovation by facilitating knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries. This study examines nine companies across different industries to identify the managerial actions required to implement digital technologies in open innovation processes. The research reveals how digital tools help firms capture, transfer, and manage knowledge flows more effectively, addressing coordination challenges that arise when innovation becomes more collaborative and resource-intensive.
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Open-market innovation.
Companies increasingly adopt open-market innovation, using licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances to access external ideas rather than relying solely on internal R&D. This approach lets firms acquire diverse expertise, retain creative talent, and measure innovation value. However, poor deal structuring can backfire, as seen when Xerox and TRW failed to capitalize on their own innovations.
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Global production networks and the changing geography of innovation systems. Implications for developing countries
Globalization reshapes where innovation happens, creating opportunities for developing countries to access international knowledge through global production networks. The paper argues that developing nations can strengthen weak innovation systems by combining diverse knowledge sources and participating in global networks. This participation enables reverse knowledge outsourcing and industrial upgrading, but requires supportive public policies and institutions to capture these benefits effectively.
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The spread of innovations in social networks
This paper examines how network structure affects the speed at which innovations spread when people make strategic choices between competing alternatives. Using coordination game models, the authors find that innovations spread much more slowly on highly connected networks with long-range links than on low-dimensional networks based on geographic proximity. Their results contradict predictions from epidemic models commonly used to study innovation diffusion.
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Managing User Involvement in Service Innovation
Users generate more original service ideas with higher perceived value than professional developers, but their ideas are less producible. User involvement implementation matters significantly—users working with design expert feedback produced better results than those working alone. The study reveals trade-offs between innovation originality and technical feasibility when involving users in service development.
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Open innovation: current status and research opportunities
Open innovation has grown rapidly as a research field since 2003. This paper identifies key gaps in existing research, including the need for more work on outbound innovation, services, network collaboration forms like ecosystems and platforms, and adoption by small and nonprofit organizations. It calls for better measurement of open innovation's performance effects and understanding of why initiatives fail, plus stronger connections to established theories like absorptive capacity and dynamic capabilities.
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Innovation as the core competency of a service organisation: the role of technology, knowledge and networks
Service organizations compete through innovation driven by technology, knowledge, and networks. The paper argues that a firm's true resource is the amorphous knowledge created through customer and partner relationships, which enables innovation as a core competency. Innovation only delivers value when firms align their capabilities to meet customer needs in the marketplace.
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Absorptive capacity and relationship learning mechanisms as complementary drivers of green innovation performance
A study of 112 Spanish automotive component manufacturers finds that absorptive capacity and relationship learning both significantly boost green innovation performance. Relationship learning moderates the effect of absorptive capacity on green innovation outcomes. Managers should invest in building absorptive capacity and cultivating learning relationships with stakeholders to drive green innovation in manufacturing.
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Open service innovation and the firm's search for external knowledge
This paper examines how service firms and manufacturing companies adopting service-inclusive models engage in open innovation—collaborating across organizational boundaries to access external knowledge. Using UK firm data, the authors find that business services firms are more active open innovators than manufacturers, rely more on informal knowledge-exchange practices, and prioritize scientific and technical knowledge. Open innovation engagement increases with firm size and R&D spending.
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Unravelling the process from Closed to Open Innovation: evidence from mature, asset‐intensive industries
This paper examines how mature, asset-intensive firms transition from closed to open innovation models. Through longitudinal case studies of four Italian companies, the authors identify four organizational dimensions that change during this shift: inter-organizational networks, organizational structures, evaluation processes, and knowledge management systems. The findings provide a framework for understanding and managing the organizational transformation required to adopt open innovation practices.
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Motivating and supporting collaboration in open innovation
Open innovation communities succeed when contributors are motivated by intangible rewards like learning, community cooperation, and entertainment rather than money. The study of three innovation intermediaries across France, the Netherlands, and Finland found that users value easy-to-use collaboration tools and visible engagement from community maintainers. Companies should invest in accessible platforms and active leadership to support effective collaboration.
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Orchestration Processes in Network-Centric Innovation: Evidence From the Field.
Companies increasingly pursue innovation through external networks rather than internal resources alone. This study examines how hub firms orchestrate network-centric innovation by combining product development and network theory with field research. The findings show that orchestration processes blend innovation design with network design, revealing how firms coordinate external partnerships to drive innovation.
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Incubation of incubators: innovation as a triple helix of university-industry-government networks
University business incubators have evolved from isolated entities into networked innovation hubs where universities, industry, and government collaborate. These incubators transform research into new products and firms by combining R&D resources across sectors. Government funding and regulatory changes enable this triple-helix model, shifting innovation from linear knowledge transfer to interactive, collaborative development.
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Open innovation in SMEs: Exploring inter-organizational relationships in an ecosystem
Small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to manage open innovation because they lack resources to coordinate with external partners, despite needing them. This case study of a regional business ecosystem reveals that SMEs face challenges when their business models misalign with ecosystem partners' models. The research shows that innovation type and how organizations understand innovation shape whether open innovation succeeds, and that managing it requires attention across three levels: individual SMEs, inter-organizational relationships, and the broader ecosystem.
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Determinants and archetype users of open innovation
This paper explains why firms adopt open innovation at different levels by examining internal barriers to innovation rather than external factors. Using exploration-exploitation theory, the authors test how innovation impediments affect the breadth and depth of open innovation activities. Their analysis identifies four distinct firm archetypes with different open innovation patterns and identifies which internal weaknesses drive firms toward external R&D collaboration.
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Dynamic Capability Building in Service Value Networks for Achieving Service Innovation
Service organizations innovate by collaborating through value networks rather than working alone. This study of a telecommunications company shows that dynamic capabilities—including customer engagement, collaborative agility, entrepreneurial alertness, and innovative capacity—emerge through stakeholder collaboration and education. These capabilities drive service innovation outcomes and require continuous development as business conditions change. Managers must actively cultivate these collaborative skills to deliver new service offerings.
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Interlocking Interactions, the Diffusion of Innovations in Health Care
This study examines how healthcare innovations spread through organizations in the UK, focusing on later adoption stages. The research reveals that diffusion is not a simple decision but a complex, interactive process where context and actors interlock to shape outcomes. Scientific knowledge itself is socially mediated and contested, with active adopters playing crucial roles in determining whether innovations take hold.
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Knowledge‐based dynamic capabilities and innovation in networked environments
This study examines how knowledge-based dynamic capabilities drive innovation in networked manufacturing environments. Using survey data from 218 Chinese firms, the researchers found that knowledge combination capability mediates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation performance. Network embeddedness influences dynamic capabilities through relational connections and network diversity, which enhance knowledge acquisition and joint problem-solving abilities.
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Where Do Good Innovation Ideas Come From? Exploring the Influence of Network Connectivity on Innovation Idea Quality
Network connectivity influences innovation idea quality differently depending on whether ideas come from individuals or groups. Individual innovators generate higher-quality ideas with more network connections, but highly connected groups actually produce lower-quality ideas. The study finds that some minimum level of connectivity is necessary for quality ideas, but excessive connectivity in group settings reduces performance. These findings suggest companies should facilitate individual interaction while carefully managing group dynamics during ideation.
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Dynamic capabilities for ecosystem orchestration A capability-based framework for smart city innovation initiatives
Firms leading smart city innovation ecosystems need three core dynamic capabilities to succeed: configuring partnerships, deploying value propositions, and governing ecosystem alignment. The study identifies specific micro-routines underlying sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring activities that enable ecosystem leaders to orchestrate innovation in digitalized, sustainability-focused environments. These capabilities help firms gain competitive advantage by effectively managing emerging ecosystem partnerships.
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The Future of Open Innovation
Open innovation—where organizations collaborate externally on research and development—has grown significantly in both practice and academic study. This overview synthesizes recent evidence about open innovation approaches and identifies theoretical perspectives needed to strengthen the field. The paper builds on prior work to assess what we know about how openness in innovation actually works.
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‘Spatializing’ knowledge communities: towards a conceptualization of transnational innovation networks
This paper argues that innovation systems research should shift focus from discrete geographic scales to network relationships operating across scales. The authors propose that innovation networks extend beyond firms to include knowledge communities and the movement of knowledgeable individuals. They develop a conceptual framework identifying three domains of transnational innovation networks: corporate-institutional, social network, and hegemonic-discursive, showing how these domains interact across different localities.
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INTERMEDIARIES, USERS AND SOCIAL LEARNING IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Intermediaries play a critical role in technological innovation by connecting users with developers and facilitating the adoption of new technologies. The paper examines how intermediaries configure, facilitate, and broker technologies across supply and demand sides in emerging markets. The authors demonstrate that intermediaries bridge the gap between user-driven and developer-driven innovation, and that identifying and supporting user-side intermediaries is essential for innovation success.
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Implementing Open Innovation in the Public Sector: The Case of Challenge.gov
The Obama administration launched Challenge.gov to bring open innovation practices from the private sector into federal government. The platform crowdsources solutions to complex public problems by tapping external problem solvers and collective intelligence. The paper examines how the General Services Administration implemented this crowdsourcing approach, documenting the change management process and lessons learned for designing open innovation in government agencies.
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Unpacking Absorptive Capacity: A Study of Knowledge Utilization from Alliance Portfolios
This study examines how firms use knowledge from their alliance networks during technological change. The researchers distinguish between two types of absorptive capacity: latitudinal (using diverse knowledge) and longitudinal (using distant knowledge). They find that moderate diversity in alliance portfolios optimizes knowledge use, but simultaneously increasing demands on both types of capacity reduces effectiveness. The paper identifies two portfolio strategies—telescopic and panoptic searches—that balance these trade-offs.
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Lessons for Responsible Innovation in the Business Context: A Systematic Literature Review of Responsible, Social and Sustainable Innovation Practices
This systematic review of 72 empirical studies identifies innovation practices and processes that businesses can use to implement responsible innovation. The authors synthesize findings on social, sustainable, and responsible innovation to create a framework addressing six key dimensions: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, deliberation, responsiveness, and knowledge management. The review advances both theory and practical application of responsible innovation in business contexts.
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Social Innovation: Integrating Micro, Meso, and Macro Level Insights From Institutional Theory
Social innovations require renegotiating or building institutions to address complex social problems involving multiple systems and actors. This paper presents a three-cycle model showing how social innovation operates across micro, meso, and macro levels through agentic, relational, and situated dynamics. The framework integrates institutional theory perspectives to guide understanding of how innovative solutions develop and get implemented across interconnected social systems.
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Social Networks: Effects of Social Capital on Firm Innovation
Social capital within industrial districts drives firm innovation. The study compared 220 manufacturing firms in Valencia, Spain, finding that firms embedded in districts with strong social interactions, trust, shared vision, and active local institutions innovate more in both processes and products than non-district firms. District membership and social capital directly correlate with innovation outcomes.
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Learning from openness: The dynamics of breadth in external innovation linkages
Manufacturing plants that maintain external innovation partnerships over time become more effective at converting those partnerships into innovation outputs. Irish firms with prior experience collaborating with external knowledge sources generate greater innovation returns from their current openness activities. This learning effect means experienced firms extract more value from the same breadth of external linkages compared to less experienced firms.
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Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization
This study examines what drives environmental innovations in firms across the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Cooperation with local suppliers and universities, combined with workforce training and digital technology adoption, most strongly encourages firms to adopt environmental innovations. Agglomeration economies show mixed effects—they boost environmental innovation in established industrial clusters but can hinder it elsewhere. Local networks and agglomeration together strongly promote environmental innovation adoption by multinational firms, demonstrating the importance of linking local and global business relationships.
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Green Knowledge Sharing, Stakeholder Pressure, Absorptive Capacity, and Green Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms
Chinese manufacturing firms can improve green innovation by sharing environmental knowledge within supply chains, but only if they develop strong absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new information. Stakeholder pressure amplifies this effect. The study of 247 firms shows that absorptive capacity fully mediates the relationship between knowledge sharing and green innovation outcomes.
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Combinations of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital for farm innovation: How farmers configure different support networks
Farmers adopt new agricultural technologies and practices through different support networks combining bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. This Chilean study identifies five distinct network configurations farmers use to explore new knowledge while implementing innovations. Rather than a single optimal approach, farmers customize their networks based on personal motivations, innovation goals, and available resources. All configuration types successfully achieve farm innovation, suggesting support strategies must adapt to individual farmer circumstances.
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The Core and Cosmopolitans: A Relational View of Innovation in User Communities
User communities drive innovation through two key positions: core members who deeply engage within the community, and cosmopolitans who bridge multiple external communities. This study analyzed online community interactions, surveys, and interviews to show that innovation emerges not just from individual traits but from relational structures. Communities enable distinctive behaviors that traditional organizations cannot, amplifying innovation through strategic positioning within and across networks.
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Value creation and capture mechanisms in innovation ecosystems: a comparative case study
This comparative case study examines how innovation ecosystems create and capture value. The authors analyze mechanisms across different contexts to understand the processes by which organizations within ecosystems generate economic returns and distribute benefits among participants. The research identifies key patterns in value creation and appropriation strategies that vary across ecosystem types.
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The Effect of Absorptive Capacity on Innovativeness: Context and Information Systems Capability as Catalysts
Absorptive capacity—a company's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—significantly drives innovativeness in firms. A study of 286 large Spanish companies found that a company's willingness to unlearn outdated practices strengthens both potential and realized absorptive capacity. Information systems capabilities provide a practical tool for managers to enhance absorptive capacity and boost innovation performance.
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Interstate Professional Associations and the Diffusion of Policy Innovations
Interstate professional associations accelerate policy innovation adoption across states. The author examines how state insurance commissioners participating in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' committee on health insurance were significantly more likely to adopt the HMO Model Act. The study demonstrates that professional associations, particularly through their committee structures, create institutional pathways that facilitate state officials' adoption of policy innovations.
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Cluster Absorptive Capacity
Industrial clusters grow when firms can absorb external knowledge and share it within the cluster. This paper argues that cluster success depends on absorptive capacity—the ability of member firms to learn from outside sources and distribute that knowledge internally. The diversity of firms' knowledge bases shapes how well clusters connect to external information and strengthen their internal learning systems.
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Bilateral Collaboration and the Emergence of Innovation Networks
This paper models how innovation networks form through bilateral partnerships between firms. Firms choose collaborators based on knowledge production rather than network strategy. The success of collaborations depends on cognitive fit, prior relationships, and information from shared contacts. The study shows that network structure varies with how knowledge decomposes into tasks and how firms learn about partners—dense networks emerge when innovation breaks into separate subtasks, while cliquish networks form when indirect information matters most.
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Knowledge-driven preferences in informal inbound open innovation modes. An explorative view on small to medium enterprises
Small and medium enterprises in the United Kingdom prefer informal open innovation partnerships when they adopt a knowledge-driven approach. The study examined 175 SMEs and found that knowledge-driven strategy is the strongest factor determining whether firms choose informal over formal collaboration modes for acquiring external knowledge. Absorptive capacity and cognitive dimensions also influence these preferences.
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Managing Distributed Innovation: Strategic Utilization of Open and User Innovation
Innovation increasingly happens across multiple organizations and stakeholders rather than within single firms. This paper compares vertically integrated innovation against open innovation, user innovation, crowdsourcing, and co-creation models. It examines how these distributed approaches differ in their sources, motivations, and value capture mechanisms, then provides a framework for strategically managing innovation across organizational boundaries.
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An Examination of the Relationship Between Absorptive Capacity and Organizational Learning, and a Proposed Integration
This paper clarifies the relationship between absorptive capacity and organizational learning, two concepts long studied together but never precisely defined in relation to each other. The authors argue that absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge—represents a specific type of organizational learning focused on external knowledge acquisition. They propose integrating these concepts using established frameworks from organizational learning and absorptive capacity literature.
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Exploring the field of open innovation
This paper reviews the emerging open innovation research field through systematic analysis of academic publications and expert interviews. The authors identify key research themes and reveal that the field is expanding toward broader definitions, developing critical perspectives, and focusing on theory and management implications. They propose using innovation process location and collaboration extent as dimensions for deeper understanding of how open innovation develops.
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Using users: When does external knowledge enhance corporate product innovation?
User knowledge significantly enhances corporate product innovation, particularly in new technology areas and radical innovations. The study examined medical device companies collaborating with innovative physicians and found that these user collaborations generate stronger innovation outcomes than relying solely on external knowledge from other firms or universities.
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Citizen Participation, Open Innovation, and Crowdsourcing
Open innovation and crowdsourcing offer planning practitioners new approaches to problem-solving by engaging external participants and diverse groups. Unlike traditional citizen participation, crowdsourcing uses internet-based challenges to generate solutions from large audiences. The paper examines how these techniques differ and presents case studies demonstrating crowdsourcing's potential to produce more robust outcomes than internal organizational efforts.
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DIFFERENT MODES OF OPEN INNOVATION: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
This paper develops a framework categorizing four modes of open innovation based on two dimensions: partner variety and innovation funnel openness. Testing the framework on Italian companies, the authors show that firms successfully adopt different collaboration strategies ranging from completely closed to fully open innovation. The research demonstrates that total openness is not always optimal; companies achieve success through varied degrees and types of external collaboration matched to their specific strategies and capabilities.
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Determinants of the Efficiency of Regional Innovation Systems
Regional innovation systems perform better when private and public research institutions interact intensively and share knowledge spillovers. Regions with smaller average establishment sizes generate more efficient innovation than those dominated by large firms. The study measures efficiency using knowledge production functions and patent data to compare how well regions convert research inputs into innovative outputs.
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The social underpinnings of absorptive capacity: The moderating effects of structural holes on innovation generation based on external knowledge
Individual scientists and engineers who bridge structural holes in their organization's internal knowledge network generate more innovations from external knowledge sources. Using data from 276 R&D professionals at a multinational tech company, the study shows that an employee's position in the internal social network determines how effectively they convert external knowledge into innovations. Those connecting otherwise disconnected groups innovate more from outside information.
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Dismantling Knowledge Boundaries at NASA: The Critical Role of Professional Identity in Open Innovation
A study of NASA's adoption of open innovation reveals that R&D professionals traditionally protect knowledge within disciplinary boundaries. When NASA opened innovation to outside contributors, it achieved scientific breakthroughs with limited resources, but professionals who resisted identity change rejected external solutions. Only those who refocused their professional identity truly dismantled boundaries and integrated outside knowledge. Professional identity transformation proved essential for open innovation to succeed.
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The effect of social networking sites and absorptive capacity on SMES’ innovation performance
Social networking sites significantly enhance SME innovation performance by facilitating knowledge acquisition and absorption from external actors. The study analyzed 215 small and medium enterprises across knowledge-intensive and labor-intensive sectors globally, using statistical modeling to measure relationships between social media use, absorptive capacity, and innovation outcomes. Results show that enterprises leveraging social platforms to interact with customers, institutions, and competitors effectively absorb external knowledge and generate stronger innovation performance.
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Absorptive Capacity and Firm Performance in SMEs: The Mediating Influence of Strategic Alliances
Strategic alliances mediate the relationship between absorptive capacity and firm performance in SMEs. Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to identify, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge—drives innovation and performance gains primarily through partnerships with other firms. However, this mediation effect weakens for younger SMEs, suggesting that company age and size shape how knowledge absorption translates into business results.
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Managerial challenges in open innovation: a study of innovation intermediation in the chemical industry
This study examines managerial challenges faced by chemical companies using innovation intermediaries to solve R&D problems. Researchers identified three recurring obstacles across seven companies: getting internal scientists to engage with intermediaries, choosing appropriate problems to outsource, and framing problems clearly enough to generate novel solutions. The authors explain these challenges stem from differences in how scientists work internally versus externally, and propose practical remedies.
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Transformative innovation and translocal diffusion
Transformative innovations emerge from locally rooted sustainability initiatives that challenge unsustainable systems by developing alternatives. These innovations grow through replication, partnership, and embedding, spreading across regions via translocal networks that share ideas and practices. The paper synthesizes European research to show how connecting local initiatives across contexts creates potential for sustainability transitions, though governance support remains necessary.
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Open Innovation and the Stage-Gate Process: A Revised Model for New Product Development
This paper presents an open Stage-Gate model that integrates open innovation principles into new product development processes. The model enables firms to systematically import and export knowledge and technology while evaluating core capabilities at each development stage. Applied to an upstream oil and gas company, the approach helps organizations capture value from both internal innovation and external technology partnerships.
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Innovation communities: the role of networks of promotors in Open Innovation
This paper defines innovation communities as networks of promotors—transformational leaders who collaborate across organizational boundaries. Through three case studies, the research shows that these informal networks of promotors are essential to open innovation success. The paper connects promotor theory to open innovation research and demonstrates that close cooperation among these champions, regardless of functional or organizational divisions, drives innovation creation and dissemination.
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The commercialization of user innovations: the development of the rodeo kayak industry
User innovators in the rodeo kayak community commercialized their own designs by adopting low-cost manufacturing and launching products before established manufacturers entered the market. This transformation from hobbyist innovation to commercial production changed innovators' motivations, community structure, product types, information sharing practices, communication methods, and competitive dynamics among users.
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Open innovation in the public sector of leading countries
The study examines how leading governments adopt open innovation practices. The USA, Australia, and Singapore developed national open innovation policies that created positive climates for innovation projects, particularly online platforms. While outside-in approaches dominate, governments increasingly explore inside-out strategies to leverage public data. Most governments remain in early adoption stages and need strategic plans to integrate open innovation into workplace practices.
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A generative co-design framework for healthcare innovation: development and application of an end-user engagement framework
This paper presents a three-phase co-design framework for healthcare innovation that actively involves healthcare workers and patients in designing health systems and services. The authors developed and tested the framework on a virtual healthcare project for children with chronic conditions, demonstrating that end-users can contribute practical knowledge and creative insights to shape improvements. The framework guides innovators through pre-design, co-design, and post-design phases to ensure new healthcare solutions meet real user needs.
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Open and closed innovation &ndash; different innovation cultures for different strategies
This study examines how innovation culture differs between open and closed innovation approaches within a multinational specialty chemicals company. Surveying 109 employees across three business units, the researchers found measurable cultural differences in not-invented-here syndrome, risk-taking attitudes, and management support for innovation. The findings show that successful open innovation requires distinct cultural characteristics from closed innovation models.
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GENI - global environment for network innovations
GENI is the National Science Foundation's infrastructure initiative to advance network science and engineering research for future global communications. The project entered its first development phase with early prototyping underway, involving academic and industrial teams building software, hardware, and trial facilities to support innovative network research.
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Metagoverning Collaborative Innovation in Governance Networks
Western governments increasingly use governance networks to drive public sector innovation through collaboration between public and private actors. This shift from competitive entrepreneurship to collaborative approaches requires new metagovernance strategies. The authors argue that managing networks for innovation demands different leadership approaches than traditional public management, and illustrate this through a Danish elderly care case study showing how collaborative innovation networks can improve efficiency, effectiveness, and democratic legitimacy.
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THE IMPACT OF ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY ON SMEs' COLLABORATION
Absorptive capacity—built through R&D investment and skilled workforce—significantly influences small and medium-sized enterprises' ability to collaborate with other firms, universities, and technology centers. A survey of 276 manufacturing SMEs in Lombardy, Italy, shows that absorptive capacity directly determines whether SMEs can successfully establish external partnerships and access knowledge from outside organizations.
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Collaboration capability a focal concept in knowledge creation and collaborative innovation in networks
Sustainable innovation in knowledge-based competition requires collaboration capability—the ability to build and manage network relationships through trust, communication, and commitment. The authors review research on network collaboration and argue that collaboration capability is a prerequisite for diverse actors to share complementary knowledge and create innovations together. This concept integrates key elements from related research and explains how knowledge creation and innovation emerge through social interaction in networks.
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Open source and journalism: toward new frameworks for imagining news innovation
Journalists and technologists collaborate globally through open-source software projects to innovate news production. The authors examine open-source culture's core values—transparency, tinkering, iteration, and participation—and evaluate how these principles align with or challenge traditional journalism practices. They argue open-source frameworks offer new ways to understand and advance innovation in newswork.
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Why organizations adopt information system process innovations: a longitudinal study using Diffusion of Innovation theory
This longitudinal study examines why organizations adopt information system process innovations across four decades and three organizational environments. Using Diffusion of Innovation theory, the researchers identify key adoption factors: user need recognition, technological infrastructure availability, past experience, trials, autonomous work, ease of use, learning by doing, and standards. However, many adoptions followed no clear pattern, suggesting additional unexplained influences on organizational innovation decisions.
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Managing innovation networks: Exploratory evidence from ICT, biotechnology and nanotechnology networks
This study examines how innovation networks function across ICT, biotechnology, and nanotechnology sectors in Australia. The researchers surveyed 219 participants from businesses, government, research organizations, and universities to test how network factors drive innovation outcomes. They found that effective management of inter-organizational relationships significantly influences new product development success, offering practical strategies for managers coordinating innovation across multiple organizations.
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User Toolkits for Innovation: Consumers Support Each Other
User toolkits empower consumers to develop their own product features, reducing firms' information costs. However, this shifts support burdens to companies. Analysis of 78 computer games shows increased consumer involvement requires more firm support. The solution: establish consumer-to-consumer support networks. When consumers help each other solve problems, firms reduce support costs while improving toolkit knowledge diffusion and outcomes.
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USER-CENTRIC INNOVATIONS IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT — SYSTEMATIC IDENTIFICATION OF LEAD USERS HARNESSING INTERACTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE ONLINE-TOOLS
Companies reduce innovation failure by involving external customers, especially lead users, in product development. This paper identifies key characteristics for systematically finding lead users online through Web 2.0 tools and communities. The research reveals that effective lead users demonstrate market trend awareness, high expected benefits, expertise, extreme needs, opinion leadership, and active online engagement.
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A Fad or a Phenomenon?: The Adoption of Open Innovation Practices in Large Firms
This paper examines whether open innovation practices represent a lasting shift in how large firms operate or merely a temporary trend. The authors analyze adoption patterns across major companies to determine if open innovation has become a fundamental business phenomenon or remains a passing fad in corporate strategy.
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The impact of outside‐in open innovation on innovation performance
Companies that adopt open innovation strategies—collaborating with customers, suppliers, and universities—significantly improve their innovation performance. However, collaboration with cross-sector companies negatively affects results. This empirical study of 141 R&D managers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria demonstrates that openness in outside-in innovation processes directly drives both direct and indirect innovation outputs.
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Absorptive Capacity in the Software Industry: Identifying Dimensions That Affect Knowledge and Knowledge Creation Activities
Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to use external knowledge effectively—comprises three dimensions: relationships with the external environment, internal structure and knowledge base of value creation groups, and individual absorptive abilities. The authors demonstrate that each dimension independently contributes to increased knowledge and knowledge creation activities in software firms.
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Where and how to search? Search paths in open innovation
This paper identifies four distinct search paths firms use to find external knowledge for innovation: situated, analogical, sophisticated, and scientific paths. These paths combine two dimensions—whether firms search locally or distantly, and whether they rely on experience or cognitive reasoning. The study of 18 open innovation projects reveals how problem framing and boundary spanning mechanisms operate within each path to solve technology problems, providing a structured framework for understanding how firms conduct external knowledge searches.
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Orchestrating innovation networks: The case of innovation brokers in the agri-food sector
Innovation brokers play a critical role in connecting small and medium-sized enterprises with research institutes in agri-food innovation networks. This study of four cases across the Netherlands, Germany, and France identifies three key orchestration functions that successful brokers perform: initiating innovations, composing networks, and managing innovation processes. These brokers add particular value when working with diverse organizations.
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COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS AND THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS
This paper combines diffusion of innovations theory with complex adaptive systems theory to create a hybrid model for predicting and guiding behavior change in populations. Using the STOP AIDS campaign in San Francisco as an example, the authors show how heterogeneous social networks and weak ties between diverse groups can catalyze innovation adoption. The integrated framework offers practical tools for public sector innovators seeking to understand and influence how innovations spread through social systems.
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Absorptive Capacity: A Process Perspective
Absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge—remains poorly understood despite decades of research. This paper argues that quantitative studies have failed to reveal how absorptive capacity actually works. Using case studies across three sectors, the authors demonstrate that a process-based approach must account for power dynamics and organizational boundaries to explain how knowledge truly gets absorbed and used.
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How Industry 4.0 technologies and open innovation can improve green innovation performance?
Industry 4.0 technologies boost green innovation performance in Malaysian manufacturing firms by enabling open innovation practices, which in turn strengthens green innovation behavior. The study surveyed 217 firms and found that adopting Industry 4.0 and collaborative innovation approaches creates conditions for sustainable innovations. Policymakers should incentivize firms to adopt these technologies to achieve competitive advantage while meeting environmental goals.
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Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance
Open collaboration—where participants create goods, reuse each other's work, coordinate loosely, and allow anyone to contribute—drives innovation across software, medicine, science, and everyday ventures. Using computational modeling, the authors show that open collaboration performs well even under difficult conditions: when cooperators are outnumbered, free riders exist, diversity is low, or resources are scarce. The model reveals that cooperativeness, participant diversity, and resource rivalry shape performance. Open collaboration represents a viable organizational form likely to expand beyond its current domains.
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Open Innovation – The Dutch Treat: Challenges in Thinking in Business Models
Dutch innovative companies have successfully adopted open innovation principles for culture and importing external knowledge, but struggle with exporting mechanisms and flexible business models. The study reveals that while Dutch firms embrace collaborative innovation practices, they face significant challenges in adapting their business models to support truly open innovation approaches.
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Network Capital, Social Capital and Knowledge Flow: How the Nature of Inter-organizational Networks Impacts on Innovation
Inter-organizational networks drive innovation through network capital and strategic knowledge alliances. The study examined firms across three regions and found that innovation performance correlates strongly with how firms invest in dynamically configured networks. Firms with higher network capital—built through deliberate, strategic partnerships—innovate more effectively. The findings suggest policymakers should actively support and orchestrate networks with clear strategic purpose when developing clusters and innovation systems.
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Who captures value in a global innovation network?
This paper examines how value is distributed across the global supply chain for Apple's iPod. The authors analyze which companies—designers, manufacturers, and retailers—capture profits from the product's innovation and sales. Their findings reveal that Apple captures the largest share of value despite outsourcing most production, while component suppliers and manufacturers earn significantly less, demonstrating how innovation networks concentrate economic returns.
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Innovation Networks and Regional Development—Evidence from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS): Theoretical Concepts, Methodological Approach, Empirical Basis and Introduction to the Theme Issue
This paper introduces the European Regional Innovation Survey, a large-scale empirical study examining how cooperation networks between firms and research institutions affect regional economic performance. Researchers surveyed over 8,600 firms across 11 European regions between 1995 and 1999 to measure and quantify innovation linkages. The study tests theoretical concepts like regional innovation systems and network theory against real data, filling a gap in comparative empirical research on innovation networks across different region types.
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Exploring the boundaries of open innovation: Evidence from social media mining
This study analyzes Twitter conversations about open innovation using machine learning and topic modeling to identify public sentiment and key themes. The analysis of nearly 600,000 tweets reveals eight major topics, with negative sentiment concentrated in culture and business model discussions, positive sentiment in community and creative projects, and neutral sentiment in entrepreneurship and technology. The researchers identify 20 limitations of open innovation based on this social media evidence.
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Universities and innovation ecosystems: a dynamic capabilities perspective
Universities drive innovation ecosystems by developing talent, advancing technology, and partnering with industry and government. The paper applies dynamic capabilities theory to explain how universities can flexibly manage these ecosystem roles. Three case studies show universities successfully launching new industries, fostering entrepreneurship, and revitalizing local economies through strategic partner engagement.
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Will It Spread or Not? The Effects of Social Influences and Network Topology on Innovation Diffusion
This paper uses agent-based modeling to test how social influence and network structure affect whether new products succeed or fail. The research finds that markets with strong social influence create uncertainty and make it harder for innovations to reach critical mass. Highly connected people (VIPs) matter mainly for spreading information widely, not for persuasive power. Network constraints on hub connections significantly hamper diffusion.
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Co-creation and user innovation: The role of online 3D printing platforms
Online 3D printing platforms enable new forms of user involvement in production and co-creation. The authors develop a framework for understanding prosumption and categorize co-creation activities, then analyze 22 platforms to show how different service models support different types of co-creation. The findings reveal how these platforms reshape user innovation by changing who participates in design and manufacturing.
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The Open Innovation in Science research field: a collaborative conceptualisation approach
This paper develops a unified framework for understanding open and collaborative practices in scientific research. Forty-seven scholars from multiple disciplines collaborated to integrate fragmented knowledge about open innovation and open science, identifying factors at individual, team, organizational, field, and societal levels that shape these practices. The framework connects research antecedents, contingencies, and consequences across the entire process of generating, disseminating, and translating scientific insights into innovation.
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Identification of competencies for professionals in open innovation teams
This study identifies key competencies that professionals need to succeed in open innovation teams through interviews and focus groups. The research reveals that brokering solutions, social competence, knowledge generation, trust-building, and managing low reciprocal commitment are critical skills. Companies should actively develop these competencies in employees participating in collaborative innovation efforts.
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Big data for open innovation in SMEs and large corporations: Trends, opportunities, and challenges
Big Data enables open innovation by providing organizations access to external information sources for creating new solutions and business opportunities. This paper reviews how small-to-medium enterprises and large corporations use Big Data in open innovation strategies, identifying key trends, opportunities, and challenges each type of organization faces when implementing these approaches.
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Making the Most of Where You Are: Geography, Networks, and Innovation in Organizations
Geographic proximity to industry peers boosts innovation performance, but this effect depends on a firm's internal network structure. Companies far from competitors benefit from inefficient, diverse internal networks that generate knowledge internally. Companies near competitors perform better with cohesive networks that efficiently process information. The study analyzed nanotechnology firms in the US from 1990 to 2004.
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Open innovation in the automotive industry
Automotive manufacturers traditionally relied on internal R&D to drive innovation, but rising costs and competitive pressure force them to seek external sources. This study demonstrates that open innovation—collaborating with external partners—delivers better R&D productivity than closed, internally-focused approaches for automotive companies.
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Getting Customers' Ideas to Work for You: Learning from Dell how to Succeed with Online User Innovation Communities
Dell's IdeaStorm online community demonstrates how firms can harness user innovation through Web 2.0 platforms. The study identifies four critical challenges: understanding submitted ideas, selecting the best ones, balancing community transparency with competitive secrecy, and maintaining long-term engagement. Analysis of IdeaStorm's first 18 months yields seven practical recommendations for companies seeking to integrate user-generated innovation into their product development processes.
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Implementing innovation in construction: contexts, relative boundedness and actor‐network theory
This paper examines why construction projects struggle to implement new technologies and innovations. The author argues that construction work lacks a central coordinating force to drive change and resolve conflicts, making innovation adoption difficult. Using actor-network theory, the study analyzes how both people and technologies interact during implementation, showing that existing practices, technological design choices, and actor mobilization all shape whether innovations succeed or fail.
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Health Innovation Networks to Help Developing Countries Address Neglected Diseases
Developing countries increasingly possess the capacity to undertake health innovation and address neglected diseases affecting their populations. While wealthy nations have created funding mechanisms and organizational structures to develop and distribute health products, these efforts alone cannot achieve sustainability or adequately address disease burden. The paper argues that enabling health innovation networks within developing countries themselves offers a complementary and essential strategy to improve health equity and tackle neglected tropical diseases.
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Benefiting from Open Innovation: A Multidimensional Model of Absorptive Capacity*
Firms benefit from external innovation sources through absorptive capacity—their ability to recognize, assimilate, and exploit outside knowledge. This study shows that recognition capacity helps firms identify external technologies, assimilation capacity determines whether they can integrate that knowledge, and exploitation capacity directly boosts competitive advantage in product innovation. Together, these three capacities explain why some firms succeed at open innovation while others struggle.
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User Roles and Contributions in Innovation-Contest Communities
This study identifies six distinct user types in online innovation-contest communities by analyzing behavioral patterns, communication styles, and contribution quality. The researchers found that participants vary significantly in how they engage with contests and interact with others. Understanding these user roles helps organizations design better contest platforms and reward structures to encourage participation and improve innovation outcomes.
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Managing the Challenges of Becoming an Open Innovation Company: Experiences from Living Labs
Companies increasingly integrate users directly into innovation processes through living labs, recognizing that user feedback and experiences drive valuable ideas and competitive advantage. This paper examines how organizations manage the transition to open innovation models where users actively participate in developing and testing new technologies across industries.
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Towards a collaboration framework for circular economy: The role of dynamic capabilities and open innovation
This paper develops a framework for cross-sectoral collaboration in circular economy transitions by combining relational view, open innovation, and dynamic capabilities theories. Studying the Circle-House-Project in Danish construction, the authors find that successful circular economy scaling depends on knowledge-sharing routines and ecocentric dynamic capabilities built through collaborative networks. The framework shows how diverse sectors working together can advance circular production practices.
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Connecting the Parts with the Whole: Toward an Information Ecology Theory of Digital Innovation Ecosystems
Digital innovation ecosystems bring together diverse autonomous actors across organizational boundaries to create innovations of significant social and economic value. This paper develops an information ecology theory explaining how digital technologies integrate the efforts of independent parties into coherent wholes. The theory identifies key functions digital technologies serve in providing information to support interactions and tasks across ecosystems of varying scales, offering insights into managing part-whole relations and multilevel interactions.
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Hand in Glove: Open Innovation and the Dynamic Capabilities Framework
Open innovation represents a critical strategic function that companies must integrate into broader management frameworks. This paper connects open innovation to dynamic capabilities theory, showing how firms build and leverage capabilities to manage external knowledge and partnerships. A case study of China's Haier demonstrates how treating open innovation as a dynamic capability strengthens enterprise strategy and competitive advantage.
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Co-creation and open innovation: Systematic literature review
This systematic literature review of 168 open-access articles from 2014–2017 examines the relationship between open science, co-creation of knowledge, and open innovation. The research identifies that the United States and Brazil lead in publishing on this topic, primarily in business and academic sectors. The study concludes that collaborative practices and context are essential for driving innovation and open science, while highlighting challenges around opening research and innovation processes.
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Network-Independent Partner Selection and the Evolution of Innovation Networks
This paper argues that firms select innovation partners based on complementary knowledge stocks rather than social capital or network position. The authors build a model where companies form alliances to learn and innovate, requiring compatible knowledge bases. Despite ignoring social network effects entirely, the model reproduces the firm behavior, network structures, and performance patterns documented in empirical alliance research.
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The politics of networked innovation
This paper examines how power dynamics shape networked innovation processes. Through three case studies of technology development, the authors show that innovation success depends not just on network structure but on understanding how power over resources, meaning, and processes affects knowledge integration. Network coordination, not just formation, proves critical for productive innovation outcomes.
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Dynamics from open innovation to evolutionary change
The authors develop conceptual and simulation models to analyze how open innovation drives evolutionary change in industries. Using the smartphone sector as a case study, they integrate open innovation theory with complex adaptive systems thinking to forecast dynamic effects and help organizations select future strategies.
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The evolution of intellectual property strategy in innovation ecosystems: Uncovering complementary and substitute appropriability regimes
This paper examines how intellectual property strategy evolves within innovation ecosystems by analyzing four generations of mobile telecommunications systems from 1980 to 2015. The authors show that firms strategically manage IP through complementary and substitute appropriability regimes, balancing openness and protection across different technologies and actors. The findings demonstrate that competitive advantage depends on understanding the broader ecosystem context, not just individual IP strategies or assets.
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RETHINKING THE ROLE OF INTERMEDIARIES AS AN ARCHITECT OF COLLECTIVE EXPLORATION AND CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN OPEN INNOVATION
Intermediaries in open innovation do more than broker connections or facilitate networks. This paper studies two traffic safety innovation cases where intermediaries actively shaped collaborative knowledge creation by designing exploration processes and providing leadership. Rather than passive facilitators, these intermediaries acted as architects, structuring joint problem-solving when no single organization could tackle challenges alone.
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Opinion Leaders' Role in Innovation Diffusion: A Simulation Study
Opinion leaders accelerate product adoption by combining central network positions with superior product knowledge and greater innovativeness. Using agent-based modeling, the study shows opinion leaders increase adoption speed, information flow velocity, and maximum adoption rates. Targeting opinion leaders remains an effective marketing strategy for driving innovation diffusion.
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Cattle health monitoring system using wireless sensor network: a survey from innovation perspective
Wireless sensor networks enable farmers to monitor dairy cattle health automatically across farm locations, reducing disease losses and improving milk production. These low-cost systems collect health data in real-time, store it in databases, and help farmers make better management decisions with less manual labor. The technology addresses declining farmer interest in dairy by reducing animal mortality and breeding costs through early disease detection.
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Investigating the role of social capital in innovation: sparse versus dense network
Social capital facilitates knowledge search and sharing, driving innovation performance. The paper reviews how two network structures—sparse and dense—affect innovation differently. Sparse networks enable access to diverse external knowledge, while dense networks strengthen internal knowledge sharing. Both configurations offer benefits and drawbacks depending on whether firms pursue radical or incremental innovation. The authors recommend tailoring social capital strategies to match organizational innovation goals.
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Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation
Firms facing rapid technological and market shifts must develop capacity for discontinuous innovation—implementing radically new technologies, products, or business models that depart dramatically from industry norms. This paper examines how companies create new networks with customers, suppliers, and partners to build this capacity, using examples like Lego and GSK adapting to competition from digital and biotechnology firms.
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Mapping, analyzing and designing innovation ecosystems: The Ecosystem Pie Model
This paper develops the Ecosystem Pie Model, a visual strategy tool that helps managers map, analyze, and design innovation ecosystems. The tool captures how different actors interact to create and capture value together. The authors ground the model in scholarly literature and provide application guidelines, demonstrating how firms can use it to make strategic decisions about ecosystem participation and structure.
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Innovation network
Technological progress builds cumulatively as innovations in one field enable advances in related fields. Using 1.8 million US patents and citation patterns from 1975–1994, the authors map how innovation networks function. They show that the strength of existing connections between technology fields predicts future innovation after 1995. Technology classes with more upstream innovations to build upon subsequently innovate more.
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An Individual‐Based Model of Innovation Diffusion Mixing Social Value and Individual Benefit
This paper presents a computational model showing how innovations spread through populations when people balance social value against personal benefit. Innovations perceived as socially valuable but offering low personal gain succeed more often than those with high personal benefit but low social value. Minority groups with extreme views can significantly influence adoption by shifting how others perceive an innovation's social worth.
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The past, present and future of open innovation
This literature review analyzes 1,772 open innovation papers published between 2003 and 2018 to identify major research themes and their evolution. The authors identify nine key thematic areas: context-dependency, collaborative frameworks, organizational dimensions, performance outcomes, external search strategies, SME applications, pharmaceutical industry focus, intellectual property considerations, and technology. The review provides recommendations for future research directions across these established areas.
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Role Models for Radical Innovations in Times of Open Innovation
This study examines how different innovator roles affect success in highly innovative ventures, analyzing 146 new product development projects. The research finds that innovator roles significantly influence innovation outcomes, but their impact varies depending on the type and degree of innovativeness. External linking roles become more critical as technological innovativeness increases, while surprisingly, support from senior organizational members negatively affects success in highly innovative projects.
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Dynamics of digital entrepreneurship and the innovation ecosystem
This study examines how digital entrepreneurship develops within innovation ecosystems by analyzing an IT company in Brazil. The research reveals that as companies progress through different levels of digitalization, the supporting ecosystem actors and relationships they rely on change significantly. Strategic partners play a crucial role in helping small and medium enterprises transform their business models and create value through digital innovation.
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The Adoption of Open Innovation in Large Firms
Large firms widely adopt open innovation practices, with 80 percent of surveyed companies engaging in the approach. Firms predominantly practice outside-in innovation, acquiring external knowledge while protecting their own intellectual property through outbound restrictions. At the project level, companies selectively manage knowledge flows and formalize processes as they progress from problem definition to execution, facing organizational challenges in this transition.
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Openness of technology adoption, top management support and service innovation: a social innovation perspective
This study examines how technology adoption openness and top management support drive service innovation in IT firms. Using survey data from 176 Taiwanese IT companies, the researchers found that openness to technology adoption directly enhances service innovation. Importantly, top management support strengthens this relationship. The findings suggest firms should invest in open technologies and ensure leadership actively supports service innovation initiatives to address social challenges.
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Analyzing the determinants of firm's absorptive capacity: beyond R&D
This paper develops a new model explaining how firms absorb external knowledge. The authors argue that absorptive capacity depends on more than just R&D spending. Instead, organizational knowledge, formalization, and social integration mechanisms all shape a firm's ability to absorb knowledge. The type of knowledge being absorbed matters—these factors can help or hinder depending on whether the knowledge fits the firm's existing capabilities. The paper provides empirical evidence supporting this expanded framework.
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Regional Innovation Systems in Canada: A Comparative Study
This study examines how small and medium enterprises in two Canadian regions—Ottawa and Beauce—engage in innovation activities and interact with other organizations. Despite their different industrial structures and institutional environments, firms in both regions show similar innovation patterns and draw on regional, national, and global knowledge sources. Geography matters less than expected; firms do not rely primarily on regional support for innovation.
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The temporal effects of relative and firm‐level absorptive capacity on interorganizational learning
This study examines how absorptive capacity affects knowledge sharing between allied firms over time. Using patent data, the researchers found that technological similarity has modest early benefits but stronger effects later, while high diversity accelerates initial learning but diminishes over time. R&D intensity surprisingly hinders early learning but helps later stages. The findings suggest early alliances are limited by absorption capacity, while later success depends on the ability to exploit knowledge.
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A Tool to Analyze, Ideate and Develop Circular Innovation Ecosystems
This paper presents the Circularity Deck, a card-based tool designed to help organizations analyze and develop circular economy innovations across their ecosystems. The tool organizes circular economy principles by strategy type (narrowing, slowing, closing, regenerating material flows) and innovation scope (product, business model, ecosystem level). Tested with 136 participants across 62 organizations in 12 workshops, the Circularity Deck enables groups of loosely coupled organizations to collectively redesign their interactions and resource flows.
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The paradox of openness revisited: Collaborative innovation and patenting by UK innovators
UK firms face a paradox: they simultaneously patent and engage in open innovation collaboration. This study shows both decisions are interconnected and depend on market position. Leading firms increase patenting more when collaborating openly because they risk greater knowledge spillovers to competitors. Followers show weaker patenting responses to collaboration. The relationship between openness and patenting is therefore contingent on whether firms lead or follow their rivals.
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How does technological diversity in supplier network drive buyer innovation? Relational process and contingencies
Technological diversity in supplier networks drives buyer firm innovation through novel information sharing. A survey of 202 Chinese manufacturing firms shows that stronger buyer-supplier relationships amplify this effect, while dense supplier networks reduce it. Competitive intensity strengthens the relationship, but technological turbulence weakens it. Firms can leverage diverse supplier networks to improve new product creativity.
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Managing business and innovation networks—From strategic nets to business fields and ecosystems
This paper reviews network management research from 2000 to 2016 and proposes a unified theory explaining how environmental, network, and actor-level factors shape management activities. The authors consolidate fragmented knowledge across business fields, ecosystems, and platform networks, identifying activity configuration patterns that guide effective network management. The framework advances understanding of how organizations coordinate complex business networks.
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Managing Drivers of Innovation in Construction Networks
The paper identifies four categories of innovation drivers in construction networks: environmental pressure, technological capability, knowledge exchange, and boundary spanning. Operating across organizational levels in the Dutch construction industry, these drivers enable managers in authorities, clients, architecture, consulting, and contracting firms to stimulate innovation. Managing these drivers helps organizations improve market position, project quality, and industry-wide cooperation.
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Knowledge transfer in university quadruple helix ecosystems: an absorptive capacity perspective
Universities transfer knowledge to regional innovation ecosystems through interactions with multiple stakeholders. This study identifies five key factors—human elements, organizational structures, knowledge types, power dynamics, and network characteristics—that determine how effectively stakeholders engage in knowledge transfer and apply it. The findings show that policymakers and practitioners need targeted interventions to strengthen knowledge exchange within regional innovation networks.
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Chez Panisse: Building an Open Innovation Ecosystem
Chez Panisse built a thriving business by adopting open innovation practices that connected suppliers, alumni chefs, staff, and food writers into a collaborative ecosystem. The restaurant's success came from sharing knowledge, fostering individual growth, and establishing trust among participants. This case demonstrates how a small firm can scale through strategic ecosystem building rather than isolated operations.
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Light‐Touch Integration of Chinese Cross‐Border M&A: The Influences of Culture and Absorptive Capacity
Chinese multinational corporations pursuing cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Germany adopt a 'light-touch integration' approach that balances preservation of acquired firms' autonomy with selective integration. This strategy accounts for cultural differences and leverages learning opportunities, enabling mutual benefits for acquiring firms, targets, and partner organizations while managing the complexities of post-acquisition integration.
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Nonstate Actors and the Diffusion of Innovations: The Case of Suicide Terrorism
This paper examines how terrorist groups adopt suicide tactics as an innovation, showing that organizational capabilities and external linkages between groups significantly influence adoption patterns. The study finds that occupation, previously considered a key predictor, does not reliably explain which groups adopt suicide terrorism. By treating suicide tactics as a military innovation diffusion problem, the paper connects terrorism studies to broader innovation theory.
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Comparing knowledge bases: on the geography and organization of knowledge sourcing in the regional innovation system of Scania, Sweden
This study examines how firms in three different industry clusters in southern Sweden source and exchange knowledge. The researchers found that industries relying on symbolic or synthetic knowledge bases benefit significantly from geographical proximity because their knowledge is context-dependent and locally interpreted. In contrast, analytical industries drawing on codified scientific knowledge are less dependent on proximity, suggesting that clustering in these sectors serves purposes beyond knowledge sourcing.
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Linking transformational leadership and frugal innovation: the mediating role of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing
Transformational leadership drives frugal innovation in Vietnamese firms through knowledge sharing mechanisms. The study of 339 employees across 120 companies shows that transformational leaders boost frugal functionality and cost reduction by facilitating both tacit and explicit knowledge sharing. These knowledge-sharing processes mediate the relationship between leadership style and innovation outcomes, offering developing-country firms a practical pathway to enhance innovation capability.
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Innovation networks in economics: from the incentive‐based to the knowledge‐based approaches
Innovation networks are persistent organizational structures in industrial innovation, but traditional economics viewed them only as temporary hybrids between markets and firms, focusing narrowly on R&D cost reduction. Evolutionary economics shifts focus to knowledge, learning, and synergistic partnerships. The paper develops an evolutionary theory of innovation networks that accounts for uncertainty, heterogeneity, and historical time as essential to understanding why networks self-organize and persist.
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How start-ups successfully organize and manage open innovation with large companies
Start-ups successfully manage open innovation partnerships with large companies through practices that differ significantly from those of established firms. Managers with prior large-company experience prove crucial for navigating these collaborations. Both inbound and outbound open innovation help start-ups overcome their newness and small size, though each approach presents distinct advantages and challenges that require careful orchestration.
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Social Media: A Tool for Open Innovation
Companies increasingly use social media for open innovation but lack clear strategies for implementation. This study examines how firms organize and deploy social media across the full innovation cycle—from generating ideas through research and development to bringing products to market. The authors identify specific organizational and technological changes managers need to adopt to capture innovation benefits from social media engagement.
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Consensus + innovations distributed inference over networks: cooperation and sensing in networked systems
This paper presents distributed inference algorithms that combine consensus mechanisms with real-time sensing innovations across networked agents without central coordination. Agents communicate locally over sparse networks while simultaneously sensing new observations, rather than iterating to consensus between measurements. The authors develop asymptotically optimal approaches that match centralized inference performance by balancing collaboration potential against local innovation potential through mixed-scale stochastic approximation.
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Exporting, R&D, and absorptive capacity in UK establishments
This study examines what drives UK establishments to export and how much they export. Using innovation survey data, the researchers find that firm size matters significantly. R&D activities and absorptive capacity—the ability to understand and use scientific knowledge, collaborate internationally, and organize effectively—help firms enter export markets. However, once firms export, only absorptive capacity linked to scientific knowledge boosts their export performance; R&D spending alone does not.
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Impact of knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity on project performance: the moderating role of social processes
Knowledge governance and sharing improve project performance in software companies by strengthening teams' ability to absorb and apply new knowledge. Social processes amplify these effects. The study of 133 Pakistani IT firms shows that organizations investing in knowledge governance systems and encouraging knowledge sharing across projects achieve better outcomes.
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Open innovation in the public sector: drivers and barriers for the adoption of Challenge.gov
Federal agencies use Challenge.gov to crowdsource citizen ideas for solving public sector problems. Analysis of contest data and interviews with thirty-six managers across fourteen departments reveals that organizational barriers limit adoption of this open innovation approach. However, when innovation mandates align with an agency's core mission, organizations successfully change their procedures and how they acquire innovations.
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A Strategy for the Analysis of Idea Innovation Networks and Institutions
This paper argues that radical innovations in science-based industries emerge from idea innovation networks spanning six research arenas: basic research, applied research, product development, production, quality control, and commercialization. The authors find that innovation success depends on diversity of knowledge and frequent communication within arenas, plus intense cross-arena communication to transfer tacit knowledge. Institutional environments shape arena size and connectivity, with patterns suggesting either national innovation systems or globalization effects.
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Inter-firm networks and innovation: a survey of literature
This survey reviews literature on how inter-firm networks affect innovation and technological change. The author organizes studies by causality direction—examining both how networks influence firm outcomes and how networks form. The analysis identifies three interconnected themes: network origins, firm performance effects, and network structure. The survey synthesizes theoretical and empirical findings to guide future research on inter-firm networks.
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Actualizing Innovation Effort: The Impact of Market Knowledge Diffusion in a Dynamic System of Competition
Market knowledge diffusion drives innovation effort through three mechanisms: knowledge level, knowledge change, and shared understanding of customers and competitors. However, satisfaction with past performance reduces innovation effort. The study finds that innovation effort alone doesn't improve firm performance; instead, shared market knowledge enables smaller firms to convert innovation into better returns than larger competitors can achieve.
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Understanding innovators' experiences of barriers and facilitators in implementation and diffusion of healthcare service innovations: a qualitative study
Healthcare innovators in the UK identified four key factors affecting whether service innovations succeed and spread: evidence of effectiveness, partnerships between organizations, people-based resources like champions, and contextual conditions. Innovators emphasized that successful implementation requires combining strong evidence, interpersonal networks, organizational support, and favorable external conditions. Champions and innovators themselves drive diffusion across different healthcare settings.
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Green core competencies to prompt green absorptive capacity and bolster green innovation: the moderating role of organization’s green culture
Chinese tourism businesses that develop green core competencies—skills and resources focused on environmental sustainability—improve their green innovation performance. Green absorptive capacity, the ability to recognize and apply environmental knowledge, mediates this relationship. Organizational culture that values sustainability partially strengthens the link between absorptive capacity and innovation. Hotels and restaurants in northeast China show these effects hold in practice.
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Managing knowledge assets for open innovation: a systematic literature review
This systematic literature review examines how knowledge management practices support open innovation activities. The authors analyzed 34 articles and organized findings around three open innovation processes: inbound, outbound, and coupled. The review identifies which knowledge management practices best support each type of open innovation activity and highlights understudied areas for future research.
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Physics faculty and educational researchers: Divergent expectations as barriers to the diffusion of innovations
Physics education researchers and faculty have divergent expectations that hinder innovation adoption. While faculty do implement some research-based changes, they underutilize educational research and report dissatisfaction with researcher interactions. Researchers typically disseminate finished curricula expecting adoption as-is, but faculty want researchers to collaborate with them to adapt innovations to their specific teaching contexts. This mismatch between dissemination models and faculty needs limits the impact of physics education research on actual teaching practices.
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Impact of knowledge absorptive capacity on corporate sustainability with mediating role of CSR: analysis from the Asian context
This study examines how employees' ability to absorb and apply knowledge affects manufacturing companies' corporate social responsibility practices and sustainability performance in the Asia Pacific region. Analyzing data from 587 multinational corporations, the research finds that knowledge absorptive capacity directly improves sustainability outcomes and indirectly influences them through corporate social responsibility practices. Knowledge absorptive capacity proves more important than CSR alone for achieving sustainability goals.
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Intellectual capital and business performance: the role of dimensions of absorptive capacity
This study examines how intellectual capital affects business performance, testing whether absorptive capacity mediates this relationship. Using survey data from 192 managers, the researchers found that realized absorptive capacity—the ability to transform and exploit knowledge—positively mediates the link between intellectual capital and performance. Human and organizational capital strongly predict performance, while social capital has weak effects. Potential absorptive capacity showed no mediating role.
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Information Technology Use as a Learning Mechanism: The Impact of IT Use on Knowledge Transfer Effectiveness, Absorptive Capacity, and Franchisee Performance1
This study examines how franchisees use information technology to learn and improve performance. The researchers found that IT use enhances knowledge transfer from franchisors and builds franchisees' capacity to absorb and apply that knowledge. This improved learning capacity then drives better financial performance. The findings were tested across 783 real-estate franchisees and held consistent across different analytical approaches.
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Broadening the scope of open innovation: past research, current state and future directions
This paper reviews how open innovation research has evolved since 2003, showing that the field has expanded across multiple levels of analysis from individual organizations to national systems. The authors identify gaps in the literature and call for open innovation research to integrate with other management disciplines like marketing and human resources, and to connect with established management theories.
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How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers, absorptive capacity and competition
Foreign direct investment in Poland generates productivity gains for domestic firms through horizontal spillovers (same industry) and vertical spillovers (upstream and downstream industries). Domestic firms' ability to absorb knowledge matters significantly: R&D-intensive firms benefit most from vertical spillovers, while firms investing in intangibles gain more from horizontal spillovers. Competition strengthens backward spillovers, while market power increases forward spillovers. Effects vary by sector, with services showing strong horizontal spillovers and manufacturing driving other results.
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Absorptive Capacity: Antecedents, Models and Outcomes
This paper reviews the concept of absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. The authors synthesize theoretical and empirical contributions to clarify the construct's definition, antecedents, and consequences across different levels of analysis. They assess how the concept has been refined and extended in literature, analyze conceptual models, and identify key research gaps. The paper calls for future work that better integrates multiple levels of analysis and draws on diverse disciplines.
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Coping with Open Innovation: Responding to the Challenges of External Engagement in R&D
R&D professionals face significant challenges when engaging in open innovation, including managing external relationships and coordinating across organizational boundaries. This paper identifies four specific challenges that individuals encounter in daily open innovation work and describes coping strategies they use. The authors recommend organizational practices that help staff effectively manage external engagement and collaboration.
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Internationalization and innovation in a network relationship context
Network relationships shape how small software firms in New Zealand internationalize and innovate. Firms with limited networks pursue incremental changes, while those with diverse networks undertake radical internationalization and innovation. The study identifies four distinct firm groups based on network type and internationalization strategy, showing that network relationships both influence and sustain firm development.
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Universities as key knowledge infrastructures in regional innovation systems
Universities drive regional innovation through multiple mechanisms: transferring commodified knowledge, developing human capital, and building social capital. The paper examines how national higher education systems and regional innovation programs shape university engagement differently across Europe. It argues that policymakers must integrate and coordinate regional-scale policies to maximize universities' role as knowledge infrastructure.
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Knowledge transfer for frugal innovation: where do entrepreneurial universities stand?
Entrepreneurial universities drive frugal innovation in emerging economies through strategic knowledge transfer and university-industry partnerships. The study of Brazil's University of Campinas reveals that universities foster frugal innovations by leveraging internal capabilities, connecting innovations to markets, and embedding themselves within broader innovation ecosystems and institutional frameworks. Universities can advance sustainable development and meet societal challenges by adopting inclusive, frugal innovation practices.
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Innovation processes in online newsrooms as actor-networks and communities of practice
This paper examines how innovation happens in online newsrooms using two theoretical frameworks: actor-network theory and community of practice. Through four newsroom case studies, the authors show how these theories explain which actors influence innovation decisions, how journalists negotiate and learn together, and what factors help or hinder the adoption of new practices in newsrooms.
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Environmental Innovation, Open Innovation Dynamics and Competitive Advantage of Medium and Large-Sized Firms
Greek medium and large firms implement environmental innovation at moderate levels, with ISO 14001 certification and toxic substance reduction as most common practices. Environmental process and product innovation both positively impact competitive advantage. The study surveyed 225 firms and found increasing adoption of environmental management systems, while open innovation dynamics contribute to environmental innovation outcomes.
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The Geographies of Social Networks and Innovation in Tourism
Tourism firms depend on innovation to survive, yet little research examines how they innovate. This study combines network theory with geography to understand how tourism firms access information through local and non-local social networks. Research in Malaga, Spain reveals that local networks are loose and dense while non-local networks are strong and sparse. This mixed geography of connections provides firms with diverse information that sustains innovation.
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Benefits of involving users in service innovation
Users generate more creative and useful service innovations than professional developers, according to an empirical study comparing service ideas for mobile telephony. While professional suggestions were easier to implement, ordinary users contributed novel ideas with greater creative value. The research demonstrates that consumers can serve as effective co-inventors in service innovation, though organizational factors affect their contribution potential.
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Innovation capacity: working towards a mechanism for improving innovation within an inter‐organizational network
Firms improve innovation capacity by combining innovation resources and accumulated knowledge within inter-organizational networks. This paper examines how one firm enhanced its innovation capacity through collaboration with a network partner on R&D projects. The study shows that resource supply and knowledge accumulation interact dynamically within networks, creating continuous improvement cycles that strengthen organizational competitiveness and enable firms to meet customer needs and create new markets.
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Valuing Value in Innovation Ecosystems: How Cross-Sector Actors Overcome Tensions in Collaborative Sustainable Business Model Development
Cross-sector innovation ecosystems pursuing sustainability goals face three key tensions: balancing value creation against value capture, collective versus individual benefits, and gains versus losses for different actors. This study of four collaborative projects identifies two patterns—collective orchestration and continuous search—that ecosystems use to navigate these tensions and develop sustainable business models that satisfy all partners.
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Strategic agency and institutional change: investigating the role of universities in regional innovation systems (RISs)
Universities shape regional innovation systems through strategic leadership and institutional entrepreneurship. The paper argues that understanding how regional innovation develops requires examining not just organizational actors but their internal dynamics and competing interests. Place-based leadership—how actors intentionally drive regional change—remains undertheorized without accounting for these organizational complexities.
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Networks as a means of supporting the adoption of organizational innovations in SMEs: the case of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) based on ISO 14001
Small and medium enterprises struggle to adopt environmental practices, but networks can facilitate this shift. This study examines how SMEs use collaborative networks to implement Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14001 standards. The research develops a practical model showing how networked SMEs can collectively adopt organizational environmental innovations, moving from reactive to proactive environmental behavior.
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Exploring open innovation practice in firm‐nonprofit engagements: a corporate social responsibility perspective
This study examines how corporations and nonprofits collaborate to drive innovation through open innovation practices. Eight UK partnerships show two distinct approaches: exploratory engagement that generates emergent innovation, and focused resource exploitation that follows planned processes. Boundary-spanning roles differ based on organizational linkage strength—formal management roles in loosely connected dyads versus informal facilitation roles in highly connected ones. Open innovation driven by social issues, rather than purely economic motives, broadens corporate search activities and generates innovations while building social legitimacy.
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Propagation of innovations in networked groups.
This paper examines how network structure affects groups' ability to discover and share solutions. Researchers created laboratory groups where participants made guesses and shared scores with network neighbors. Results show groups converge on similar solutions even when alternatives exist. The optimal network structure depends on the problem: clustered networks excel at broad exploration, while highly connected networks work better for focused problems.
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Technology gaps, absorptive capacity and the impact of inward investments on productivity of European firms *
Using firm-level data from France, Italy, and Spain (1993-1997), this paper examines how foreign direct investment affects domestic firm productivity. The researchers find that positive effects depend on technology gaps and absorptive capacity. In most sectors, larger technology gaps between foreign and domestic firms enable stronger productivity gains. However, in science-based industries, domestic firms benefit more when they have higher absorptive capacity and smaller technology gaps from foreign competitors.
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Analysis of the relationship between open innovation, knowledge management capability and dual innovation
Open innovation and knowledge management capability both positively influence dual innovation (exploration and exploitation). Inward-oriented open innovation more strongly drives exploitation innovation, while outward-oriented open innovation more strongly drives exploration innovation. Knowledge management capability partially mediates the relationship between open innovation and dual innovation outcomes.
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Technology Transfer across Organizational Boundaries: Absorptive Capacity and Desorptive Capacity
This paper introduces the concept of desorptive capacity—a firm's ability to identify and transfer technology outward to other organizations. While research typically focuses on absorptive capacity (the recipient's ability to receive technology), the authors argue that understanding the technology source's capabilities is equally critical for successful technology transfer through alliances and licensing. Market knowledge and desorptive capacity explain why firms struggle with outbound technology transfer strategies.
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The many faces of absorptive capacity: spillovers of copper interconnect technology for semiconductor chips
This case study of copper interconnect technology in semiconductors identifies three forms of absorptive capacity: disciplinary, domain-specific, and encoded. Firms build disciplinary capacity by engaging with scientific communities while protecting proprietary knowledge. Domain-specific capacity develops through influencing university research and hiring talent. As technology matures, encoded capacity becomes critical, requiring firms to integrate supplier knowledge. Absorptive capacity is multifaceted and shaped by technology type and maturity.
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Hybrid Orchestration in Multi-stakeholder Innovation Networks: Practices of mobilizing multiple, diverse stakeholders across organizational boundaries
This study examines how orchestrators manage multi-stakeholder innovation networks by identifying three core practices: connecting, facilitating, and governing. The research finds that successful orchestrators switch between dominating and consensus-based approaches depending on emerging network challenges. These hybrid orchestration strategies help orchestrators navigate the complexity of coordinating diverse stakeholders across organizational boundaries and achieve distinct innovation outcomes over time.
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Information technology for supporting the development and maintenance of open innovation capabilities
This paper examines how information technology supports open innovation by developing two types of organizational capabilities: strategic capabilities that enable companies to adopt open innovation strategies effectively, and operational capabilities that improve daily implementation. The authors connect specific ICT tools to required functions across the entire open innovation process, emphasizing collaboration, data analysis, and technology integration within organizational workflows.
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The innovative performance of firms in heterogeneous environments: The interplay between external knowledge and internal absorptive capacities
Firms in knowledge-rich environments innovate more effectively when they develop both potential and realized absorptive capacities—the ability to recognize and integrate external knowledge. Using English firm data combined with patent records, the study shows that organizational ambidexterity enables companies to leverage clustering of knowledgeable workers and external knowledge sources to boost innovation performance.
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THE ROLE OF ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY IN FACILITATING "OPEN INNOVATION" OUTCOMES: A STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN SMEs IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR
Australian manufacturing SMEs that pursue open innovation strategies achieve better innovation outcomes when they possess strong absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. The study shows that simply accessing external knowledge through open innovation is insufficient; firms must develop internal capabilities to effectively transform and use that knowledge.
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How innovation drivers, networking and leadership shape public sector innovation capacity
Leadership quality has a stronger impact on public sector innovation capacity than innovation drivers or external networking, according to a survey of senior administrators in Barcelona, Copenhagen, and Rotterdam. The study found that transformational and network governance leadership styles most effectively boost innovation in Barcelona and Copenhagen, while entrepreneurial leadership proved most effective in Rotterdam. Organizational structures, processes, and external contacts matter less than strong leadership for building innovation capacity.
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Innovation Types and Network Relationships
Small innovative firms commercialize different types of innovations through distinct network relationships. The study identifies four innovation types and shows that radical systemic and autonomous innovations require strong collaborative ties with customers, while incremental innovations succeed through different downstream networks. A portfolio of relationships with suppliers, distributors, customers, and research institutes helps small firms access critical resources.
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The Effects of Market Network Heterogeneity on Innovation Diffusion: An Agent‐Based Modeling Approach
This paper uses agent-based modeling to examine how network structure affects innovation diffusion. The researchers find that how consumers connect to each other and communicate within market segments significantly influences how quickly innovations spread. Identifying key communicator nodes in networks allows organizations to better target their innovation strategies to different market segments and accelerate adoption.
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Business-to-business open innovation: COVID-19 lessons for small and medium-sized enterprises from emerging markets
SMEs in emerging markets adopted open innovation strategies during COVID-19, forming new collaborations with customers and competitors despite resource constraints. Research in Bosnia and Herzegovina shows these firms shifted from traditional competitive practices toward collaborative partnerships to develop innovations during crisis. The paper provides recommendations for managers on managing openness in emerging market SMEs.
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The Passway of Women Entrepreneurship: Starting from Social Capital with Open Innovation, through to Knowledge Sharing and Innovative Performance
Social capital positively influences business performance for women entrepreneurs in Bali, Indonesia, enabling them to share information and create innovations. However, women entrepreneurs face significant barriers including limited access to capital and credit, weak technological and managerial skills, poor market access, bureaucratic obstacles, and cultural norms that position men as superior. These constraints severely limit women's entrepreneurial opportunities despite their ability to leverage social networks.
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Managing open innovation
Empowering leadership styles boost both inbound and outbound open innovation in firms. The study surveyed managers in northern India and found that empowering leaders help employees seek, integrate, and share new ideas. Employee involvement climate mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and inbound innovation, meaning leaders create environments where employees participate in decisions that enhance innovation performance.
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The antecedents and innovation effects of domestic and offshore R&D outsourcing: The contingent impact of cognitive distance and absorptive capacity
Firms with stronger internal R&D capabilities can effectively manage offshore outsourcing despite greater cognitive distance between partners. Offshore R&D outsourcing produces better innovation results than domestic outsourcing, particularly for product innovation. Absorptive capacity—built through internal R&D investment—enables companies to successfully integrate knowledge from distant offshore partners.
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Value Cocreation and Wealth Spillover in Open Innovation Alliances1
Open innovation alliances where competitors collaborate on technology development create significant economic value. Firms entering these alliances experience positive stock returns, with even greater gains when market leaders join late. Surprisingly, rival firms outside the alliance also benefit financially, with non-participating incumbents gaining the most. Innovation type and alliance openness affect returns, while partner diversity does not.
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Online Communities and Open Innovation
Online communities enable users and customers to participate in innovation at low cost through internet-based collaboration. These communities operate independently of corporate control, yet companies increasingly seek to harness their creative output through open innovation strategies. The paper examines how technological and symbolic value is created when online communities interact with firms across software, services, and manufacturing sectors, challenging traditional business models.
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Being a Catalyst of Innovation: The Role of Knowledge Diversity and Network Closure
This study identifies innovation catalysts—people who support and promote colleagues' innovativeness—within organizational research teams. The researchers found that individuals with access to diverse knowledge through closed networks become effective catalysts. Analyzing 276 R&D researchers at a multinational tech company, they show catalysts significantly boost their colleagues' patent applications, revealing an important but overlooked role in the innovation process beyond inventors themselves.
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Impact of organizational inertia on business model innovation, open innovation and corporate performance
Organizational inertia—resistance to change—undermines business model innovation and open innovation in IT firms, reducing corporate performance. The study surveyed 160 information technology companies in Tehran and found that reducing organizational inertia enables firms to adopt innovative business models and embrace open innovation practices, both of which directly improve performance outcomes.
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Sustainable open innovation to address a grand challenge
Carlsberg developed the Green Fiber Bottle through open innovation partnerships to address sustainability challenges in food and beverage manufacturing. The case demonstrates that grand challenges require leveraging external collaboration, pursuing sustainability beyond profit motives, adopting new business models, achieving early wins for scaling, and maintaining long-term vision. The Nordic context proved important to success.
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Networking and knowledge creation: Social capital and collaborative innovation in responding to the COVID-19 crisis
Social capital drives collaborative innovation and collective intelligence in manufacturing firms during crises. A study of 289 managers at Jordan's top 50 manufacturers found that strong social networks significantly boost collaborative innovation, collective problem-solving, and organizational sustainability during COVID-19. Collective intelligence itself further strengthens both innovation and sustainability, demonstrating how dynamic capabilities help organizations survive and recover from unprecedented disruptions.
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Network Dynamics of Innovation Processes
This paper presents a mathematical model explaining how innovations emerge through random walks on networks of interconnected ideas. The model shows that innovations occur when cognitive processes first reach new concepts, with network connections strengthening through repeated use. The framework successfully predicts both the rate at which new discoveries appear and how they correlate with each other across scientific disciplines.
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Absorptive Capacity in Buyer–supplier Relationships: Empirical Evidence of Its Mediating Role
Absorptive capacity—the ability to identify, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge—mediates the relationship between organizational compatibility and performance outcomes in buyer-supplier relationships. Analysis of 153 and 199 companies supplying major retailers and distributors shows that compatibility alone does not ensure innovation and efficiency gains. Absorptive capacity drives these improvements, particularly for innovation under high demand uncertainty. Managers must prioritize partners' learning capabilities, not just compatibility.
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Connecting local entrepreneurial ecosystems to global innovation networks: open innovation, double networks and knowledge integration
Large and small firms increasingly tap dispersed knowledge from universities, research institutes, and SMEs through open innovation and global networks. This paper argues that regional innovative ecosystems play a crucial role in attracting R&D activity and enabling knowledge integration. Success requires firms to simultaneously integrate knowledge locally and globally, internally and externally, within double network structures that connect entrepreneurial ecosystems to worldwide innovation networks.
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The evolution of the digital service ecosystem and digital business model innovation in retail: The emergence of meta-ecosystems and the value of physical interactions
Traditional retailers transitioning to digital business models collaborate with specialized digital service providers, creating hybrid "meta-ecosystems" that combine retail and digital services. Rather than eliminating physical interactions, successful digital retailers use face-to-face relationships with service providers, suppliers, and customers as a key competitive differentiator. The study identifies two stages: initial digital implementation through partnerships, then differentiation through maintaining personal connections.
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Knowledge transfer in open innovation
This paper develops a framework for understanding how knowledge flows among diverse actors in healthcare ecosystems to support open innovation. The framework identifies four key components: player categories, knowledge flows across exploration and exploitation stages, player motivations, and positions in the innovation process. The research highlights that patients, doctors, and nurses—not just R&D professionals—play critical roles in knowledge transfer and innovation development within healthcare networks.
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Breakthrough innovation: the roles of dynamic innovation capabilities and open innovation activities
Dynamic innovation capabilities show an inverted U-shaped relationship with breakthrough innovation—too much or too little hurts performance. Open innovation activities strengthen this relationship by helping firms coordinate their capabilities effectively. The study surveyed 218 Taiwanese firms with recent breakthrough innovation experience, finding that managers must balance their dynamic capabilities and engage in open innovation to succeed.
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Managing Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity: How do Organizational Antecedents Matter?
This study examines how organizational structures affect a company's ability to absorb and use new knowledge. The researchers found that coordination mechanisms like cross-functional teams and job rotation build potential absorptive capacity, while socialization mechanisms like employee connectedness and mentoring increase realized absorptive capacity. The findings explain why organizations struggle to balance these two components and differ in extracting value from acquired knowledge.
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User Involvement throughout the Innovation Process in High‐Tech Industries
High-tech firms increasingly collect user feedback throughout entire innovation cycles rather than in isolated phases. This study of eight high-tech companies reveals how firms use technology and social media to gather and apply user input across all stages of product development. The authors develop a framework identifying different types of user involvement and methods for integrating customer feedback systematically into innovation processes.
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OPEN INNOVATION PRACTICES AND THEIR EFFECT ON INNOVATION PERFORMANCE
Open innovation practices significantly boost innovation performance across European firms. Broad-based approaches combining multiple open innovation strategies deliver stronger results than individual practices alone. Internal research investments remain essential alongside external collaboration, showing that open innovation complements rather than replaces in-house knowledge development.
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Diffusion of Innovations and Network Segmentation: The Part Played by People in Promoting Health
This paper demonstrates how diffusion of innovations theory integrates mass media, interpersonal communication, and social network analysis to improve health promotion. The authors review studies on STD/HIV prevention and find that interventions using interpersonal communication successfully increase safer sex behaviors. They conclude that social network analysis enables more effective and tailored health promotion program design.
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From innovation to commercialization through networks and agglomerations: analysis of sources of innovation, innovation capabilities and performance of Dutch SMEs
Dutch SMEs succeed in innovation when they balance exploration and exploitation networks. This study of 243 Dutch firms shows that exploring technology opportunities through partnerships with universities and research institutions significantly improves innovation success. The findings suggest policymakers should support external collaboration networks, not just internal R&D, to help SMEs commercialize innovations effectively.
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The Local Innovation System as a Source of 'Variety': Openness and Adaptability in New York City's Garment District
New York City's Garment District sustains innovation in women's wear by drawing on design ideas from emerging clusters like the Lower East Side. The District's institutional infrastructure enables designers to access and exploit this variety of innovations. This diversity, combined with economic coherence, allows the District to adapt successfully to changing competitive pressures.
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How and why Organisations Use Social Media: Five Use Types and their Relation to Absorptive Capacity
Organizations adopt social media for five distinct purposes: broadcast, dialogue, collaboration, knowledge management, and sociability. The study finds that dialogue-based social media use strengthens organizational absorptive capacity and performance, while sociability-focused use does not. This challenges unsupported industry claims about social media's universal benefits.
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Looking for Regional Systems of Innovation: Evidence from the Italian Innovation Survey
This study examines regional innovation patterns across Italy using the Community Innovation Survey. The authors find that Italy's regions display diverse innovation characteristics beyond the typical north-south divide, shaped by firm strategies, technological performance, and systemic interactions. However, only a few regions possess genuine innovation systems; most lack sufficient connections and knowledge flows between actors to constitute functioning systems of innovation.
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Artificial intelligence for supply chain management: Disruptive innovation or innovative disruption?
This paper examines how artificial intelligence integration transforms supply chain management. The author proposes the AI Integration framework, which considers the depth of AI adoption across supply chains and AI's role in decision-making, alongside human interpretation of AI systems. Different integration approaches produce different types of disruption. The paper argues that supply chain management needs cross-disciplinary collaboration and sociotechnical perspectives to prepare for AI-driven transformation.
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Tackling Societal Challenges with Open Innovation
Open innovation—combining external knowledge and market pathways with internal processes—has traditionally served business goals. This paper argues that open innovation can address societal challenges, though doing so creates trade-offs and tensions. The authors introduce articles from the World Open Innovation Conference examining how organizations deploy open innovation to tackle broader social problems beyond profit.
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Ego-Network Stability and Innovation in Alliances
This study examines how stable alliance networks affect firm innovation in biopharmaceutical companies. The researchers find that stable ego-networks actually reduce innovation outcomes. However, firms can mitigate this negative effect by spanning structural holes across their alliance partners. Geographic concentration of inventive activities in a single country worsens the innovation penalty from network stability.
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In Search of Precision in Absorptive Capacity Research: A Synthesis of the Literature and Consolidation of Findings
This paper clarifies what absorptive capacity means and how it affects firm performance. The authors identify three core dimensions: absorptive effort (knowledge investments), absorptive knowledge base (existing knowledge stock), and absorptive process (internal knowledge practices). Meta-analysis shows absorptive capacity significantly improves firm outcomes, with knowledge acquisition and innovation generation as key mechanisms. Effects vary depending on external knowledge conditions.
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An innovation diffusion model of TQM implementation
This paper models Total Quality Management (TQM) as an organizational innovation that spreads through four stages: adoption by top management, adaptation of employee capabilities and attitudes, acceptance demonstrated through teamwork and supplier relationships, and routinization of quality practices. Testing the framework on 407 automobile parts supplier plants, the authors found that successful TQM implementation requires preparing employees and suppliers technically and behaviorally, and integrating all sociotechnical elements throughout the organization.
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Power in Firm Networks: What it Means for Regional Innovation Systems
Transnational corporations dominate regional firm networks and use their power to monopolize critical innovation resources like university research and skilled labor, undermining small and medium-sized firms' capacity to innovate. The paper argues that network functioning is inherently conflictual, with powerful firms advancing their competitive advantage while creating uneven resource distribution across regions, with significant consequences for regional policy.
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INNOVATION NETWORKS-A SIMULATION APPROACH
This paper presents a multi-agent simulation model of innovation networks where firms, research labs, and policy actors generate new ideas and products. Agents improve their innovations either independently or by partnering with others to combine knowledge. The simulation successfully reproduces real-world innovation network characteristics observed in telecommunications and biotechnology sectors, offering insights for policy decisions.
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IP Models to Orchestrate Innovation Ecosystems: IMEC, a Public Research Institute in Nano-Electronics
Public research institutes can orchestrate innovation ecosystems through intellectual property governance models. IMEC, a nano-electronics research institute, demonstrates how IP policies determine how ecosystem partners capture value from collaborative research. The institute's multi-party model involving public and private firms shows that IP governance directly influences ecosystem success and partner participation.
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Perspectives on Supply Network–Enabled Innovations
Organizations increasingly rely on their supply networks to drive innovation success. This paper presents two frameworks showing how firms can integrate their internal knowledge with supply network expertise to improve innovation performance. The frameworks draw on absorptive capacity and ambidexterity theories to explain how companies align internal research efforts with external supply network knowledge.
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How Does Innovation Emerge in a Service Ecosystem?
This study examines how innovation emerges within service ecosystems using four years of case study data on an Internet-of-Things technology solution. The research identifies institutional reconciliation as a previously overlooked phase in innovation development, showing that ideas are refined through four types of institutional pressures and shaped by plasticity in four distinct ways. The findings establish innovation as a systemic process and recommend that managers cultivate organizational norms, rules, and beliefs to support innovation emergence.
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Absorptive capacity, knowledge sharing, and innovative behaviour of R&D employees
This study examines how absorptive capacity and knowledge sharing drive innovative behavior among R&D employees. Using survey data from 138 employees at a multinational electronics company, the researchers found that both potential and realized absorptive capacity directly influence innovation. Knowledge sharing indirectly affects innovation through realized absorptive capacity. The findings show that organizations should simultaneously develop employee absorptive capacity and encourage knowledge sharing, external exposure, and internal communication to foster innovation.
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BENEFITING FROM SUPPLIER OPERATIONAL INNOVATIVENESS: THE INFLUENCE OF SUPPLIER EVALUATIONS AND ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
Manufacturers benefit from suppliers' operational innovations, but capturing this value requires two strategies: evaluating supplier performance and developing absorptive capacity to learn from suppliers. A survey of 136 manufacturers and 272 suppliers shows both approaches significantly enhance the benefits of supplier innovation, particularly when suppliers handle knowledge-intensive tasks. Supplier evaluation and learning capacity work together to unlock innovation value.
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Online social networks as an enabler of innovation in organizations
Spanish hospitality firms using online social networks show significantly higher innovation capacity, which directly improves business performance. The study surveyed 193 four- and five-star hotels and found that social media platforms enhance knowledge management and business intelligence, enabling firms to develop innovation competences that drive competitive advantage in the tourism industry.
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Innovation Alignment and Project Network Dynamics: An Integrative Model for Change
This paper examines how project networks affect innovation adoption using data from 3D CAD technology diffusion across 82 firms in three countries. The authors develop a two-stage model showing that innovation success depends first on alignment with existing work allocation, then on network factors including relational stability, shared interests, boundary permeability, and change agents. The model resolves conflicting theories about whether networks promote or hinder innovation.
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Open innovation in the face of the COVID‐19 grand challenge: insights from the Pan‐European hackathon ‘EUvsVirus’
The EUvsVirus hackathon mobilized thousands of participants across Europe to develop COVID-19 solutions through open innovation. The 3-day online event combined broad problem scope, participatory design, digital access, and community building to tap distributed knowledge beyond traditional organizations. The hackathon successfully engaged atypical innovators—retired experts, students, and the public—demonstrating that grand challenges require openness at societal level, not just across organizational boundaries.
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Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles in digital supply chains: A framework for integrating innovations towards sustainable value networks
This paper develops a software framework for integrating intelligent autonomous vehicles into sustainable supply chains. The researchers review existing simulation tools, create an integrated framework to monitor supply chain sustainability performance with autonomous vehicles, translate it into a working software application through a five-stage process, and demonstrate the tool using a warehouse model. The framework enables flexible, decentralized supply chain reconfiguration and helps operations managers assess autonomous vehicle performance while tracking sustainability metrics.
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How leadership matters in organizational innovation: a perspective of openness
Transformational leadership enhances organizational innovation while transactional leadership reduces it. The study reveals that leadership styles work through two mechanisms: openness breadth (absorbing diverse external knowledge) and openness depth (integrating that knowledge deeply). Both mechanisms mediate how different leadership approaches affect innovation performance in organizations.
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Stakeholder engagement for responsible innovation in the private sector: critical issues and management practices
Dutch food companies pursuing responsible innovation fall short of genuine stakeholder engagement despite policy emphasis on it. Interviews with innovative food firms and non-economic stakeholders reveal a significant gap between the ideal of mutual responsiveness promoted in responsible innovation literature and actual practices. The study identifies critical barriers to stakeholder engagement specific to private-sector innovation and proposes management practices to address these obstacles.
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Biotechnology Clusters as Regional, Sectoral Innovation Systems
Biotechnology firms cluster near universities and knowledge sources, forming regional innovation systems that depend on complex interactions between scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, and lawyers. The paper analyzes how these regional sectoral innovation systems function by examining cases in Germany, Cambridge Massachusetts, and Cambridge UK, showing that proximity to research institutions, clinical trial facilities, and specialized services enables the transfer of scientific knowledge into commercial biotechnology products.
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Is it too complex? The curious case of supply network complexity and focal firm innovation
Supply network complexity affects how well firms innovate. Using data from 201 firms across six industries, the authors find that horizontal and vertical complexity boost innovation but with diminishing returns, while spreading suppliers across many locations harms innovation. A firm's strategic focus and power over suppliers shapes these relationships. The findings guide managers on sourcing decisions.
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Networking capability in supplier relationships and its impact on product innovation and firm performance
Networking capability—the ability to initiate, develop, and end supplier relationships—drives product innovation and firm performance in automotive parts manufacturing. Firms employ two distinct approaches: some focus on deepening existing relationships, while others balance relationship development with actively seeking new partners and exiting poor relationships. Organizational readiness to engage in networking amplifies these effects.
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Organizing for Inbound Open Innovation: How External Consultants and a Dedicated <scp>R</scp>&<scp>D</scp> Unit Influence Product Innovation Performance
Spanish manufacturing firms using external consultants in R&D activities gain stronger innovation performance from outsourced R&D, while dedicated internal R&D units reduce sensitivity to outsourcing levels. External consultants lower the optimal amount of outside knowledge needed, whereas formal R&D units require higher levels of external acquisition to achieve peak performance. Organizational structure shapes how effectively firms convert external technological knowledge into innovation.
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Whose Innovation Performance Benefits More from External Networks: Entrepreneurial or Conservative Firms?
External networks boost innovation performance more for conservative, risk-averse firms than for entrepreneurial ones. Using data from 1,978 U.S. firms, the research shows that firms with weak entrepreneurial orientation gain greater innovation benefits from learning through external networks than firms with strong entrepreneurial orientation. This effect is stronger in small and medium-sized enterprises than in large firms.
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Innovation intermediaries: a process view on open innovation coordination
Innovation intermediaries play a crucial role in coordinating collaborative innovation projects across organizational networks. The study identifies three strategic capabilities that distinguish intermediaries from traditional project managers and online marketplaces: matchmaking and innovation process design, collaborative project management, and project valuation with portfolio management. These intermediaries facilitate co-creation and economic exchange in nested innovation processes.
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Diffusion of innovations in social networks
This paper examines how innovations spread through social networks using the linear threshold model, where individuals adopt innovations only after exposure from multiple neighbors. The authors find that innovations spread further in networks with lower clustering, contradicting existing literature. They provide analytical evidence and simulations supporting this claim, and extend the model to account for path dependence, showing how small shocks can significantly alter diffusion outcomes.
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How Central Is Too Central? Organizing Interorganizational Collaboration Networks for Breakthrough Innovation
In the U.S. pharmaceutical industry between 1985 and 2001, firms achieved breakthrough innovation by collaborating with central alliance partners, but only up to a point. Beyond optimal centrality, innovation performance declined. Firms with more private partners relative to public partners experienced less performance loss from excessive central partner collaboration. The findings show that strategic partner selection in alliance networks directly shapes breakthrough innovation outcomes.
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Open innovation: a new classification and its impact on firm performance in innovative SMEs
Open innovation practices boost performance in Korean small and medium-sized enterprises. The study of 306 innovative SMEs found that broad engagement with external partners, particularly through joint R&D, user involvement, and open sourcing, improves firm performance. SMEs gain most from collaborating with non-competing partners like customers, consultants, and public research institutes. The research proposes a new classification framework for studying how SMEs adopt and implement open innovation.
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Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of dialect change: Linguistic innovation in London
This paper examines how linguistic innovation spreads through London's communities, showing that ethnicity, friendship networks, and social practices drive dialect change. The authors analyze how these social factors shape language variation and innovation among different groups, revealing the mechanisms through which new linguistic features emerge and propagate through social networks.
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The linkage between open innovation, absorptive capacity and managerial ties: A cross-country perspective
Managerial ties and absorptive capacity drive open innovation across France, Malaysia, and the UAE. The study of 530 companies shows that managers' external relationships directly enable inbound open innovation in all three countries, while outbound innovation depends on managerial ties in France and the UAE. Absorptive capacity mediates these relationships in France and the UAE, meaning companies must develop internal knowledge-absorption capabilities to convert external connections into innovation.
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Social capital and innovation performance of digital firms: Serial mediation effect of cross-border knowledge search and absorptive capacity
Social capital significantly boosts innovation performance in Chinese digital firms, even during COVID-19. Cross-border knowledge search mediates this relationship for structural and relational capital but not cognitive capital. Absorptive capacity further strengthens the effect when combined with knowledge search. Digital firms should build social capital to enable cross-border knowledge acquisition and develop capacity to leverage diverse external knowledge for innovation.
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Collaboration beyond the supply network for green innovation: insight from 11 cases
Firms collaborate on green innovation across industry boundaries through horizontal partnerships and extended networks including suppliers and customers. Digital technologies, connectivity, and big data enable knowledge sharing and drive environmental improvements in energy efficiency, materials, emissions reduction, and recycling. Successful green innovation requires developing business models and finding collaboration partners that facilitate transformation toward connected products and services.
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The roles of universities in fostering knowledge-intensive clusters in Chinese regional innovation systems
Chinese universities play distinct roles in regional innovation systems compared to Western models. This study examines Shanghai's Tongji Creative Cluster, a knowledge-intensive services hub, and finds that successful innovation development combines bottom-up grassroots initiatives with top-down government coordination. This hybrid approach proves more effective than purely state-directed models for overcoming challenges in China's regional innovation systems.
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Learning and innovation in inter‐organizational network collaboration
This study examines how small and medium-sized firms' learning approaches affect their collaboration in business networks. The research finds that exploratory learning—seeking new knowledge—drives firms to collaborate with partners on product innovation. Exploitative learning—refining existing processes—encourages internal improvement but discourages external networking. The findings show that product innovation requires learning with network partners, while process improvements happen within individual firms.
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Living Labs and user engagement for innovation and sustainability
Living Labs engage stakeholders and users in co-creating sustainable innovations through a Quadruple Helix Model approach. Research across multiple case studies shows that Living Labs successfully involve firms, businesses, and communities in developing solutions that benefit the economy, society, and environment. The study identifies best practices and policy recommendations for establishing Living Labs that advance local sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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The Diffusion of Innovation
This paper examines how innovations spread through populations by focusing on influentials—key individuals who drive adoption. Taylor argues that understanding and targeting these influential actors is critical to accelerating the diffusion of new ideas and practices across communities.
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Challenges to open innovation in traditional SMEs: an analysis of pre-competitive projects in university-industry-government collaboration
Small and medium-sized enterprises in traditional, low-tech sectors struggle to participate effectively in university-industry-government collaborations focused on pre-competitive research and development. This study tracked three such projects across four phases—initiation, execution, closing, and monitoring—and identified specific firm-level and project-level obstacles that prevent these collaborations from meeting their innovation goals.
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Between local innovation and global impact: cities, networks, and the governance of climate change
Cities and city networks like the C40 Climate Leadership Group drive climate innovation outside formal international agreements, which have failed to reduce emissions. These non-state actors challenge traditional governance norms and generate coordinated responses through networks. The paper examines C40's history and network dynamics, then recommends Canada update federal climate policy to support city-network initiatives, fill policy gaps, and connect climate action to urban priorities.
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Exploring How Peer Communities Enable Lead User Innovations to Become Standard Equipment in the Industry: Community Pull Effects
Lead users in medical and sporting equipment industries develop innovations that become industry standards through active peer community engagement. Community members provide critical feedback, contribute to product development, test prototypes, and drive diffusion. Two key mechanisms emerge: communities demand and facilitate prototype development, and they bridge the gap between early adopters and mainstream markets. Peer communities function as essential social networks that actively shape entrepreneurial innovation processes.
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Who Are the Knowledge Brokers in Regional Systems of Innovation? A Multi-Actor Network Analysis
Universities and public research organizations serve as central knowledge brokers in German regional innovation networks, occupying more influential positions than private firms. This gatekeeper function proves especially critical in lagging regions lacking large companies. Private firms without inter-regional research partnerships absorb most of the transferred knowledge, demonstrating how public institutions bridge local and global innovation linkages.
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Open innovation and public administration: transformational typologies and business model impacts
Swedish municipalities collaborating through open innovation networks transform public service delivery and organizational structures by co-creating services with external partners and each other. The study identifies four typologies of governmental transformation enabled by open innovation, demonstrating how these practices fundamentally reshape how public authorities create and deliver value to citizens, moving beyond incremental e-Government improvements to radical organizational change.
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Open Innovation in Practice: Goal Complementarity and Closed <scp>NPD</scp> Networks to Explain Differences in Innovation Performance for <scp>SMEs</scp> in the Medical Devices Sector
Small and medium-sized enterprises in the medical devices sector improve innovation performance through strategic collaboration networks. The study identifies an ideal network profile characterized by goal complementarity, resource complementarity, trust, and strong network positioning. High-performing SMEs adopt closed, focused, business-like networking approaches rather than broad open innovation. Goal complementarity emerges as the most distinctive factor differentiating successful from less successful companies.
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Putting academic ideas into practice: technological progress and the absorptive capacity of construction organizations
Construction firms in the UK vary widely in their ability to absorb academic research. Large firms with qualified staff, specialist focus, and university partnerships directly implement research findings. Most firms learn through publications and professional networks instead. Professional institutions help share knowledge but sometimes block innovation by enforcing outdated practices. Government-sponsored collaboration between researchers and practitioners accelerates adoption. Construction organizations need stronger feedback loops, continuous learning, and training to improve their capacity to use new ideas.
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Openness and firm innovation performance: the moderating effect of ambidextrous knowledge search strategy
External knowledge openness improves firm innovation performance, but only up to a point—the relationship follows an inverted-U curve. A balanced knowledge search strategy that pursues both depth and breadth of external knowledge strengthens this relationship. High-technology firms that strategically combine deep and broad external knowledge searches gain the most innovation benefits from opening their boundaries.
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Quadruple helix as a network of relationships: creating value within a Swedish regional innovation system
This study examines a Swedish regional innovation initiative through the quadruple helix framework, which includes industry, government, academia, and users/civil society. The research reveals that the fourth helix is not a separate actor but a complex arena where the other three helices take on different roles to create value for society, such as new jobs or improved elderly care services. Users within this framework vary by context and can include businesses, organizations, and citizens.
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Business model innovation from an open systems perspective: structural challenges and managerial solutions
Business model innovation requires firms to navigate interdependencies across organizational boundaries rather than focus solely on internal capabilities. The authors argue that because business models are systemic and span firm boundaries, companies lack complete control over their networks. They propose that managers should develop shared knowledge, build trust-based appropriability regimes, maintain network stability, and align diverse stakeholder interests to overcome these structural constraints.
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Innovation in Europe: A Tale of Networks, Knowledge and Trade in Five Cities
This paper analyzes innovation patterns across five European cities—Amsterdam, London, Milan, Paris, and Stuttgart—using firm surveys. Regional cities like Stuttgart and Milan show innovation more tightly linked to regional and national economies, while world cities like Paris and London engage more internationally. The research demonstrates that international trading systems between firms, crucial for knowledge acquisition and innovation inputs, are key features of innovation geography, challenging overgeneralized network theories.
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How family firms execute open innovation strategies: the Loccioni case
This case study of Loccioni, an Italian family firm, reveals how family businesses execute open innovation strategies by managing knowledge flows. The firm developed two distinctive capabilities—imprinting and fraternization—that overcome barriers to acquiring and transferring external knowledge. These capabilities leverage the family firm's unique social capital and goals, demonstrating that family business characteristics can actually enable rather than hinder open innovation success.
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Open innovation in SMEs
Open innovation practices significantly boost UK SMEs' international competitiveness and export performance. The study of 64 UK firms shows that success depends on combining internal factors—R&D capacity and management competencies—with external factors including open innovation collaboration and government R&D grants. SMEs that collaborate with universities and other firms through open innovation achieve stronger competitive advantage than closed-innovation firms.
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Board Networks and Corporate Innovation
Well-connected corporate boards drive stronger innovation performance and output quality. The effect intensifies when firms need more external advice or face agency problems. Companies seeking external financing gain particular advantage from board connections to bankers. The researchers establish causality through director deaths, retirements, and regulatory changes affecting board composition, and show that connection types and director characteristics explain variation in outcomes.
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Effects of Socially Responsible Supplier Development and Sustainability‐Oriented Innovation on Sustainable Development: Empirical Evidence from SMEs
Socially responsible supplier development practices by large buying firms significantly strengthen sustainability-oriented innovations in their small and medium enterprise suppliers. These innovations then improve the suppliers' overall sustainability performance across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. The study demonstrates that supplier development fully mediates the relationship between responsible purchasing practices and improved sustainability outcomes.
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Facilitating SME Innovation Capability through Business Networking
Small and medium-sized businesses drive innovation through collaborative networks that enable learning and value creation. This case study of a developing innovation network shows how SMEs generate ideas and create new ventures when working together with other local actors. Facilitated network development significantly enhances SMEs' capacity to innovate and create value.
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Managing innovation networks in the knowledge-driven economy
Innovation in the knowledge-driven economy requires networks rather than individual organizations because modern innovations demand diverse, complex competencies no one company can develop alone. The paper identifies success factors for managing innovation networks and proposes innovation roadmapping as a methodology to help networks identify ideas, align efforts, and deliver complete solutions across complementary competencies.
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The spatiotemporal evolution of global innovation networks and the changing position of China: a social network analysis based on cooperative patents
Global innovation networks expanded significantly from 1999 to 2020, becoming more accessible and showing scale-free characteristics. Developed countries in Europe and the United States remain central nodes, though polarization weakened. Four distinct subgroups emerged. Economic and technological factors drive network formation more strongly than demographic factors. China's position strengthened substantially, increasingly serving as a transit hub connecting innovation partners.
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Administrative environmental innovations, supply network structure, and environmental disclosure
Administrative environmental innovations help firms track and manage environmental impacts, leading to greater environmental disclosure. The relationship strengthens when firms implement both internal and external innovations together. A firm's position within its supply network—measured by accessibility, control, and interconnectedness—moderates this relationship, affecting how network learning and status influence environmental reporting.
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Universities and open innovation: the determinants of network centrality
Universities with central positions in university-industry networks show higher involvement in spin-off generation and externally funded research. Patenting activity correlates negatively with network centrality. Geographic location has minimal impact on a university's network position. The study reveals that specific institutional characteristics either enable or constrain universities' open innovation engagement.
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Social Capital and Learning Advantages: A Problem of Absorptive Capacity
Social capital and network relationships don't directly improve firm performance. Instead, absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—mediates and moderates how learning through networks translates into business results. The study challenges the assumption that new firms automatically gain performance advantages from their social connections.
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OPEN INNOVATION MATURITY FRAMEWORK
Researchers developed a maturity framework for open innovation by working with 15 companies. The framework measures and benchmarks how well organizations conduct open innovation across multiple dimensions. It identifies areas where companies excel and where they need improvement to advance their open innovation capabilities.
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Rewarding in open innovation communities &ndash; how to motivate members
Online open innovation communities need both monetary and non-monetary rewards to attract and retain members. This study surveyed participants and interviewed maintainers of three open innovation intermediaries, finding that members value monetary rewards and recognition for idea quality. Analysis of twelve communities showed that successful intermediaries combine multiple reward types to motivate sustained participation.
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Bureaucratic Job Mobility and The Diffusion of Innovations
Bureaucratic job mobility drives policy innovation adoption across U.S. local governments. Agency leaders hired from outside organizations are significantly more likely to introduce professionally fashionable innovations than those promoted internally. The study of municipal police and water utility managers shows that government innovation depends on both demand for new policies and the supply of mobile administrators who bring professional priorities into their agencies.
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Transformation Networks in Innovation Alliances – The Development of Volvo C70
This paper examines how Volvo developed the C70 car through learning alliances spanning multiple organizational levels. The researchers identify 'transformation networks' that enable knowledge transfer and integration across exploration and exploitation phases of innovation. These networks operate differently at various organizational levels and prove essential for converting research into commercial products.
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Innovation in the public sector: Towards an open and collaborative approach
Public sector innovation has shifted from an internal organizational process to an open, collaborative effort involving multiple stakeholders across organizations. The paper argues that scholars must now study how to engage stakeholders in innovation and integrate insights from network governance, leadership, and design thinking to produce socially relevant research.
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Network, knowledge and relationship impacts on innovation in tourism destinations
Tourism destinations innovate more when firms collaborate with trusted partners who share knowledge, and when they occupy central positions in local business networks. The study shows that relationship qualities like trust and shared knowledge drive innovation partnerships, while network position identifies the most successful innovators. Destination managers should encourage knowledge-sharing collaborations and position broker firms to bring in new ideas.
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Translocal empowerment in transformative social innovation networks
This paper examines how people gain power and capacity to achieve goals through both local and transnational social innovation networks. The authors analyze five global networks—FEBEA, DESIS, Global Ecovillage Network, Impact Hub, and Slow Food—to understand empowerment mechanisms. They find that translocal connections, linking local initiatives with global networks, enable actors to mobilize resources and drive social change through intrinsic motivation and self-determination.
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The Impact of the Regulatory Sandbox on the Fintech Industry, with a Discussion on the Relation between Regulatory Sandboxes and Open Innovation
Regulatory sandboxes—controlled environments allowing fintech companies to test innovations with regulatory flexibility—significantly boost venture capital investment in fintech ecosystems. Analysis of nine countries that adopted sandboxes first shows these frameworks reduce regulatory uncertainty and attract venture funding. The study provides empirical evidence that sandboxes effectively stimulate fintech industry growth and ecosystem development.
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“Open” disclosure of innovations, incentives and follow-on reuse: Theory on processes of cumulative innovation and a field experiment in computational biology
The paper examines how timing of knowledge disclosure—whether innovators share intermediate progress or only final results—affects subsequent innovation. Using theory and experiments in computational biology, the authors show that intermediate disclosure efficiently guides development toward existing solutions but reduces experimentation and technological diversity. Final disclosure encourages broader exploration. The findings reveal a fundamental tradeoff between steering innovation efficiently and enabling diverse technological search paths.
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How Innovation Management Techniques Support An Open Innovation Strategy
This paper examines how innovation management techniques help small and medium-sized firms implement open innovation strategies. Using a Spanish elevator manufacturer as a case study, the authors show that structured innovation management tools enable collaborative networks and technology transfer. The findings help managers understand how to build sustained competitive advantage through organized approaches to collaborative innovation.
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Topology and evolution of technology innovation networks
Patent citation networks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reveal how technological innovations connect and evolve over time. The network exhibits scaling patterns consistent with preferential attachment and aging effects, similar to scientific citation networks. This suggests a universal mechanism governs how innovations build on prior ideas and designs.
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Open innovation web-based platforms: The impact of different forms of motivation on collaboration
Open innovation web-based platforms enable collaboration between individuals and companies. This study analyzes 116 platforms to understand what motivates people to participate. The research finds that motivations vary depending on the innovation stage and type of participant. Platforms should design their reward systems differently for different phases of innovation and shift from workplace-focused to social-focused approaches to encourage participation.
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Creating shared value through open innovation approaches: Opportunities and challenges for corporate sustainability
Open innovation—where businesses collaborate with external partners—can advance corporate sustainability across economic, social, and environmental goals. External stakeholders help companies develop sustainable innovations, enter new markets, and create revenue streams while addressing social deficits. However, open innovation exposes organizations to risks including information leakage and difficulty controlling partner conduct, making trust and governance challenging.
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Harvesting reflective knowledge exchange for inbound open innovation in complex collaborative networks: an empirical verification in Europe
Open innovation collaboration modes significantly boost innovation performance by stimulating reflective knowledge exchange among firms in complex networks. Analysis of European Union firms from 2014–2019 shows that external knowledge sourcing, knowledge transfer, and big data analytics strengthen patent applications. Reflective knowledge exchange emerges as a critical mechanism enabling firms to maximize returns from innovation within inter-organizational networks.
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Social Business Model Innovation: A Quadruple/Quintuple Helix-Based Social Innovation Ecosystem
This paper proposes an ecosystem framework for social business model innovation using quadruple and quintuple helix models. The framework integrates civil society, political structures, environment, and sustainability to enable social innovation that improves human well-being. Case studies demonstrate that open innovation and clearly defined social missions drive successful social business models through collaborative knowledge creation and exploitation.
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Under the Wide Umbrella of Open Innovation
This paper examines open innovation as a broad framework encompassing how organizations collaborate with external partners to develop new products and services. The authors analyze how companies leverage external knowledge sources, partnerships, and ecosystems to accelerate innovation processes. They demonstrate that open innovation practices span diverse industries and organizational contexts, creating value through systematic engagement with external stakeholders and resources.
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Open collaborative innovation and digital platforms
Digital platforms enable open collaborative innovation by reducing transaction costs and improving coordination between partners. The study uses contract theory to show how platform governance affects firm operations and ambidexterity. A case analysis of TIM OPEN demonstrates that combining digital platforms with collaborative innovation strategies drives operational synergies and enhances creative processes through selective and free information sharing.
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Managing research and innovation networks: Evidence from a government sponsored cross-industry program
This paper examines how a Swedish government program called ProcessIT Innovations managed cross-industry collaboration between traditional process industries and emerging IT firms. The researchers identified specific challenges in configuring the network, orchestrating partnerships, and facilitating innovation projects. They developed a model for managing research and innovation networks that bring together different industries and connect firms with research institutions.
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Knowledge creation capability, absorptive capacity, and product innovativeness
Knowledge creation capability and absorptive capacity both independently boost product innovativeness in firms. Together, they create a synergistic effect that strengthens innovation outcomes. In highly turbulent technological environments, knowledge creation capability becomes even more critical, while absorptive capacity's impact weakens. The study surveyed 212 Chinese firms to reach these conclusions.
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The new age of innovation. Driving co-created value through global networks
This paper discusses how innovation is created through collaborative networks that span globally. The author argues that modern innovation increasingly depends on co-creating value across organizational and geographic boundaries rather than developing solutions in isolation. The work emphasizes the role of interconnected networks in driving innovation forward.
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SELECTIVE REVEALING IN OPEN INNOVATION PROCESSES: THE CASE OF EMBEDDED LINUX.
Firms developing embedded Linux software selectively reveal their innovations to public projects while protecting proprietary intellectual property. This voluntary contribution strategy generates informal development support benefits. The study finds revealing practices vary significantly across firms based on their characteristics, demonstrating how companies balance open innovation participation with competitive advantage protection.
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External knowledge sharing and radical innovation: the downsides of uncontrolled openness
Uncontrolled sharing of business-critical knowledge with external partners damages firms' radical innovation performance through accidental knowledge leakage. A study of 150 Finnish technology firms found that excessive openness in knowledge sharing significantly reduces radical innovation outcomes, though incremental innovation remains unaffected. Firms pursuing radical innovation must carefully manage what knowledge employees share externally and with whom.
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Open Innovation and Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Capital
Open innovation practices improve firm performance through two pathways: direct effects and indirect effects mediated by social capital. The study shows that when firms implement open innovation instruments, they build stronger social networks and relationships. These enhanced social connections then drive better firm performance. Social capital acts as a crucial mechanism linking innovation practices to business outcomes.
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Managing Open Innovation: Exploring Challenges at the Interfaces of an Open Innovation Arena
Open innovation arenas—organizations that facilitate collaboration while competing as key players themselves—face distinct management challenges. A Swedish traffic safety research unit with 22 partners experienced three types of challenges: managing relationships with partner organizations, coordinating collaboration between partners, and maintaining the arena's own operations. These challenges differ from those faced by firms simply collaborating with external actors.
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Knowledge arbitrage in global pharma: a synthetic view of absorptive capacity and open innovation
This case study of a global pharmaceutical company reveals how open innovation operates in practice. The company focuses on building OI capabilities, sharing external information, and leveraging knowledge arbitrage across networks. Notably absent are value capture models and technology evaluation criteria common in OI literature. The researchers propose that absorptive capacity works bidirectionally with open innovation, enabling firms to both acquire and contribute knowledge effectively.
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Digital transformation of industrial firms: an innovation diffusion perspective
This paper applies innovation diffusion theory to explain digital transformation in large industrial firms. By studying General Electric and Siemens, the authors identify common drivers and inhibitors of successful digital transformation. The innovation diffusion framework effectively identifies factors that help or hinder firms' transformation processes, offering researchers and managers better tools to analyze and plan digital transformation strategies.
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Open innovation for sustainability through creating shared value-role of knowledge management system, openness and organizational structure
Open innovation for sustainability requires three critical conditions working together: knowledge management systems, organizational openness, and appropriate organizational structure. Manufacturing micro, small, and medium enterprises must configure these elements at different levels to create shared value with partners and stakeholders. Organizations succeed by expanding beyond internal resources to collaborate actively with manufacturers, retailers, and other stakeholders on sustainability problem-solving.
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Frugal innovation in a crisis: the digital fabrication maker response to COVID‐19
During COVID-19, maker communities used digital fabrication tools to produce critical items like masks and ventilators, demonstrating frugal innovation—doing more with less for more people. Case studies from Italy and India show makers employed similar resource-constrained approaches despite different economic contexts. The research expands frugal innovation theory beyond emerging markets, establishing digital fabrication as a key enabler for distributed innovation networks responding to crises.
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An Advantage of Newness: Vicarious Learning Despite Limited Absorptive Capacity
New firms entering markets typically lack the knowledge and capabilities of established competitors, but they can overcome this disadvantage through vicarious learning from incumbents. This study shows that new entrants actually learn more effectively from external knowledge during their own experiential learning processes than established firms do. Using data from U.S. commercial banking, the researchers find that entrants gain twice as much vicarious learning relative to their experiential learning compared to incumbents, suggesting newness creates a learning advantage rather than just a liability.
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Innovation, Networking and Proximity: Lessons from Small High Technology Firms in the UK
Small high-tech electronics and software firms in South East England innovate more effectively when they network with suppliers and service providers who offer complementary capabilities. Geographical proximity matters for these relationships. The regional science base successfully nurtured new ventures, but science parks did not. Policy efforts to build regional networks among similar firms and close customers showed no innovation benefit.
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Knowledge sharing in international markets for product and process innovation: moderating role of firm's absorptive capacity
Knowledge sharing between subsidiaries of multinational firms drives product and process innovation. A firm's absorptive capacity—its ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—strengthens this relationship. The study validates a model showing that knowledge-sharing activities enhance dynamic capabilities like sensing, seizing, and transforming, ultimately improving competitiveness in international markets.
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The diffusion of human‐resource information‐technology innovations in US and non‐US firms
This study examines how eight human-resource information technologies spread across US, Canadian, UK, and Irish firms. The researchers found that internal influences—particularly contacts among potential adopters within their social networks—drove adoption decisions more than external factors. Results held consistent across different countries, user types, and technology types. The findings suggest firms need better-coordinated technology strategies to align purchasing with actual HR automation goals.
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Digital green value co-creation behavior, digital green network embedding and digital green innovation performance: moderating effects of digital green network fragmentation
Digital green value co-creation behavior and digital green network embedding significantly improve digital green innovation performance in business ecosystems. Network embedding mediates this relationship, while network fragmentation strengthens it. The study surveyed 326 organizations and found that companies engaging in collaborative green innovation through digital networks achieve better environmental and innovation outcomes, with fragmented networks actually enhancing performance by encouraging diverse partnerships.
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The nexus between dynamic capabilities and competitive firm performance: the mediating role of open innovation
This study examines how firms' dynamic capabilities drive competitive performance through open innovation. Using structural equation modeling on 465 firms across innovative and non-innovative industries, the researchers found that dynamic capabilities significantly boost open innovation performance, which in turn improves competitive performance. Open innovation partially mediates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm competitiveness, suggesting that investing in innovation capacity, customer engagement, and innovation management strengthens competitive outcomes.
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Antecedents and effects of individual absorptive capacity: a micro-foundational perspective on open innovation
Individual employees vary in their ability to recognize and use external knowledge—called absorptive capacity—based on three factors: their prior knowledge diversity, external network diversity, and cognitive style. A bisociative thinking style (connecting unrelated ideas) matters most. This individual absorptive capacity directly affects how well employees innovate and mediates between their personal characteristics and innovation performance, making it crucial for organizations pursuing open innovation.
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Social Networks for Innovation and New Product Development
This article introduces social network analysis and examines how social networks drive innovation and new product development across four levels: within firms, across firm boundaries, between firms, and external to firms. The authors review existing research and position eight special issue papers within this multilevel framework, demonstrating how network structures and connections influence innovation outcomes.
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Inter‐firm market orientation as antecedent of knowledge transfer, innovation and value creation in networks
Inter-firm market orientation—how companies in partnerships focus on understanding each other's markets—drives knowledge transfer, innovation, and value creation in strategic networks. The research shows that when firms adopt this collaborative market perspective, they improve performance through better knowledge sharing, increased innovation, and expanded market access.
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Modeling innovation, manufacturing, diffusion and adoption/rejection processes
The paper argues that new product development success depends on understanding complex feedback loops and interconnected processes rather than identifying individual success factors. Using system dynamics modeling and comparative case studies, the authors show that multiple different pathways lead to success or failure in innovation, manufacturing, diffusion, and adoption. Executives must think systemically about hidden weak linkages with large downstream impacts rather than relying on checklists of isolated factors.
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Networks of Innovation: Science, Technology and Development in the Triple Helix Era
Universities, industry, and government must collaborate through triple helix networks to drive knowledge-based development. Universities expand their missions beyond research to include economic and social development, shifting from individual to organizational focus. This networked approach fills technology and social capital gaps. Examples from the European Union, Canada, and Brazil demonstrate how triple helix models support firm formation and innovation incubation.
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Determinants of Firm’s open innovation performance and the role of R & D department: an empirical evidence from Malaysian SME’s
Malaysian SMEs struggle with open innovation adoption and performance. This study identifies external knowledge, internal innovation, and R&D departments as key determinants of open innovation success in these firms. The R&D department acts as a mediator between innovation inputs and performance outcomes. The findings provide SMEs with actionable insights to strengthen their open innovation systems and boost overall business performance.
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Visualization of Communication Patterns in Collaborative Innovation Networks - Analysis of Some W3C Working Groups
This paper analyzes communication patterns in collaborative innovation networks by examining email archives from W3C working groups. The researchers developed visualization tools to map how information flows through these global internet-based teams over time. They found that different groups displayed distinct communication structures and identified both formal and informal leadership patterns that shaped how innovation networks organized themselves.
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Coopetition in business Ecosystems: The key role of absorptive capacity and supply chain agility
Firms in tech-city business ecosystems benefit from coopetition—simultaneous cooperation and competition—but not directly. Instead, coopetition enhances absorptive capacity, which improves supply chain agility and ultimately firm performance. The study surveyed 214 firms and found these indirect effects matter more than direct relationships, establishing a validated measurement scale for coopetition.
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Differential moderating effects of strategic and operational reconfiguration on the relationship between open innovation practices and innovation performance
This study examines how open innovation practices affect innovation performance in service firms. Using UK survey data, the researchers find that strategic reconfiguration capability enhances the impact of coupled open innovation on radical innovation, while operational reconfiguration capability strengthens its effect on incremental innovation. The results show that firms need different internal capabilities depending on the type of innovation they pursue.
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Managerial networking and business model innovation: empirical study of new ventures in an emerging economy
This study of 311 young SMEs in Pakistan demonstrates that managerial networking significantly drives business model innovation in new ventures. Financial, business, and political networking all positively contribute to developing effective business models. The research shows that building external relationships with financial institutions and government officials helps young firms overcome resource constraints and survive in competitive markets.
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Crowd Equity Investors: An Underutilized Asset for Open Innovation in Startups
Startups that actively engage with investor networks from equity crowdfunding campaigns perform better than those that don't. A study of 60 European startups found that successful founders leverage crowd investors for product, strategy, and market knowledge. Startups using these crowd networks show significantly higher success rates two years later, demonstrating that equity crowdfunding investors represent an underutilized resource for open innovation.
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Exploring the impact of empowering leadership on knowledge sharing, absorptive capacity and team performance in IT service
Empowering leadership by team leaders significantly improves IT project team performance through two mechanisms: increased knowledge sharing among team members and enhanced team absorptive capacity. Analysis of 315 individuals across 85 IT projects demonstrates that empowering leadership proves more effective than charismatic or directive approaches for boosting team performance, with knowledge sharing directly improving project outcomes while also strengthening the relationship between absorptive capacity and performance.
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Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation
A small group of employees—designated as 'idea scouts' and 'idea connectors'—drive disproportionate success in open innovation initiatives. These individuals are critical to generating valuable outcomes, and companies that deliberately connect and leverage these key people achieve better innovation results.
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With a Little Help from Our Colleagues: A Longitudinal Study of Social Networks for Innovation
This longitudinal study tracks social networks within new product development teams across two research laboratories. The research challenges the conventional wisdom that sparse networks with weak ties drive innovation. Instead, the authors find that strong ties, network density, and cross-unit relationships significantly improve idea adoption chances during early development phases. They recommend organizations actively promote communication between colleagues across different units to enhance innovation outcomes.
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Inbound open innovation and firm performance
This study examines how inbound open innovation affects firm performance across European companies from 2008–2013. The researchers find that both internal development and external acquisition of intangible assets positively impact firm turnover. However, only internal development significantly improves financial performance and employment. The effects vary by firm size: internal development boosts economic performance for larger firms and employment for smaller firms, but shows no financial impact across all sizes.
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Managerial ties and open innovation: examining the role of absorptive capacity
Managerial relationships with external partners facilitate both inbound and outbound open innovation in firms. The study of 259 managers in the United Arab Emirates shows that a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new information from external sources mediates this relationship. Managers should actively build ties with peers in other firms, universities, and government to improve innovation outcomes.
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Using Open Innovation to Identify the Best Ideas
Open innovation—sourcing ideas and selection from outside organizations—offers companies access to diverse knowledge and higher-quality solutions. The authors identify three strategic choices: opening idea generation, idea selection, or both. Success requires understanding what to open and managing new challenges like contracting with external contributors, shifting cost and risk to idea generators, and aligning outsider incentives with company goals.
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Open Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement
Open innovation creates tension between gaining external knowledge and protecting intellectual property. This paper proposes a process-based model integrating stakeholder engagement with open innovation. By involving stakeholders directly, organizations can better understand and manage the risks of sharing knowledge while generating broader value beyond acquiring specific external expertise.
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Spatial and Social Networks in Organizational Innovation
This paper examines how physical workspace layout influences social networks and organizational innovation. The authors argue that spatial design—through boundaries, accessibility, and visibility—shapes how people circulate, interact, and become aware of each other, which in turn affects the social networks that drive innovation. The paper reviews relevant theories and presents preliminary findings on how spatial arrangement supports or hinders innovation in organizations.
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ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND INNOVATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE BUSINESS SERVICE SECTOR
Knowledge-intensive business service firms innovate through absorptive capacity—their ability to access and use external knowledge. The study finds that networking and cooperation drive both incremental and radical innovation. Universities and research institutions matter most for radical innovation regardless of formality, while client and supplier knowledge only drives innovation through formal partnerships. Manufacturing clients particularly stimulate innovation in KIBS firms.
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Social Innovation in Smart Tourism Ecosystems: How Technology and Institutions Shape Sustainable Value Co-Creation
This paper develops an integrated model of smart service ecosystems that combines service-dominant logic and service science to explain how actors, resources, technology, and institutions work together to create value in tourism. Through interviews with tourism stakeholders, the authors identify key dimensions for managing value co-creation and sustainability, showing how smart service ecosystems enable the transition from innovation to social innovation in experience-based sectors.
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The Impact of Living Lab Methodology on Open Innovation Contributions and Outcomes
Living lab methodology enhances open innovation by creating structured environments where external stakeholders contribute to innovation processes. The paper argues that organizations must balance open and closed innovation approaches rather than pursuing purely open models. Living labs provide practical frameworks for managing this balance and improving innovation outcomes through collaborative participation.
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Beyond absorptive capacity in open innovation process: the relationships between openness, capacities and firm performance
This study examines how open innovation affects firm performance in Korean companies. The researchers found that openness and innovation capacities directly influence performance, with desorptive capacity (sharing knowledge outward) playing a critical role. Knowledge management capacity strongly supports this outbound process. The findings reveal that successful open innovation depends on specific organizational capacities and demonstrate how firms across different industries adopt open innovation strategies.
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Innovation networks and capability building in the Australian high‐technology SMEs
Australian high-technology SMEs in biotechnology and ICT sectors build innovation capabilities by participating in knowledge networks. The study examined firms in Sydney and Melbourne, finding that small businesses use network linkages to overcome resource constraints, learn, adapt to technological change, and innovate. Network analysis reveals critical success factors that can help policymakers and managers improve innovation processes and competitive capabilities.
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Towards Responsible and Sustainable Supply Chains – Innovation, Multi-stakeholder Approach and Governance
Supply chains create significant societal and environmental burdens. This paper argues that companies must implement responsibility and sustainability across supply chains through three mechanisms: research and innovation support, multi-stakeholder collaboration involving industry and government, and shared responsibility across organizations rather than individual companies. The author uses Sedex, a collaborative platform, as a case study demonstrating how technological, political, and ethical solutions with sound governance models can balance economic, environmental, and social sustainability.
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Process Innovation: Open Innovation and the Moderating Role of the Motivation to Achieve Legitimacy
Organizations that engage in open innovation are more likely to introduce new processes. The motivation to achieve legitimacy moderates this relationship differently depending on how firms engage externally. Cooperation with external parties combined with legitimacy motivation increases process innovation likelihood, while using external information combined with legitimacy motivation decreases it. The study uses European innovation survey data to test these relationships.
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Open innovation in multinational companies' subsidiaries: the role of internal and external knowledge
Multinational company subsidiaries innovate more effectively when they combine external knowledge from outside sources with internal knowledge from other parts of the parent company. This study surveyed 163 subsidiaries and found that openness to both external and internal knowledge sources independently boosts innovation performance. When subsidiaries simultaneously embrace both types of knowledge, the effect multiplies, creating stronger innovation outcomes than either approach alone.
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Exploring the impact of open innovation on firm performances
This study examines how open innovation practices affect firm performance in bio-pharmaceutical companies. Analyzing 110 major R&D spenders from 2008-2012, the researchers found that increased openness reduces R&D productivity and patent revenue ratios, but boosts sales growth. Operating profit shows an inverted U-relationship with inbound innovation and a U-shape with outbound innovation. The findings reveal that openness produces mixed financial and innovation outcomes, requiring managers to carefully balance collaborative innovation strategies.
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The inconvenient truth of the relationship between open innovation activities and innovation performance
Open innovation activities affect firm performance differently depending on type and combination. Inbound activities boost radical innovation but reduce incremental innovation, while outbound activities show opposite effects. Knowledge learning and organizational capabilities mediate these relationships. Combining inbound and outbound activities can actually harm performance. Managers must strategically choose which open innovation approach fits their innovation goals.
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Regional innovation systems: development opportunities from the ‘green turn’
Regional innovation systems effectively drive cross-industry knowledge flows and innovation by leveraging Triple Helix interactions. The paper demonstrates this through renewable energy adoption, showing that regions with innovative development agencies benefit from horizontal knowledge spillovers across clusters. These regions create low-cost opportunities for cross-fertilization that can become international knowledge hubs.
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A CONTINGENT PERSPECTIVE OF OPEN INNOVATION IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
This paper develops a framework for managing open innovation in new product development projects. Rather than treating openness as a single strategic choice, the authors identify three dimensions managers must calibrate: breadth (range of external partners), depth (relationship intensity), and ambidexterity (balance between new and established relationships). The appropriate calibration depends on whether the innovation is radical or incremental, the product's complexity, and the strength of intellectual property protection.
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Fiat: Open Innovation in a Downturn (1993–2003)
Fiat's research center adopted open innovation practices during the 1990s automotive industry downturn, enabling the company to maintain technological development despite severe budget constraints. By restructuring its organization, roles, planning systems, and culture to embrace external partnerships and knowledge sources, Fiat preserved innovation capability and positioned itself for recovery. Senior leadership commitment proved essential to implementing open innovation successfully during economic crisis.
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Finding collaborative innovation networks through correlating performance with social network structure
This paper examines how social network structure relates to team performance in virtual collaborative settings. Researchers studied student teams from two universities working remotely on communication analysis tasks and compared their findings with data from online gamers. They found that for knowledge worker teams, balanced contribution among members predicts performance better than the number of communication links alone. The study provides recommendations for effective virtual team communication.
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Developing Absorptive Capacity in Mature Organizations
This paper examines how mature organizations absorb new knowledge and skills by studying a Welsh manufacturing firm that lost its major defense contract. The owner hired a middle manager with mass production experience who acted as a change agent, improving communications and workplace efficiency. The research extends existing absorptive capacity theory by identifying key roles—gatekeepers, boundary spanners, and change agents—that facilitate knowledge transfer during organizational change.
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Co-operation in Regional Innovation Systems
This paper examines cooperative relationships among manufacturing firms across three German regions using statistical modeling. The analysis reveals how spatial proximity influences cooperation patterns and identifies differences in cooperative behavior between regions and between smaller and larger firms.
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The openness of open innovation in ecosystems – Integrating innovation and management literature on knowledge linkages
This paper examines how knowledge transfers work in open innovation ecosystems by reviewing existing literature. The authors connect open innovation research with management theory to categorize linkages between organizations based on their openness levels and knowledge management approaches. They find that openness operates across multiple dimensions, each producing different knowledge management outcomes. The work helps firms understand which collaboration mechanisms suit their needs.
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Fostering radical innovations with open innovation
Companies using inside-out open innovation—sharing and commercializing internal technologies externally—create more radical innovations and launch more new products than those using closed innovation approaches. Closed innovation strategies instead produce more incremental product improvements. This empirical study of 141 R&D managers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from 2004–2008 demonstrates that open innovation strategies drive fundamentally different innovation outcomes.
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Enriching Absorptive Capacity through Social Interaction
Social interaction is essential for subsidiaries to absorb and apply new knowledge transferred from headquarters in multinational enterprises. The study shows that employees need to participate together in adapting knowledge to local contexts and developing practical applications. Organizational conditions at the subsidiary level either enable or restrict these interaction patterns, directly affecting the subsidiary's capacity to use new knowledge effectively.
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Innovation diffusion: a stakeholder and social network view
This paper examines why XBRL adoption has struggled in Australia using stakeholder and social network theory. Interviews with stakeholders revealed that while they have legitimate reasons to adopt XBRL, most lack power or urgency to drive its diffusion. The authors recommend instrumental measures like knowledge building, subsidies, and mobilization strategies to strengthen stakeholder influence and accelerate adoption of network innovations.
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Urban Regeneration and Sustainable Communities: The Role of Networks, Innovation, and Creativity in Building Successful Partnerships
This paper critiques market-led urban regeneration partnerships and proposes plan-led alternatives grounded in place-based community knowledge. The authors argue that networks, innovation, and creative partnerships—built on social capital and consensus—enable sustainable urban communities by fostering ecological integrity, equity, democratic renewal, and socially inclusive decision-making in villages and neighborhoods.
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How network competence and network location influence innovation performance
Firms in innovation clusters perform better when they develop strong network competence and occupy central positions within their networks. The study analyzed cluster companies and found that while overall innovation performance was below expectations, those with higher network competence and centrality significantly outperformed peers. Success in clusters requires companies to actively enhance their ability to manage network relationships and secure more central positions within their networks.
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Extending open innovation throughout the value chain by small and medium-sized manufacturers
Small and medium-sized US manufacturers widely adopt open innovation practices with customers and suppliers across their value chains. The study of 293 companies shows that open innovation practices significantly influence both product and process innovation outcomes. Effectiveness depends on carefully selecting which practices and partners to engage, extending beyond the traditional focus on research and development.
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User–producer interaction as a driver of innovation: costs and advantages in an open innovation model
Customer knowledge drives innovation, but excessive reliance on it can limit firms to incremental improvements because customers tend toward conservative solutions. The paper demonstrates an inverse U-shaped relationship between customer knowledge intensity and innovation performance. Firms that balance customer input with broad external search across multiple innovation sources achieve better results, gaining customer insights while pursuing genuinely novel opportunities.
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ADVANCING A TYPOLOGY OF OPEN INNOVATION
This paper develops a typology of open innovation strategies by reviewing existing research and identifying four distinct approaches: innovation seekers, innovation providers, intermediaries, and open innovators. Each strategy combines different sources of innovation, firm characteristics, and inter-organizational exchange mechanisms to produce different outcomes. The typology provides a conceptual framework for understanding how organizations pursue open innovation and suggests directions for future research.
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Networks of innovation and modularity: a dynamic perspective
This paper argues that innovation networks must evolve alongside technology development. Early-stage technologies require connections to research institutions to explore uncertain solutions. As technologies mature and become modularized, firms shift toward supplier and customer networks. During the transition, firms must engage startups experimenting with new configurations and third-party firms whose investments determine industry standards. Network relationships are ultimately governed by modular product interfaces.
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Measuring open innovation practices through topic modelling: Revisiting their impact on firm financial performance
This study uses topic modelling and natural language processing to analyze companies' open innovation practices and their effect on financial performance. The researchers find that overall openness improves firm performance, but specific practices show mixed results with some displaying inverted U-shaped relationships. The impact of open innovation varies by sector and by how well internal R&D complements individual practices. The findings show open innovation's effects are nuanced with no universal best practices.
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User idea implementation in open innovation communities: Evidence from a new product development crowdsourcing community
This study examines what determines whether user-generated ideas get implemented in crowdsourcing communities for product development. Using data from Xiaomi's MIUI community with over 43,000 ideas, the researchers found that users' past success follows an inverted U-shape with implementation likelihood, longer idea descriptions increase chances of adoption, supporting evidence shows an inverted U-shape relationship, and negative feedback paradoxically increases implementation odds while positive feedback decreases them.
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Which pathway to good ideas? <scp>A</scp> n attention‐based view of innovation in social networks
People embedded in constrained networks generate good ideas through interrogation—deeply focusing attention on information from a single contact to develop domain-specific insights. Those in less constrained networks produce ideas through recombination, dividing attention across multiple contacts. In constrained networks, interrogation proves more reliable than recombination for generating good ideas.
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Open for Entrepreneurship: How Open Innovation Can Foster New Venture Creation
Open innovation practices significantly improve startup survival rates. The study examined successful and failed ventures to identify key factors: ecosystem collaboration, user involvement, and open organizational environments all directly enhance new venture survival. An entrepreneur's open mindset moderates these effects. The findings offer practical guidance for entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers seeking to support successful new ventures.
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The construct of absorptive capacity in knowledge management and intellectual capital research: content and text analyses
This paper reviews 186 articles from knowledge management and intellectual capital journals between 1990 and 2013 to examine how absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—was studied in these fields. The analysis finds that absorptive capacity remained underdeveloped in knowledge management and intellectual capital research, with knowledge transfer and innovation emerging as the primary research areas investigating this concept.
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The Difficulties involved in Developing Business Models open to Innovation Communities: the Case of a Crowdsourcing Platform
Firms using crowdsourcing platforms to capture external innovation face significant strategic challenges. This study of CrowdSpirit, a collaborative product design platform, reveals that companies must develop multi-level incentive systems for diverse contributors, manage knowledge and intellectual property transfers across multiple stakeholders, and treat business model design as continuous learning rather than fixed strategy.
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Configuring ecosystem strategies for digitally enabled process innovation: A framework for equipment suppliers in the process industries
Equipment suppliers in process industries can adopt digitalization to drive innovation, but must navigate complex ecosystems involving multiple actors. This study identifies four ecosystem strategies—orchestrator, dominator, complementor, and protector—that suppliers should match to specific customer contexts. The research provides a decision framework helping suppliers choose appropriate roles (leader or follower) and competitive approaches based on their industrial customers' needs.
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The role of employee autonomy for open innovation performance
Employee autonomy is essential for firms to realize financial benefits from open innovation. The study of 307 companies shows that giving employees time, freedom, and independence fully mediates the relationship between openness and innovation sales. Both inbound and outbound open innovation practices require high flexibility and experimentation, which managers must enable through discretionary job design to achieve new product introduction and revenue growth.
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IT and relationship learning in networks as drivers of green innovation and customer capital: evidence from the automobile sector
In Spanish automotive component manufacturers, relationship learning between firms and customers drives both green innovation and customer capital growth. Information technology alone doesn't create competitive advantage; it requires complementary strategies like relationship learning and green innovation performance. The study of 140 companies shows relationship learning is essential for leveraging customer knowledge and achieving sustainable competitive advantage.
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Why Firm-established User Communities Work for Innovation: The Personal Attributes of Innovative Users in the Case of Computer-controlled Music
Firms establish user communities to capture innovations developed by users. This study of 442 computer-controlled music users identifies two key attributes of innovative users: they tend to be hobbyists willing to share innovations freely, and they respond to firm recognition as motivation to participate. These characteristics explain why firm-established user communities succeed—hobbyists contribute willingly while seeking acknowledgment, allowing firms to access innovations for product development and user sharing.
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Networking to accelerate the pace of SME innovations
Early innovation by small and medium enterprises builds capabilities that accelerate their future innovation pace. Firms that innovate quickly initially maintain faster innovation rates. Companies that start innovating late can catch up by actively networking to access external resources and capabilities. The study of 203 SMEs shows that networking behavior moderates the relationship between time to first innovation and subsequent innovation speed.
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Open innovation practices and related internal dynamics: case studies of Italian ICT SMEs
Italian ICT small and medium-sized enterprises face distinct challenges and enabling factors when adopting open innovation practices. The study identifies specific internal dynamics for each practice type through interviews with eight companies. Results show that understanding these practice-specific obstacles and facilitators helps SMEs sustain open innovation and improve competitiveness.
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Knowledge collaboration between organizations and online communities: the role of open innovation intermediaries
Open innovation intermediaries facilitate knowledge collaboration between organizations and online communities through three boundary management mechanisms: syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. These mechanisms enable knowledge transfer, translation, and transformation respectively. The pragmatic mechanism—building organizational commitment to community engagement—proves most critical. Intermediaries must implement all three mechanisms and move beyond digital platforms to achieve effective knowledge collaboration in community-based innovation.
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The adoption of open innovation within the telecommunication industry
Italian telecommunications companies adopt open innovation through teamwork and task forces, taking varying proactive roles in collaborative processes. These firms acquire external knowledge primarily from universities, research centers, and supply chain partners. The study reveals distinct management approaches to open innovation within the ICT industry, providing insights into how telecom companies structure external collaboration and knowledge sourcing.
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Network board continuity and effectiveness of open innovation in Swedish strategic small‐firm networks
Swedish small-firm networks use boards to manage joint research and development activities. This study of 53 networks over five years finds that board continuity affects members' innovative performance in a U-shaped relationship: both very high and very low rates of board member renewal harm innovation, while moderate renewal works best. This effect strengthens in larger networks.
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Implementation of green innovations – The impact of stakeholders and their network relations
Stakeholder relationships significantly influence whether green innovations succeed or fail. This case study of an offshore wind farm in Germany shows that networks among stakeholders—including companies, government bodies, and communities—can either support or hinder green innovation implementation. The researchers argue that understanding these stakeholder interactions is essential for successfully deploying environmentally sustainable technologies.
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Open Innovation in SMEs: From Closed Boundaries to Networked Paradigm
This paper examines how small and medium-sized enterprises transition from closed innovation models to open, networked approaches. The authors argue that SMEs benefit from breaking traditional boundaries and engaging in collaborative innovation networks. The shift enables smaller firms to access external knowledge, resources, and partnerships that enhance their competitive capacity and innovation outcomes.
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Crowdsourcing, open innovation and collective intelligence in the scientific method : a research agenda and operational framework
This paper develops a research framework for understanding how crowdsourcing, open innovation, and collective intelligence reshape scientific research methods. The authors propose an operational framework that integrates these approaches into scientific practice, establishing a research agenda for studying how distributed participation and collaborative knowledge-building improve scientific discovery and problem-solving.
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The Challenges of Collaborative Knowledge Creation in Open Innovation Teams
Open innovation teams bring together people from different organizations to develop new products and services. While organizational diversity can boost collaborative knowledge creation, it also creates obstacles. This paper reviews literature on how individuals interact and create knowledge together in these teams, identifying key challenges that arise from their different backgrounds and organizational contexts.
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Knowledge Portfolios and The Organization of Innovation Networks
Firms form strategic alliances based on knowledge compatibility rather than social capital alone. A model demonstrates that requiring sufficient shared knowledge between partners naturally produces network features like small-world structures and unequal connection patterns, explaining alliance network organization without invoking social capital theory.
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THE DYNAMICS OF USER INNOVATION: DRIVERS AND IMPEDIMENTS OF INNOVATION ACTIVITIES
User innovation in sports equipment evolves dynamically over time rather than following a single trajectory. Studying sailboat design innovations over decades, the authors find that user innovation activity levels fluctuate based on contextual factors. When conditions are favorable, user-driven innovation can persist sustainably for extended periods, challenging linear models of how users contribute to product development.
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Networks, weak signals and technological innovations among SMEs in the land-based transportation equipment sector
Small and medium-sized enterprises in land-based transportation equipment use both strong-tie networks (geographically close, familiar contacts) and weak-tie networks (distant, unfamiliar contacts) to drive innovation. A survey of 147 SMEs confirms that weak-tie networks provide crucial pre-competitive information for major technological innovations, while an organization's absorptive capacity determines how effectively firms leverage these distant connections.
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The influence of open innovation on firm performance
Open innovation—acquiring external technology, exploiting technology externally, and coupled innovation—drives firm growth and competitiveness. This literature review examines how open innovation practices influence business performance and identifies key research themes, offering directions for future investigation into the relationship between open innovation strategies and firm outcomes.
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Citizen participation in public administration: investigating open government for social innovation
Local governments increasingly adopt open innovation platforms to engage citizens in generating social innovations. This study examines what motivates citizens to participate in a government ideation platform. The researchers find that intrinsic motivation drives content creation and consumption, while external pressures discourage active contributions. However, external regulation does encourage citizens to evaluate others' ideas, showing that different motivations drive different participation behaviors.
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The role of contracts and intellectual property rights in open innovation
Firms engaged in open innovation strongly prefer formal contracts to govern their collaborative relationships with other firms. Despite open innovation's collaborative nature, companies still view intellectual property rights as critical for protecting their innovations. The study finds that firms' openness, legal orientation, competitive market conditions, and internal R&D strength all influence how much firms prioritize intellectual property protection in open innovation partnerships.
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The Role of Ego Network Structure in Facilitating Ego Network Innovations
This paper examines how the structure of a firm's supply chain network affects innovation output. Using patent data from manufacturing joint ventures, the researchers find that network characteristics like betweenness, density, brokerage, and tie weakness significantly influence innovation. The study shows that firms innovate more effectively when they strategically leverage their network connections, not just through individual capability or knowledge.
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Supply chain innovation diffusion: going beyond adoption
This paper develops a unified framework for understanding how supply chain innovations move beyond initial adoption to become fully embedded in organizations. The authors identify 17 activities across three post-adoption stages—acceptance, routinization, and assimilation—and map relationships between them. The framework guides both researchers and supply chain managers in implementing innovations completely rather than simply adopting them.
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Embedding environmental innovation in local production systems: SME strategies, networking and industrial relations: evidence on innovation drivers in industrial districts
Environmental innovation in Italian manufacturing firms depends more on strategic choices than firm size. The study finds that R&D investment, industrial relations focused on innovation, and networking activities drive environmental performance improvements. Policy pressure and environmental auditing also encourage adoption. Networking effectively replaces the innovation advantages that larger firms typically enjoy, making local collaboration critical for small and medium enterprises.
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Integrated Roadmaps for Open Innovation
Firms increasingly acquire and commercialize technologies from external sources through open innovation practices. Many struggle to manage external technology exploitation effectively. The paper argues that firms need strategic technology-planning processes, specifically integrated roadmaps that extend beyond traditional product-technology roadmapping to encompass open innovation activities including outlicensing. Technology managers must evaluate returns from technologies holistically, not just product sales.
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The Spatial Organization of Innovation: Open Innovation, External Knowledge Relations and Urban Structure
Firms increasingly use external knowledge to complement internal research and development, shaping how they organize innovation. This paper demonstrates that innovation organization and external knowledge use depend on physical, socio-economic, and cultural environments. The analysis confirms that innovation is spatially organized. Surprisingly, innovative firms in less urbanized areas show greater openness to external knowledge relations than those in urban centers.
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What's Wrong with the Diffusion of Innovation Theory: The Case of a Complex and Networked Technology
This paper critiques diffusion of innovation theory for failing to account for complex, networked technologies like EDI systems. The authors argue that DOI theory overlooks how complex IT solutions are socially constructed, learning-intensive, and adopted for varied reasons within unstable markets. They call for richer theoretical frameworks that recognize institutional contexts, process histories, key actors, and multiple analytical perspectives across different scales and locations.
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R&D Cooperation in Innovation Systems—Some Lessons from the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS)
This paper analyzes data from nearly 86,000 surveys across 11 European regions to understand what drives regional innovation. The research finds that national innovation systems influence regional firms as strongly as regional systems do. Innovative partnerships vary in geographic scope depending on firm size, industry technology intensity, R&D spending, and partner type. High-tech industries rely more on local knowledge networks. Regional policy should build firm networks and connect them to national and international knowledge sources.
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Identifying and describing constituents of innovation ecosystems
This paper systematically reviews 30 publications on innovation ecosystems to clarify how scholars define and study them. The authors identify different approaches across industries and organizational levels, examining how value is created and captured, the role of orchestrators, and success factors. They find European and American scholars emphasize different aspects, and note that most research focuses on European contexts. The review provides practitioners with management guidance for establishing and managing innovation ecosystems.
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Co-Creation for Social Innovation in the Ecosystem Context: The Role of Higher Educational Institutions
Higher educational institutions can drive social innovation by adopting co-creation approaches that emphasize collaborative learning, systemic thinking, and engagement with communities. The study identifies key activities—mutual learning, knowledge sharing across disciplines, technology-enabled collaboration, and relational transformation—that enable HEIs to move beyond traditional teaching and research roles to address socio-economic problems through open platforms for collective action.
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Institutional Complexity as a Driver for Innovation in Service Ecosystems
Institutional complexity—when actors face conflicting institutional arrangements—drives innovation in service ecosystems. The paper argues that this complexity activates problem-solving and provides multiple cultural and material toolkits that actors use to jointly reconstruct value creation practices and change institutional arrangements. This reconciles institutional stability with actor-driven creation of novel solutions.
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Interorganizational network and innovation: a bibliometric study and proposed research agenda
This bibliometric study analyzes 67 management research papers on interorganizational networks and innovation published between 1996 and 2012. The authors identify six main research themes: networks supporting firm innovation in specific contexts, network dimensions and knowledge processes, resource and knowledge sharing, firm-network characteristics and innovation effects, empirical research in dynamic industries, and industry-specific network characteristics. The analysis maps the intellectual structure of the field and identifies gaps in current knowledge.
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The Effect of Selective Openness on Value Creation in User Innovation Communities
This study examines how selective openness in product design affects value creation in user innovation communities. Analyzing 309 members across 20 online communities in consumer electronics and IT hardware, the researchers found that openness increases community members' involvement and contributions. However, different forms of openness—transparency, accessibility, and replicability—have varying impacts. Users value openness in areas where they have capabilities and incentives to contribute, suggesting firms can balance external value creation with internal value capture more effectively than previously thought.
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A study of contingency relationships between supplier involvement, absorptive capacity and agile product innovation
This paper examines how supplier involvement affects product innovation performance, with absorptive capacity acting as a moderating factor. The research uses agility as a key performance dimension, showing that a firm's ability to absorb external knowledge influences the strength of the relationship between supplier partnerships and successful product innovation outcomes.
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Network structure and innovation: The leveraging of a dual network as a distinctive relational capability
This study examines how network structure affects innovation in alliance networks. Using 30+ years of data from three furniture manufacturers and their design firm partnerships, the research shows that firms combining a core of strong ties with a large periphery of weak ties—a 'dual network'—develop superior innovative capabilities. This dual network architecture creates a distinctive competitive advantage by enabling knowledge integration and dynamic innovation.
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Fostering product innovation in industry networks: the mediating role of knowledge integration
Firms innovating together in networks outperform isolated competitors. The study identifies knowledge integration—combining expertise across organizational boundaries—as the key driver of successful new product development. Resource complementarity, market orientation, and information sharing all strengthen knowledge integration, which then directly improves innovation outcomes.
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Swarm Creativity: Competitive Advantage Through Collaborative Innovation Networks
Collaborative innovation networks create competitive advantage through what the author calls 'swarm creativity'—the collective problem-solving power of interconnected innovators working together. Rather than isolated R&D efforts, organizations that build and leverage these networks generate superior innovation outcomes by combining diverse expertise and perspectives across organizational boundaries.
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Internet, innovation, and open source: Actors in the network
This paper examines how Linux developed through open source collaboration, analyzing the socio-technical dynamics that enabled its growth. The author combines community learning theory with actor-network theory to explain how open source development works, showing how the Linux development community evolved into an interconnected ecology of community-centered practices.
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The effectiveness of involving users in digital innovation: Measuring the impact of living labs
Living labs engage users directly in digital innovation development. This study measures their economic impact on participants and finds significant positive effects. The authors develop practical evaluation methods suitable for living labs' flexible, evolving nature and provide methodological recommendations for future impact assessments of similar innovation tools.
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Networks and Innovation: Accounting for Structural and Institutional Sources of Recombination in Brokerage Triads
This paper examines how firms combine knowledge across structural and institutional boundaries to drive innovation. Using biotechnology R&D alliances, the authors show that different network configurations produce different innovation outcomes: domestic partnerships increase innovation volume, foreign partnerships boost radical innovation, and mixed partnerships balance both. The findings reveal that institutional boundaries matter as much as network structure in shaping how firms recombine knowledge.
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Examining Absorptive Capacity in Supply Chains: Linking Responsive Strategy and Firm Performance
This study examines how manufacturing firms use absorptive capacity—their ability to process information from customers and suppliers—to improve performance. Analysis of 711 firms shows that absorptive capacity fully mediates the link between responsive strategy and firm performance, making it essential for delivering innovative products. Firms blending efficient and responsive strategies struggle to develop absorptive capacity, following a U-shaped relationship pattern.
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Enhancing sustainable development: Innovation ecosystem coopetition, environmental resource orchestration, and disruptive green innovation
Manufacturing firms in China that balance cooperation and competition within innovation ecosystems develop stronger environmental resource management capabilities, which drives disruptive green innovation. Big data analytics amplifies the cooperation-to-resource-orchestration pathway but not the competition pathway. Both ecosystem cooperation and competition independently boost environmental resource orchestration, which then enables breakthrough green innovations.
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Open supply chain innovation: an extended view on supply chain collaboration
This paper develops a framework for fostering innovation in supply chains through collaboration between firms and their partners. The authors identify three key capabilities—purpose (balancing exploration and exploitation of knowledge), span (horizontal and vertical partnerships), and orientation (incremental and radical innovation)—that enable supply chains to innovate more effectively. The framework integrates open innovation and supply chain collaboration concepts to show how firms can leverage external relationships to drive continuous innovation.
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Innovation Ecosystems as Structures for Value Co-Creation
Innovation ecosystems enable value creation through collaborative networks rather than isolated firm activities. The paper argues that both service providers and customers participate in large external networks to generate value together. This shift moves away from viewing innovation as something companies do alone toward recognizing it as a dynamic, interconnected process involving multiple stakeholders working in concert.
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Unpacking the social innovation ecosystem: an empirically grounded typology of empowering network constellations
Social innovation networks require three key elements to empower initiatives addressing societal challenges: local embedding, transnational connectivity, and discursive resonance. This study analyzed 20 transnational social innovation networks across countries and developed a typology identifying five ecosystem types, ranging from locally focused co-creation hubs to globally connected political movements. The findings show that effective social innovation ecosystems vary significantly in structure and scope.
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Reinventing R&D in an Open Innovation Ecosystem
The paper argues that modern innovation requires partnerships across universities, startups, and suppliers rather than isolated R&D efforts. It presents a 'Sharing-is-Winning' model for open innovation that aligns entire value chains around consumer needs. The authors provide ten recommendations for implementing this collaborative approach, including leadership changes, strategy shifts, and cultural transformation to accelerate sustainable co-development and improve innovation success rates.
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Absorptive capacity and localized spillovers: focal firms as technological gatekeepers in industrial districts
In Italy's automatic packaging machinery cluster, large focal firms act as technological gatekeepers, absorbing external knowledge and redistributing it locally. The study of 720 patents shows district firms prefer local knowledge, focal firms access external sources more than others, and non-focal firms disproportionately build on focal firms' innovations. Geography and firm size shape how knowledge flows through industrial districts.
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AI for managing open innovation: Opportunities, challenges, and a research agenda
This paper presents a framework for using artificial intelligence to improve open innovation collaboration between organizations. The authors create a 3x3 matrix connecting three open innovation stages (initiation, development, realization) with three AI management functions (mapping, coordinating, controlling). The framework shows how AI applications can augment or automate human tasks to address open innovation challenges and help organizations manage knowledge exchanges more effectively.
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Constructs of Project Programme Management Supporting Open Innovation at the Strategic Level of the Organisation
This study identifies four key constructs of programme management that support open innovation at the organizational strategic level: cooperation with the environment, knowledge and technology transfer, organizational maturity, and implementation capacity. Through quantitative analysis of 578 programme management experts internationally, the authors demonstrate that structured programme management approaches enable organizations to achieve strategic innovation outcomes and reshape organizational structures accordingly.
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Knowledge co-creation in Open Innovation Digital Platforms: processes, tools and services
Open Innovation Digital Platforms facilitate knowledge co-creation by acting as intermediaries that connect firms and support collaborative innovation processes. The study of Regione Lombardia's platform shows how these platforms evolved from simple partner-matching tools into engagement platforms offering dedicated processes, tools, and services that help firms explore, acquire, integrate, and develop valuable knowledge through open innovation approaches.
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Managing knowledge in open innovation processes: an intellectual property perspective
Firms collaborating with external partners in open innovation face challenges managing knowledge through intellectual property rights. This study identifies success drivers for knowledge management across five groups and develops an Open Innovation Life Cycle covering three stages and levels. Analysis of pharmaceutical industry cases shows that intellectual property rights have an ambivalent relationship with open innovation, and firms must carefully manage knowledge during preparation and termination phases to prevent unintended knowledge loss.
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A multi-platform collaboration innovation ecosystem: the case of China
This paper analyzes Insigma Group's multi-platform innovation ecosystem in China using a triple-layer core-periphery framework. The ecosystem integrates four platforms—ideation, entrepreneurship, financing, and innovation—that collaborate toward shared goals. The study reveals how these platforms interact and function together, and examines government policy's role in shaping enterprise-level innovation ecosystems. The framework offers a tool for analyzing heterogeneity within similar ecosystems.
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Open to a Select Few? Matching Partners and Knowledge Content for Open Innovation Performance
Firms collaborating with external partners on innovation achieve better performance when they work deeply with carefully selected partners rather than spreading efforts across many partners. The type of knowledge exchanged—whether exploratory or exploitative—matters significantly. Successful firms match specific knowledge types to particular partner categories, balancing the benefits of external ideas against the costs of managing diverse collaborations.
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Beating competitors to international markets: The value of geographically balanced networks for innovation
Technology-based ventures that balance local and foreign network connections develop innovations faster for international markets than those relying on either type alone. The advantage of geographic network balance grows stronger when innovations are more complex or when industries move faster. This finding challenges the debate over whether local or foreign partners matter more for innovation.
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Networks for Innovation – But What Networks and What Innovation?
This paper tests two competing theories about how network structures affect innovation. Using data from a service industry, the authors find that network characteristics significantly predict innovation outcomes, but their effects differ dramatically depending on whether innovation is incremental (implementing employee ideas) or radical (developing new services). The paper argues researchers must use precise, fine-grained measures of both networks and innovation types rather than treating them as generic concepts.
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TURNING OPEN INNOVATION INTO PRACTICE: OPEN INNOVATION RESEARCH THROUGH THE LENS OF MANAGERS
This literature review identifies four key managerial challenges in implementing open innovation: organizing for openness, co-creating value, leading diverse teams, and managing intellectual property. The authors synthesize research from 2003 to 2009 to provide practical guidance for innovation managers navigating open innovation adoption, while highlighting gaps in existing research that need further investigation.
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Managing Peer-to-Peer Conflicts in Disruptive Information Technology Innovations: The Case of Software Reuse1
Software reuse represents a disruptive innovation in development organizations that triggers peer-to-peer conflicts. The paper develops a model explaining these conflicts and shows that managerial interventions—including coordination mechanisms and organizational learning practices—reduce conflict and improve program success. A study of four organizations confirmed that companies implementing these interventions achieved better outcomes with software reuse adoption.
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Innovation, networking and the new industrial clusters: the characteristics of networks and local innovation capabilities in the Turkish industrial clusters
Innovation and networking drive competitive capacity in industrial clusters during globalization. This study examined three Turkish industrial clusters through firm interviews, finding that local and national networking correlates positively with innovativeness. Firms embedded in global networks produce more innovations than those relying primarily on local linkages, demonstrating the importance of both local connections and international engagement.
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How Does Outside-In Open Innovation Influence Innovation Performance? Analyzing the Mediating Roles of Knowledge Sharing and Innovation Strategy
Outside-in open innovation improves organizational innovation performance, but the effect depends on two critical mediating factors: knowledge sharing and innovation strategy. Analysis of 112 firms across industries shows that external knowledge only translates into better innovation performance when organizations actively share that knowledge internally and align it with a deliberate innovation strategy.
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Towards innovation in Living Labs networks
Living Labs are open, user-centered environments that enable networked innovation through collaboration between organizations, users, and other participants. This study examines a regional Living Labs initiative to identify key participants, their roles, motivations, and outcomes. The research finds that Living Labs successfully facilitate open innovation by integrating users as co-producers in product development, which uncovers hidden user needs and generates unexpected results.
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The Emergence of China and India as New Competitors in MNCs' Innovation Networks
Multinational corporations increasingly locate research and development operations in China and India, moving beyond traditional innovation hubs in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. However, this shift remains limited in scope, with China attracting market-seeking investment and India attracting resource-seeking investment. Knowledge control stays concentrated in developed countries despite local learning and upgrading. While concerns about Western innovation decline are overstated, these trends signal a potential long-term redistribution of global innovation capacity and economic power.
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Developing and Validating Field Measurement Scales for Absorptive Capacity and Experienced Community of Practice
Researchers developed and validated survey measurement scales for absorptive capacity (the ability to transform new knowledge into usable knowledge) and experienced community of practice (engagement with a practice community). Testing with nearly 600 engineers across two Fortune 100 technology companies, they confirmed the scales are internally consistent, relate meaningfully to organizational variables, and provide distinct explanatory power for studying knowledge transfer in organizations.
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Sharing User Experiences in the Product Innovation Process: Participatory Design Needs Participatory Communication
This paper develops a participatory communication model for sharing user experiences with design teams during product innovation. The model emphasizes three qualities: enhancing empathy, providing inspiration, and supporting engagement. Two empirical studies show that when designers actively participate in communicating user insights rather than passively receiving them, they develop deeper understanding, greater acceptance, and more intensive use of those insights in the creative process.
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Digital innovation ecosystems in agri-food: design principles and organizational framework
Digital innovation in agri-food requires complex ecosystem approaches involving multiple stakeholders. This paper analyzes 73 million euros of European public-private projects from 2011-2021 to develop a framework for designing viable digital innovation ecosystems. The framework identifies six key concepts and 21 design principles, emphasizing multi-actor collaboration, shared technical infrastructure, value stream identification, and strategic partner engagement. Success requires substantial investment and time; isolated actor analysis fails.
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The interaction between external and internal knowledge sources: an open innovation view
Firms combining external and internal knowledge sources innovate more effectively than those relying solely on either approach. The study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship: firms with excessive internal knowledge experience organizational inertia and reduced innovation. External knowledge sources initially substitute for internal capacity but eventually complement it, improving product innovation. Firms must strategically match their external knowledge acquisition to their existing internal knowledge base to maximize innovation outcomes.
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Exploring How Lead Users Develop Radical Innovation: Opportunity Recognition and Exploitation in the Field of Medical Equipment Technology
Lead users in medical equipment—primarily surgeons—develop radical innovations independently when manufacturers won't invest in them. These users create functional prototypes, build networks of collaborators, and test feasibility before convincing established manufacturers to commercialize their ideas. Lead users effectively perform the coordination and knowledge-gathering work that manufacturers typically handle, bridging gaps in the innovation pipeline and enabling radical breakthroughs.
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Process innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises: The critical roles of external knowledge sourcing and absorptive capacity
External knowledge sourcing and absorptive capacity drive process innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises. A study of 124 automotive SMEs in challenging institutional environments found that broad external knowledge search—but not deep search—correlates with process innovation development. Process innovation subsequently improves firm performance.
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Open Innovation and Social Big Data for Sustainability: Evidence from the Tourism Industry
Social media data from tourists generates valuable insights for sustainable tourism innovation. A case study of an Apulia destination shows how social Big Data enables open innovation processes, allowing tourism stakeholders to involve visitors and create knowledge assets that support sustainable travel experiences.
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Perspective: Leveraging Open Innovation through Paradox
Open innovation collaborations between firms and external contributors often fail due to conflicting demands: firms seek controlled participation and selective idea adoption, while contributors want open participation and unrestricted knowledge sharing. This paper reframes these tensions as productive paradoxes rather than problems, proposing that firms can leverage open innovation by combining differentiation and integration practices to balance control and openness simultaneously.
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Equilibrium Innovation Ecosystems: The Dark Side of Collaborating with Complementors
Firms selling complementary products increasingly collaborate to improve system quality, but this cooperation creates a prisoner's dilemma in saturated markets. While collaboration reduces investment costs and generates more total value, firms capture no greater share of that value relative to competitors, reducing overall profitability. The paper examines how open versus closed interfaces affect firm strategy and platform emergence in competitive environments.
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The effects of network embeddedness on service innovation performance
Network embeddedness significantly drives service innovation performance. The study analyzed questionnaire data from service industry firms and found that connections to business partners, suppliers, and customers—but not research institutes—directly improve innovation outcomes. Enterprises achieve better service innovation by strengthening ties with their business networks.
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Spatial mobility of knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity: analysis and measurement of the impact within the geoeconomic space
Knowledge and technology transfer effectiveness declines as distance from research sources increases, following a damped pattern. Small businesses in industrial districts successfully acquire external scientific knowledge through interactions with public research institutions and collective learning mechanisms, rather than conducting their own research. Industrial proximity and collaborative networks enable knowledge absorption without requiring in-house research capacity.
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NETWORK STRUCTURE AND INNOVATION AMBIGUITY EFFECTS ON DIFFUSION IN DYNAMIC ORGANIZATIONAL FIELDS.
Computational modeling shows how network structures affect innovation diffusion differently depending on whether innovations have clear or ambiguous benefits. Regional constraints slow diffusion of ambiguous innovations but help spread clearly beneficial ones. Partnering patterns and interregional connections significantly influence which innovations spread through organizational fields.
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Alliances, Networks and Competitive Strategy: Rethinking Clusters of Innovation
This paper examines how networks of firms drive innovation and competitiveness through alliances and knowledge sharing. The authors argue that successful innovation requires flexible network structures that adapt over time, and that geography plays a crucial role in how these networks form and operate. They contend that effective innovation networks are increasingly international rather than locally confined.
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A THEMATIC ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY RESEARCH.
This paper reviews 189 absorptive capacity studies across major journals and conferences, identifying seven research themes: definitions, knowledge characteristics, knowledge transfer, organizational learning, innovation, corporate scope, and alliances. The authors find three critical problems: researchers no longer question the construct's original assumptions, the term has become a catch-all phrase for any knowledge acquisition, and few studies examine the actual organizational processes underlying absorptive capacity dimensions.
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Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies
This paper reviews how innovation research has shifted toward understanding innovation as embedded in ecosystems of interconnected actors—firms, organizations, and individuals—that create value together through modular interfaces. The authors synthesize nine articles examining how ecosystem actors coordinate, create joint value, and capture returns, while proposing future research directions that combine ecosystem perspectives with other innovation frameworks and develop new methodologies for studying ecosystem dynamics.
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Unveiling the Microfoundations of Absorptive Capacity: A Study of Coleman’s Bathtub Model
This study examines how firms develop absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize and use new knowledge. Using data from 342 employees across 106 medical technology companies, the research shows that formal and informal integration mechanisms strengthen absorptive capacity. The effect works through individual-level processes: employees' perspective-taking and creative behavior drive organizational capability. Key employees play a critical role in explaining why some firms absorb knowledge better than others.
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Accessing resources for service innovation – the critical role of network relationships
Companies access resources for service innovation through different types of network relationships. The study identifies four resource access strategies: absorption, acquisition, sharing, and co-creation. Easily transferable resources come through weak relationships and low-intensity collaboration, while difficult-to-transfer resources like tacit knowledge require strong relationships and intensive collaboration. Managers should recognize that key innovation resources are accessible through diverse actors and relationships.
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Enhancing innovation in livestock value chains through networks: Lessons from fodder innovation case studies in developing countries
Fodder scarcity limits smallholder livestock farmers in developing countries. This paper examines how fodder technologies spread through farmer networks in Ethiopia, Syria, and Vietnam. Fodder innovation succeeds when integrated with other innovations and market activities, and when farmers organize collectively to access markets. The authors argue that combining innovation systems and value chain approaches strengthens smallholder productivity and market outcomes.
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Social Capital of Young Technology Firms and Their IPO Values: The Complementary Role of Relevant Absorptive Capacity
Young technology firms with strong business-to-business relationships achieve higher IPO valuations when they possess absorptive capacity—the ability to leverage external resources. The study of 177 IPOs shows that social capital from supplier, customer, and investor networks only translates to financial value if firms can actually use those connections. Marketing and R&D relationships without absorptive capacity actually harm firm value.
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Knowledge creation: absorptive capacity, organizational mechanisms, and knowledge storage/retrieval capabilities
This study develops a framework showing how individual absorptive capacity, organizational mechanisms, and IT capabilities for storing and retrieving knowledge affect knowledge creation in firms. Using survey data from 271 respondents across manufacturing, trade, transportation, service, and academic organizations, the research identifies how absorptive capacity and organizational structures influence knowledge creation, with organizational memory playing a moderating role.
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Joining forces to create value: The emergence of an innovation ecosystem
During rapid technological change, firms form alliances to access new resources and capabilities. This study traces how Volvo Car Group's autonomous driving development evolved from internal constraints into a collaborative innovation ecosystem. Resource limitations drove the company to seek partnerships, which transformed their technology platform from closed to modular. This modularity enabled multiple actors to co-create value around shared standards and interfaces, establishing an innovation ecosystem.
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Innovation Ecosystem framework directed to Sustainable Development Goal #17 partnerships implementation
This paper examines how innovation ecosystems can support the implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goal #17, which calls for strengthened global partnerships. The authors analyze UN documents and literature to identify four core drivers—geographical governance, collaboration, knowledge transmission, and value co-creation—that enable multi-stakeholder networks to address sustainability challenges. The framework positions SDGs as the unifying purpose that engages diverse stakeholder groups in co-creating solutions.
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How does open innovation lead competitive advantage? A dynamic capability view perspective
Open innovation creates competitive advantage through product innovation, but only when organizations develop the right capabilities. The study identifies three critical capabilities: transforming capability acts as a foundation that enables sensing and seizing capabilities, which together drive product innovation and competitive advantage. Organizations pursuing open innovation must deliberately build these interconnected capabilities to succeed.
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The influence of platform service innovation on value co-creation activities and the network effect
Platform service innovation evolves through three stages—emergence, expansion, and maturity—each with different strategies for creating value and network effects. During emergence, platforms build infrastructure and directly stimulate network effects through innovation. During expansion, they build relationships and shift to indirect stimulation through value co-creation. At maturity, platforms create ecosystems and continue indirect stimulation. Platform managers must align their innovation focus with their developmental stage to succeed.
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Look who's talking: responsible innovation, the paradox of dialogue and the voice of the other in communication and negotiation processes
This paper develops a theoretical framework for stakeholder dialogue in responsible innovation processes. Rather than assuming communication succeeds through openness and harmony, the authors argue dialogue must accommodate fundamentally different interests and values. They identify four key characteristics: dialogical responsiveness enhances self-criticism, involves transformation of participant identities, exists only through actual enactment, and responds to major societal challenges. The work redefines responsiveness as central to responsible innovation.
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Triple Helix Clusters: Boundary Permeability at University—Industry—Government Interfaces as a Regional Innovation Strategy
Successful regional innovation requires permeable boundaries between universities, industry, and government. The paper examines MIT-Boston, Stanford-Silicon Valley, Research Triangle-North Carolina, and Newcastle-Northeast UK to show that entrepreneurial universities drive innovation regions. While no single best-practice model exists, boundary permeability and other common innovation characteristics can be strengthened through targeted policy initiatives.
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User innovation and everyday practices: micro‐innovation in sports industry development
User innovations in sports like rodeo and freestyle kayaking drive industry development more significantly than previously recognized. The paper examines how users adapt equipment and practices, change activity settings, and engage in various forms of involvement. These micro-innovations reshape user demographics and preferred gear, ultimately influencing industry evolution more than lead-users and user-manufacturers alone.
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Networks, Knowledge and Power: Decision Making, Politics and the Process of Innovation
This paper examines how organizations adopt Enterprise Resource Planning systems, revealing that innovation adoption is fundamentally political. Networks and knowledge prove inseparable because tacit knowledge requires relationship-building to access and use. The research shows that formal authority doesn't automatically translate to power, and that networks and knowledge function as both practical tools for accessing information and political instruments that actors deploy to advance their interests.
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The dawn of an open exploration era: Emergent principles and practices of open science and innovation of university research teams in a digital world
Universities are adopting open science practices—including open data sharing, open access publishing, and participatory design—that reshape how research teams conduct innovation. These practices accelerate knowledge creation, speed solutions to major societal challenges, and develop entrepreneurial researchers. The study identifies emergent principles and mechanisms of open science and innovation at universities, proposing governance models to increase societal value in the digital era.
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The Role of Innovation Ecosystems and Social Capital in Startup Survival
Startups that actively collaborate with universities, industries, and government organizations significantly survive longer than those that don't, according to analysis of the Kauffman Firm Survey. However, the amount of social capital available in innovation ecosystems doesn't predict whether startups actually use it or live longer. The effect varies between high-tech and other startups. Active engagement with ecosystem partners matters more than ecosystem density alone.
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Network structure and regional innovation: A study of university–industry ties
University-industry knowledge networks shape regional innovation outcomes. Analysis of UK regions reveals that the most innovative and economically developed areas contain actors occupying central, influential positions within these networks. Network structure and the resulting stocks of structural network capital directly influence patterns of regional innovation and economic development.
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Rapid innovation diffusion in social networks
This paper establishes that innovations spread rapidly through social networks when the payoff advantage is sufficiently large and agents make noisy decisions. The researchers derive bounds showing diffusion speed depends primarily on payoff gains and decision noise rather than network structure. They demonstrate that with realistic parameters—such as 5% error rates and 150% payoff gains—innovations establish themselves across any network within 80 revision periods on average.
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The power of social innovation: how civic entrepreneurs ignite community networks for good
Civic entrepreneurs drive social innovation by building community networks and catalyzing change through collaborative approaches. The book examines how market makers and service providers use open-source methods, citizen engagement, and risk-taking to create sustainable systems change. It demonstrates that measuring public value, mobilizing community assets, and leveraging social networks produce measurable results in education, family services, and local governance.
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Exploring the Multiple Roles of Lund University in Strengthening Scania's Regional Innovation System: Towards Institutional Learning?
Lund University strengthens Scania's regional innovation system through multiple engagement mechanisms that facilitate technological learning across sectors. The university acts as a knowledge conduit, importing global science and technology into the region while building structural innovation capacity. The study examines three sectoral engagement efforts and demonstrates how universities can actively contribute to regional innovative capacity beyond passive knowledge transfer.
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Diffusion of Web-Based Product Innovation
Companies increasingly involve customers in innovation through web-based tools, which reduce costs and help anticipate market changes. This study analyzed over 200 brand and corporate websites to identify which web-based collaborative tools firms actually use and discovered significant variations based on industry and company characteristics.
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Building regional innovation networks: The definition of an age business core process in a regional innovation system
Regional innovation networks drive competitive advantage. This study presents the Regional Development Platform Method and core process thinking as tools for developing regional innovation systems. Using Finland's Lahti region and its age business sector as a case study, the authors demonstrate that successful core processes depend fundamentally on collective learning and knowledge creation among multiple actors in the innovation network.
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How entrepreneurship ecosystem influences the development of frugal innovation and informal entrepreneurship
This study examines how entrepreneurial ecosystems shape frugal innovation and informal business development in Nigeria. Through interviews with 20 business owners and focus groups with association leaders, the researchers identified key determinants: formal and informal rules, market access, and family networks. These elements enable knowledge sharing, networking, and resource distribution among informal entrepreneurs operating under institutional constraints.
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Organizational change and the dynamics of innovation: Formal R&D structure and intrafirm inventor networks
Centralizing R&D budget authority in diversified firms increases connections between internal inventors, leading to broader innovation that spans more technologies. Decentralization does not reverse this effect. The paper shows that formal organizational structure influences innovation outcomes through changes in inventor collaboration networks, though organizational inertia creates time lags in these effects.
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Knowledge management and open innovation in agri-food crowdfunding
Knowledge management capabilities drive successful open innovation in agri-food businesses using crowdfunding. IT-based knowledge exploitation enables open innovation strategies, while knowledge exploration capabilities mediate the relationship between IT capabilities and innovation outcomes. The study surveyed 80 agri-food crowdfunding businesses and found these knowledge management practices critical for innovation success.
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The function of ability, benevolence, and integrity-based trust in innovation networks
This study examines how trust operates in Norwegian innovation networks, analyzing three trust dimensions: perceived ability, benevolence, and integrity. Using mixed methods across five networks, the researchers found that benevolence-based trust proves most critical for fostering open communication and knowledge sharing at both organizational and network levels. Trust functions differently depending on whether it operates between individual organizations or across the entire network, with benevolence-based trust driving successful collaboration and innovation outcomes.
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Technology convergence, open innovation, and dynamic economy
Open innovation and technology convergence—particularly through emerging technologies like IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence—can drive economic growth and sustainable development. When these concepts operate within networks, they generate increasing returns and create new market demand, addressing global economic stagnation and supporting the transition to a dynamic fourth industrial revolution economy.
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Orchestrating Innovation Ecosystems: A Qualitative Analysis of Ecosystem Positioning Strategies
This paper analyzes how organizations position themselves within innovation ecosystems through inter-organizational relationships and networks. The authors examine ecosystem positioning strategies and value co-creation through boundary-spanning activities, revealing how collaborative innovation practices vary across different organizational contexts and ecosystem structures.
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Match and manage: the use of knowledge matching and project management to integrate knowledge in collaborative inbound open innovation
Firms using inbound open innovation need more than just absorptive capacity to succeed. This study shows that how companies actively manage incoming knowledge—through project management and knowledge matching procedures—directly affects their innovation performance. The choice of governance approach matters as much as the firm's existing knowledge foundation.
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Determinants of absorptive capacity: the value of technology and market orientation for external knowledge acquisition
Firms acquire external technological knowledge through alliances and licensing, but success depends on internal capabilities. This paper argues that technology orientation and market orientation directly determine absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to explore, retain, and exploit external knowledge. The framework links these orientations to three absorptive capacity stages under varying environmental conditions, showing that internal technological and market knowledge are critical for effective external knowledge acquisition.
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Diffusion of Innovations and the Theory of Planned Behavior in Information Systems Research: A Metaanalysis
This meta-analysis examines how well Diffusion of Innovations and Theory of Planned Behavior predict technology adoption in information systems research. Analyzing 58 empirical studies, the authors found that attitude toward behavior, relative advantage, and compatibility are the strongest predictors of adoption, while complexity negatively affects it. These relationships hold consistently across different studies, validating core assumptions in IS innovation research.
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Open innovation and new issues in R&D organization and personnel management
Open innovation practices reshape how companies organize R&D and manage researchers. Italian multinational firms in pharmaceuticals, food, chemicals, and aerospace increasingly collaborate with universities and external research centers, adopt matrix and network structures, and hire knowledge integrators rather than traditional scientists. Personnel management and training models shift away from Anglo-American approaches toward Japanese and German practices emphasizing collaborative expertise.
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Investigating open innovation strategies and firm performance: the moderating role of technological capability and market information management capability
This study examines how technological capability and market information management capability influence the relationship between open innovation strategies and firm performance. Using survey data from 238 Chinese high-tech enterprises, the researchers found that technological capability strengthens inbound open innovation's impact on performance. For outbound open innovation, high technological capability combined with high market information management capability produces superior results. The findings reveal specific capability combinations that maximize the performance benefits of different open innovation approaches.
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Triple Helix and the evolution of ecosystems of innovation: the case of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley's innovation ecosystem has transformed over the past decade. The study tracks how the Triple Helix agents—universities, industry, and government—have shifted their roles and interactions. Key changes include the emergence of accelerator programs, corporations engaging startups earlier, geographic expansion into San Francisco, universities investing in capital funds, and the rise of micro-multinationals responding to talent competition.
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Reconciling the Dilemma of Knowledge Sharing: A Network Pluralism Framework of Firms’ R&D Alliance Network and Innovation Performance
Firms face a dilemma: R&D alliances provide access to external knowledge but risk knowledge leakage. This study shows that industrial networks strengthen the relationship between alliance networks and innovation performance in an inverted U-shape, while political connections weaken it. A firm's technological capability amplifies these network effects.
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How does organisational absorptive capacity matter in the assimilation of enterprise information systems?
Organizations adopt enterprise resource planning systems through both internal learning capabilities and external institutional pressures. This study shows that absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to learn and apply new knowledge—moderates how institutional pressures influence ERP adoption. Potential absorptive capacity strengthens responses to competitive mimicry, while realized absorptive capacity strengthens responses to professional norms. Both dimensions directly improve system assimilation.
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Digital Influencers, Food and Tourism—A New Model of Open Innovation for Businesses in the Ho.Re.Ca. Sector
This paper examines how digital influencer marketing functions as open innovation for food and tourism businesses. Researchers analyzed Instagram posts by major influencer Chiara Ferragni promoting Italian food and tourist destinations during the COVID-19 economic crisis. Using netnographic analysis and the AGIL model, they measured how local food enhanced destination appeal across different contexts. The study proposes a new open innovation model for advertising and promoting food and catering businesses through influencer-driven social media campaigns.
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Entrepreneurial orientation and supply chain resilience of manufacturing SMEs in Yemen: the mediating effects of absorptive capacity and innovation
Manufacturing SMEs in Yemen improve their supply chain resilience through entrepreneurial orientation, but only indirectly. The relationship works through two mechanisms: absorptive capacity and innovation. Entrepreneurial orientation alone is insufficient; firms must actively develop their ability to absorb external knowledge and innovate to strengthen supply chain resilience.
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Managing Open Innovation: A Project-Level Perspective
This study examines how innovation project characteristics—specifically complexity and uncertainty—influence successful open innovation management. Using survey data from 201 American innovation projects, the authors identify five key management factors: openness level, external partner selection, mechanism choice, collaboration formalization, and internal practices. The research demonstrates that project-level attributes matter more than firm-level characteristics alone for managing open innovation effectively.
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Building University-Industry Co-Innovation Networks in Transnational Innovation Ecosystems: Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach of Integrating Social Sciences and Artificial Intelligence
This paper addresses weak connections between transnational industry and university cooperation in innovation ecosystems. The authors propose matching industrial firms across countries through shared university partnerships, combining social science theory with machine learning techniques. Using EU-China science and technology cooperation as a case study, they demonstrate how integrating innovation studies and social network analysis with artificial intelligence can strengthen synergies between industry and university actors in transnational innovation networks.
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Creating and capturing value in a regional innovation ecosystem: a study of how manufacturing SMEs develop collaborative solutions
Danish manufacturing SMEs collaborating on an automation project reveal how small firms create and capture value within regional innovation ecosystems. Common goals and financial support enable value creation, but companies must balance their own operations with ecosystem commitments. Success depends on managing knowledge flows across organizations and aligning business models with ecosystem structures. The study shows that value capture occurs at the inter-organizational level, not just individually.
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Success factors for innovation management in networks of small and medium enterprises
Small and medium enterprises increasingly innovate through networks to manage expensive, risky product development. This study identifies success factors for managing distributed innovation across multiple partners. Using survey data from 271 networks, the research confirms that traditional factors like product advantage and marketing proficiency matter, but also finds that network-specific factors—particularly network cohesion and organization—are equally critical for new product success.
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Using innovation diffusion theory to guide collaboration technology evaluation: work in progress
Researchers developed a survey instrument based on innovation diffusion theory to evaluate collaboration technology adoption. The survey measures five key attributes—relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability—that influence whether groups adopt new systems. The team tested whether face-to-face versus distributed use affects adoption attitudes and refined the survey's reliability and validity for early-stage technology evaluation.
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Entrepreneurial co‐creation: societal impact through open innovation
This paper examines how for-profit and not-for-profit entrepreneurs collaborate through open innovation initiatives like accelerators and living labs to create both business and social value. The authors find that different entrepreneur types pursuing shared opportunities generate competing social and business values. They identify four propositions showing how entrepreneurs' profit orientation and resource contributions determine what kinds of social value emerge from co-creation efforts.
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How Firms Develop Capabilities for Crowdsourcing to Increase Open Innovation Performance: The Interplay between Organizational Roles and Knowledge Processes
Firms using crowdsourcing for innovation perform differently based on their internal capabilities. This study identifies how informal roles, formal roles, and knowledge processes work together to build crowdsourcing capability. The research finds that both types of organizational roles operate through knowledge articulation and codification to strengthen a firm's ability to benefit from crowdsourced solutions to technical problems.
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Effects of absorptive capacity, trust and information systems on product innovation
Trust and information systems drive product innovation in manufacturing firms, but their effects work primarily through absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge. Trust and information systems also strengthen absorptive capacity itself. The study of 276 Chinese manufacturers shows that absorptive capacity amplifies innovation when trust and information systems are strong, revealing how organizational systems and knowledge management interact to boost new product development.
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How Individuals Engage in the Absorption of New External Knowledge: A Process Model of Absorptive Capacity
This paper presents a process model showing how individuals absorb external knowledge through three stages: recognizing value by assessing motivation and feasibility, corroborating value through legitimacy and shared understanding, and championing integration by securing resources. The model reveals that individual engagement determines whether knowledge gets exploited, terminated, or stalls. The findings highlight individuals' critical role in converting potential absorptive capacity into realized organizational learning.
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Born‐Global SMEs, Performance, and Dynamic Absorptive Capacity: Evidence from Spanish Firms
Spanish small businesses that internationalize from startup outperform competitors through dynamic absorptive capacity—their ability to acquire, assimilate, and apply market knowledge effectively. An entrepreneurial, market-oriented culture strengthens this capability. The study of 102 Spanish born-global SMEs confirms that success depends on firms' capacity to rapidly learn and adapt knowledge to market demands.
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Innovation embedded in entrepreneurs’ networks and national educational systems
Entrepreneurs' innovation depends on where they network. Public sphere networking—especially professional and international connections—boosts innovation, while private sphere networking reduces it. However, a country's quality educational system for entrepreneurship moderates these effects, adding innovation benefits to both types of networking. Analysis of 56,611 entrepreneurs across 61 countries confirms these patterns.
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Network Closure or Structural Hole? The Conditioning Effects of Network–Level Social Capital on Innovation Performance
This study examines how network-level social capital affects firm innovation performance. Using simulation data, the researchers found that network density moderates the impact of firm-level social capital measures on innovation. In sparse networks, both direct connections and bridging positions enhance innovation. In dense networks, direct connections become less valuable and bridging positions actually harm innovation performance.
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What determines performance of cross‐border M&As by Chinese companies? An absorptive capacity perspective
Chinese companies increasingly use cross-border mergers and acquisitions to gain knowledge and strategic assets. This paper examines whether Chinese firms can effectively acquire and integrate these assets by analyzing their absorptive capacity—their ability to identify, assimilate, integrate, and apply external knowledge. Through case studies of Lenovo and TCL acquisitions, the authors show that acquisition performance depends heavily on the acquiring firm's absorptive capacity across multiple dimensions.
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Gatekeepers of Knowledge versus Platforms of Knowledge: From Potential to Realized Absorptive Capacity
Knowledge gatekeepers in the Sophia Antipolis technology cluster can create potential absorptive capacity, but realizing that capacity requires deliberate knowledge transfer efforts. The authors propose a 'knowledge platform' concept—a codified knowledge project that generates positive externalities by creating new opportunities for combining and absorbing knowledge within the cluster.
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP, PROXIMITY AND REGIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEMS
Regional innovation systems rely heavily on intraregional networks, but this focus creates lock-in risks. The paper argues that extraregional relationships matter equally, with entrepreneurial migrants serving as crucial connectors. Geographical proximity alone is less important than cognitive and institutional proximity for fostering innovation across international boundaries.
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Collaborative entrepreneurship:how communities of networked firms use continuous innovation to create economic wealth
This book review examines how communities of networked firms drive economic growth through collaborative entrepreneurship and continuous innovation. The work explores how interconnected businesses working together create wealth by fostering ongoing innovation practices. The review synthesizes insights from Miles, Miles, and Snow's framework on collaborative business networks and their role in generating economic value.
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The Effect of Employer Networks on Workplace Innovation and Training
Establishments whose managers participate in industry associations, civic organizations, and multi-unit firm networks adopt high-performance work practices and employee training programs more frequently and intensively than isolated firms. Managers embedded in multiple networks show the strongest commitment to work reorganization and training. Social ties between organizations drive organizational learning and innovation diffusion.
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Green innovation output in the supply chain network with environmental information disclosure: An empirical analysis of Chinese listed firms
Supply chain network structure influences green innovation in Chinese firms. Network power and cohesion both boost green innovation output, but their combined effect reduces it due to information overload. Environmental information disclosure strengthens the positive relationship between network structure and green innovation. The study analyzed 1,048 Chinese listed firms from 2012 to 2019.
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Universities as orchestrators of the development of regional innovation ecosystems in emerging economies
Universities in Porto Alegre, Brazil orchestrate regional innovation ecosystems by coordinating multiple stakeholders beyond traditional teaching and research roles. Three competing universities jointly foster knowledge mobility, manage innovation appropriability, and stabilize networks to support entrepreneurship. Unlike firm-based networks, university-led ecosystems distribute benefits across the broader region, not just participating organizations. Universities drive collective action by assuming leadership positions and delegating power to other actors.
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Smart specialization in regional innovation systems: a quadruple helix perspective
Robotdalen, a Swedish robotics initiative, demonstrates how smart specialization strategies work within regional innovation systems. The study tracked the program over ten years, examining interactions between industry, universities, government, and civil society. Three strategic practices emerged that evolved over time. The research shows how the fourth helix—civil society and users—integrates into traditional triple helix models, revealing the complexity of multi-stakeholder innovation governance.
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Open innovation for SMEs in developing countries – An intermediated communication network model for collaboration beyond obstacles
SMEs in developing countries face significant barriers to innovation that their counterparts in developed nations do not. This paper proposes that government agencies can establish innovation hubs to connect SMEs with independent inventors and collaborators, enabling open innovation practices. The authors present a joint innovation model and test it against cases from developing countries to demonstrate how intermediated communication networks overcome obstacles to SME innovation.
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Eco-Innovation, Sustainability and Business Model Innovation by Open Innovation Dynamics
Polish eco-innovative companies tend to develop radical rather than incremental environmental innovations, particularly in biodiversity protection. Larger firms with over 50 employees show greater capacity for both types of eco-innovation than smaller competitors. Open innovation strategies significantly boost eco-innovation generation, especially radical changes. Forward supply chain collaboration and direct market knowledge absorption drive these developments, offering a framework for post-pandemic business model innovation.
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Unpacking Open Innovation: Absorptive Capacity, Exploratory and Exploitative Openness, and the Growth of Entrepreneurial Biopharmaceutical Firms
Absorptive capacity and external relationships drive growth in small biopharmaceutical firms. A study of 349 firms across the US, UK, France, and Germany shows that a firm's ability to recognize and use external knowledge matters significantly for expansion. Exploratory partnerships depend on sustained R&D investment, while exploitative partnerships require stronger internal knowledge absorption capabilities.
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User-driven Innovation in Tourism—A Review of Methodologies
This literature review identifies sixteen distinct methodologies for user-driven innovation in tourism, ranging from active user involvement to passive information collection. The authors examine how companies engage customers in innovation processes and the quality of dialogue between them. They find that tourism research lacks comprehensive follow-up on whether user-driven innovation actually improves quality outcomes, and they outline priority areas for future investigation.
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A service ecosystem perspective on the diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations
This paper argues that service ecosystem theory better explains how sustainability-focused user innovations spread through markets and communities. The authors identify three key insights: diffusion involves multiple levels and actors working together, user innovators must be integrated as active ecosystem participants, and innovation spreads through ongoing co-creation rather than one-way adoption. The findings suggest policymakers should build innovation infrastructure that recognizes and supports users as drivers of sustainable change.
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Interfirm Exchange and Innovation in Platform Ecosystems: Evidence from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference creates opportunities for app developers to exchange knowledge and collaborate. The study finds that developers attending the conference released more major app updates with positive consumer feedback. Larger and more established firms benefited most, likely because they had greater resources and experience to leverage these exchanges. Learning and collaboration accounted for part of these innovation gains.
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Investigating the impact of networking capability on firm innovation performance: using the resource-action-performance framework
Networking capability drives firm innovation performance through a self-reinforcing cycle involving inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms and co-learning. The study examined Iranian automotive companies and found that these three elements work together cumulatively to boost innovation outcomes. Firms that effectively apply knowledge-sharing mechanisms within networks achieve stronger innovation performance than those focusing on isolated capabilities.
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Exploring supplier–supplier innovations within the Toyota supply network: A supply network perspective
This study examines how supplier firms within Toyota's supply network develop joint innovations through co-patenting. The research finds that a supplier's ability to innovate with other network members depends on the number and direction of its connections. Firms with more direct ties generate more co-innovations, but being embedded in tight clusters or having high closeness centrality actually reduces innovation output. Operating multiple manufacturing plants in Japan strengthens the innovation effect.
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An alter-centric perspective on employee innovation: The importance of alters’ creative self-efficacy and network structure.
Employee innovation depends on the creative self-efficacy and innovation behavior of their social network contacts. A study of 144 U.S. product development workers found that employees with network contacts who have high creative self-efficacy and strong innovation behavior generate and implement more novel ideas themselves. This effect strengthens when those contacts have less densely connected networks. Employees with initially low creative self-efficacy also gain confidence when connected to high-efficacy contacts.
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Open innovation in universities
Spanish universities show that social networks are the strongest driver of researcher engagement in knowledge transfer activities. Personal background, institutional support, and professional factors also matter significantly, though recognition does not. The study surveyed 382 senior researchers leading research groups and found that strengthening connections between researchers, businesses, administrators, and technology transfer offices increases participation in open innovation knowledge exchanges.
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Exploring users motivation in innovation communities
Users participate in online innovation communities for different reasons depending on the community type and technology they adopt. The study finds that learning is a key motivational factor driving participation in innovation intermediary communities. Understanding user characteristics and motivations helps organizations effectively engage virtual communities in their innovation processes.
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Attributes required for profiting from open innovation in networks
Individual and organizational attributes determine success in open innovation networks. A study of EURADOS, a European research network on radiation dosimetry with 200 members across 31 countries, found that members profit unequally from participation. Openness and the ability to contribute are equally important attributes for gaining value from the network in terms of increased innovativeness, reduced costs, and improved task fulfillment.
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Information–Communication Technologies Open up Innovation
Information and communication technologies enable open innovation by connecting organizations with external sources like customers, suppliers, and vendors to generate, develop, test, and commercialize ideas. ICTs support the entire innovation process from initial ideation through commercialization, moving beyond internal use to facilitate distributed innovation across organizational boundaries.
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Towards technological rules for designing innovation networks: a dynamic capabilities view
Inter-organizational innovation networks allow firms to access complementary resources beyond their boundaries. This paper develops design-oriented knowledge for configuring these networks effectively. The research addresses how firms can build dynamic capabilities to leverage external resources for competitive advantage as innovation increasingly shifts away from individual companies.
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Employee-level open innovation in emerging markets: linking internal, external, and managerial resources
This study examines how individual employees in Vietnamese telecommunications companies use internal and external knowledge sources to drive innovation. The research finds that employees who access both internal organizational knowledge and external sources produce more innovative work, and that managers' characteristics influence this relationship. The findings emphasize that open innovation operates at the employee level in emerging markets, not just at the firm level, and requires distributed organizational engagement.
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The Role of Stakeholders in the Context of Responsible Innovation: A Meta-Synthesis
This meta-synthesis of seven empirical studies examines how stakeholders participate in responsible research and innovation (RRI) projects. The authors find that stakeholders typically join late in the innovation process, during market launch, limiting their influence on design. Academic researchers and multi-institutional project leaders orchestrate participation. The paper argues that innovation management practices—particularly early user involvement—should be integrated into RRI governance to enable more responsible outcomes and meaningful stakeholder influence.
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Social media: open innovation in SMEs finds new support
Small and medium-sized enterprises use social media to conduct open innovation with limited resources. The study of a startup called Aurea Productiva reveals how Web 2.0 tools create opportunities and challenges for collaborative innovation. SMEs can leverage social media by developing strategies that emphasize resource sharing, clearly communicating their vision, and building frameworks that enable external collaboration.
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A triple helix model of medical innovation: <em>Supply</em>, <em>demand</em>, and <em>technological capabilities</em> in terms of Medical Subject Headings
This paper develops a triple helix model to understand medical innovation by analyzing interactions between disease demand, drug supply, and technological capabilities. Using medical research publications from MEDLINE/PubMed, the authors identify periods when these three dimensions align synergistically. They find that the strongest innovation driver is the connection between disease needs and available technologies, followed by supply-demand and supply-technology links. The model helps reduce uncertainty in medical innovation governance.
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Openness and Innovation Performance: Are Small Firms Different?
Small manufacturing plants benefit more from diverse innovation partnerships than larger plants do. Using Irish manufacturing data, the study finds that small plants gain significantly from broadening their innovation linkages, though they face diminishing returns at lower diversity levels than larger firms. Small plants also benefit more from supply chain partnerships. The research suggests small firms must choose partners carefully when expanding their innovation networks.
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Extending the Environment–Strategy–Performance Framework: The Roles of Multinational Corporation Network Strength, Market Responsiveness, and Product Innovation
This study examines how multinational corporations operating in China use their internal networks to manage market and technological turbulence while pursuing market responsiveness and product innovation strategies. Analysis of 140 foreign firms reveals that different environmental pressures affect these strategic approaches unequally, and that while network strength, market responsiveness, and product innovation each independently boost performance, their combined effects produce mixed results.
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Research on the evolution of China's photovoltaic technology innovation network from the perspective of patents
China holds the world's largest number of photovoltaic technology patents, but lacks core technologies limiting further innovation. This study analyzes 20 years of PV patent data using social network analysis to map China's innovation structure. Leading enterprises have formed stable collaborations, with innovation concentrated in eastern coastal provinces. Cross-regional collaboration has grown significantly, centered on three major hubs: the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
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Knowledge infrastructure capability, absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation: evidence from SMEs in France
French SMEs with stronger knowledge infrastructure capabilities—spanning technology, structure, and culture—absorb external knowledge more effectively and implement open innovation more successfully. Absorptive capacity partially mediates this relationship. The study validates a measurement instrument for knowledge infrastructure capability and demonstrates its direct positive impact on both absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation performance in small and medium enterprises.
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Motivation Gaps and Implementation Traps: The Paradoxical and Time‐Varying Effects of Family Ownership on Firm Absorptive Capacity
Family ownership affects how firms absorb and use external knowledge in contradictory ways. The authors identify two gaps—motivation and implementation—that explain why family ownership can either strengthen or weaken a firm's capacity to acquire and exploit new knowledge. The effects depend on specific conditions and change over time, particularly during ownership succession periods.
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International migration and innovation diffusion: an eclectic survey
Highly skilled migrants drive innovation diffusion across countries through multiple pathways. This survey examines how migration enables knowledge transfer from origin to host countries and vice versa, as well as among destination countries. The paper emphasizes that social ties among migrants and the distinction between accessing general information versus exchanging specialized knowledge are critical factors in understanding how migration spreads innovation globally.
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Patenting motives, technology strategies, and open innovation
Swedish firms with higher levels of open innovation place greater importance on patenting, particularly for protecting product technologies and freedom to operate, and for bargaining purposes. The study surveyed large firms and SMEs, finding that open innovation strengthens most patenting motives compared to closed innovation strategies, except for attracting customers.
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The social network side of individual innovation
This meta-analysis examines how social network properties affect individual innovation. Brokerage—having connections across different groups—most strongly predicts innovation, followed by network size and diversity. Closure and strong ties show weaker effects. The study reveals that network size and strength influence innovation indirectly through brokerage and diversity, and that strong ties create tradeoffs with both positive and negative innovation effects.
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The role of public open innovation intermediaries in local government and the public sector
Public open innovation intermediaries act as bridges between city governments and networks of organizations, helping cities collaborate across large cognitive distances and execute innovation projects. A study of eight cases across Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain shows these intermediaries orchestrate collaboration and boost urban innovativeness. The findings provide policy guidance for cities seeking to improve their innovation processes and competitiveness.
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Interdependence, Perception, and Investment Choices: An Experimental Approach to Decision Making in Innovation Ecosystems
Decision makers systematically overestimate success in interdependent innovation projects. When success probabilities are presented separately for each partner rather than as a combined probability, people become more optimistic, especially with more partners involved. This leads to inflated project valuations, adding unnecessary partners, and overinvestment in individual components. The pattern holds across different risk contexts and participant groups from students to executives.
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Sharing leadership for diffusion of innovation in professionalized settings
Healthcare organizations struggle to spread innovations beyond isolated pockets. This study reveals how shared leadership drives innovation diffusion in hospitals. Managers initially champion and fund innovations, but doctors later take the lead in persuading peers, while nurses adapt innovations to local settings. Financial performance, whether nurses adopt hybrid roles, and organizational hierarchy all shape whether shared leadership succeeds in spreading innovations across the organization.
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Motivation and sorting of human capital in open innovation
This paper examines how open innovation projects attract and retain contributors with different motivations. Using open source software data, the authors show that developers sort themselves based on project characteristics, particularly licensing choices. Intrinsic motivation, reputation building, and career signaling drive contributions more than reciprocity. Project managers can strategically design business models to attract the right talent and improve performance.
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Absorptive capacity: a proposed operationalization
This paper develops a practical framework for measuring absorptive capacity—a company's ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit new knowledge. The authors examine ten innovative companies to test their operationalization approach, connecting absorptive capacity to dynamic capabilities and business strategy. The research provides concrete methods for assessing how firms actually absorb and use external knowledge.
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ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS AND THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS: THE CASE OF CITIZEN SERVICE CENTRES
Administrative professionals significantly drive the adoption of citizen service centres—integrated one-stop shops—across Danish municipalities. The study finds that municipalities with higher concentrations of administrative professionals are more likely to adopt this organizational innovation. Adoption also increases with municipal wealth, regional availability of similar centres, and local service demands.
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Open Innovation in Times of Crisis: An Overview of the Healthcare Sector in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations rapidly developed innovations in personal protective equipment, medical devices, testing, treatment, and vaccines through open innovation and cross-organizational collaboration. This paper reviews open innovation strategies during the crisis using a business ecosystem framework, identifies key emerging themes in UK and global healthcare sectors, and offers policy recommendations for crisis recovery.
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The role of open innovation in fostering SMEs’ business model innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic
Open innovation practices enabled small and medium enterprises to transform their business models during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examined six SMEs across traditional sectors and found that external pressure from the crisis drove business model innovation, with open innovation management playing a central role in this transformation. Digital transformation often accompanied these changes.
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Containing the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome in external knowledge absorption and open innovation: The role of indirect countermeasures
The Not-Invented-Here Syndrome causes organizations to reject external knowledge, harming innovation. This paper identifies two types of countermeasures: direct approaches that change negative attitudes toward external knowledge, and indirect approaches that reduce the behavioral impact of those attitudes without changing them. Research across 32 interviews and 565 R&D projects shows perspective-taking effectively reduces NIHS effects and improves external knowledge absorption and project success.
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Developing National Systems of Innovation: University-Industry Interactions in the Global South
This paper examines how universities and industries interact to build innovation systems in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Global South. The authors analyze university-industry partnerships as critical mechanisms for strengthening national innovation capacity and economic development in regions with emerging economies.
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Network Structures in Regional Innovation Systems
This paper bridges regional innovation systems theory with social network analysis to clarify how knowledge networks actually function in regions. The authors connect network-theoretical concepts to established RIS typologies, demonstrating that applying precise network analysis methods reveals interaction patterns obscured by the RIS literature's metaphorical use of 'network'. The work shows how both fields strengthen each other through cross-disciplinary insights.
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Knowledge withholding: psychological hindrance to the innovation diffusion within an organisation
Knowledge withholding—both intentional hiding and unintentional hoarding—disrupts innovation diffusion within organizations. The paper distinguishes knowledge withholding from knowledge sharing using Herzberg's two-factor theory and identifies four territorial behaviors that drive knowledge withholding. Research has overlooked this barrier while focusing on knowledge sharing, leaving a gap in understanding what prevents innovation spread across organizational members.
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Managing learning in informal innovation networks: overcoming the Daphne‐dilemma
Informal innovation networks—collaborative arrangements between organizations developing new products or processes—offer unique advantages for early-stage innovation work. However, they face a fundamental tension: insufficient management wastes their potential and reduces productivity, while excessive management destroys the informality that enables their creative and exploratory strength. The authors examine this 'Daphne-dilemma' through network theory and knowledge management perspectives.
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Supply chain innovation research: A bibliometric network analysis and literature review
This bibliometric analysis of 230 supply chain innovation articles identifies 12 research clusters spanning 1997–2021, including green supply chain innovation, knowledge management, and supply chain integration. The authors develop a matrix linking operational and management practices to innovation outcomes, revealing that modern supply chain innovation emphasizes eco-innovation, digitalization, and collaboration. The framework helps practitioners design supply chain innovation strategies and measure performance impacts.
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Implications of Open Innovation for Organizational Boundaries and the Governance of Contractual Relations
This paper examines how firms balance openness with control in collaborative innovation. It argues that value creation requires managing multiple organizational boundaries—competence, power, identity, and efficiency—while value capture depends on relational contract design rather than formal appropriation alone. The authors propose that firms use dynamic capabilities to strategically configure boundaries and contractual mechanisms to enable knowledge exchange while preventing unintended leakage.
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Promoting cooperation in innovation ecosystems: evidence from European traditional manufacturing SMEs
Public innovation support programmes in European traditional manufacturing SMEs do not encourage cooperation with competitors, but marginally increase cooperation with customers and suppliers, and strongly boost cooperation with knowledge providers. The research shows that policy works within existing innovation ecosystems rather than creating new ones. Support programmes help SMEs extend their networks by connecting them with both private and public sector knowledge providers.
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Sources of Variation in the Efficiency of Adopting Management Innovation: The Role of Absorptive Capacity Routines, Managerial Attention and Organizational Legitimacy
This paper examines how firms efficiently adopt management innovations through two case studies of offshore business service sourcing. The research shows that absorptive capacity routines—the processes firms use to learn and implement new practices—vary in their effectiveness depending on their sequence, adequacy, and interdependencies. Managerial attention and organizational legitimacy emerge as critical factors determining adoption speed and success. Top-level change agents prove more effective than local problem-solving at directing attention and building support for both the innovation and the routines needed to implement it.
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Science, business, and innovation: understanding networks in technology‐based incubators
This study examines how networks form within a Canadian technology-based incubator. The research reveals that incubators generate multiple distinct types of networks rather than a single uniform phenomenon. The authors identify specific factors that enable or constrain network formation among high-tech firms and other organizations. The findings emphasize that inter-organizational interactions in incubators are more complex and varied than previously understood.
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Fast and expensive: the diffusion of a disappointing innovation
Firms often imitate innovations adopted by competitors, but this study shows that when an innovation underperforms expectations, observing other firms actually use or abandon it deters further adoption. The research demonstrates that negative information from early adopters halts diffusion of disappointing innovations, even though firms initially imitate the adoption decision itself.
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Realized and Potential Absorptive Capacity: Understanding Their Antecedents and Performance in the Sourcing Context
This paper develops a conceptual model explaining how companies successfully absorb knowledge from sourcing relationships. It distinguishes between potential absorptive capacity at the interorganizational level and realized absorptive capacity at the intraorganizational level. The model identifies knowledge, relational, and institutional contexts as drivers of potential capacity, while social embeddedness and interfunctional coupling within organizations enable knowledge integration and realization.
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Multiplex Network Ties and the Spatial Diffusion of Radical Innovations: Martin Luther’s Leadership in the Early Reformation
Martin Luther's personal networks drove the Reformation's spread across Europe. The study reconstructs Luther's influence network using his correspondence, visits, and student enrollments to show that cities with direct personal ties to Luther—through multiple relationship types—adopted Protestantism at higher rates. Combined with existing trade routes, these multiplex personal connections enabled the Reformation to expand from a regional movement into a continent-wide institutional transformation.
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Open Innovation Engineering—Preliminary Study on New Entrance of Technology to Market
This paper develops a conceptual model of open innovation engineering to address how technology reaches markets in the fourth industrial revolution. The authors identify open innovation channels that function as knowledge funnels to overcome capitalism's growth limits. They validate the model through literature review and apply it to papers from a 2019 special issue, establishing a foundation for further research on innovation channels and market entry mechanisms.
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Knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity: interdependency and complementarity
This study resolves contradictions about how knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity relate to each other. The authors show that absorptive capacity has two dimensions—potential and realized—and that knowledge sharing bridges between them. Knowledge donation emerges as an output of absorptive capacity rather than just an input. The findings apply to team and firm-level management, emphasizing knowledge collection's central role in leveraging organizational learning.
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Goal Multiplicity and Innovation: How Social and Economic Goals Affect Open Innovation and Innovation Performance
Commercial firms pursuing both social and economic goals source external knowledge more effectively and achieve better innovation performance than those focused on economics alone. Analysis of 1,257 Belgian firms shows social and economic goals are independent, not conflicting. Firms benefit most when both goal types are strongly emphasized together. Social goals uniquely drive external collaboration, while economic goals alone limit open innovation adoption.
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Management Innovation and Policy Diffusion through Leadership Transfer Networks: An Agent Network Diffusion Model
Leadership transfer networks—the career paths of public managers—drive policy innovation diffusion across regions. Using data on Chinese provincial energy governance, the study shows that when managers move between locations with similar institutional environments, they carry performance innovations with them. This network-based mechanism explains how management practices spread geographically, independent of traditional learning or competition factors.
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The role of knowledge absorptive capacity on the relationship between cognitive social capital and entrepreneurial orientation
This study examines how cognitive social capital influences entrepreneurial orientation in Spanish agri-food firms, finding a U-shaped relationship where very low and very high cognitive closeness both boost entrepreneurial behavior. Knowledge absorptive capacity strengthens this effect. Managers should cultivate cognitively close networks with shared goals and build their firm's capacity to absorb and apply new knowledge to enhance innovation and risk-taking.
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Growing Innovation Ecosystems: University-Industry Knowledge Transfer and Regional Economic Development in Canada
This paper examines how university-industry knowledge transfer drives regional economic development in Canada. The authors analyze the mechanisms through which universities contribute to innovation ecosystems and regional growth, focusing on the role of knowledge exchange partnerships between academic institutions and industry in fostering innovation capacity and economic competitiveness across Canadian regions.
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New shapes and new stakes: a portrait of open innovation as a promising phenomenon
This paper examines open innovation as a concept in innovation management and economics. The authors clarify what makes open innovation distinct from related earlier concepts, identify different forms open innovation takes in practice, and analyze the benefits and costs of various open innovation approaches. The work synthesizes existing research and identifies future research directions for understanding this innovation model.
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Assessing the roles that absorptive capacity and economic distance play in the foreign direct investment-productivity growth nexus
Foreign direct investment boosts productivity in host countries through two main channels: technology transfer and education investment. The study finds that geographical distance between investing and host countries reduces the effectiveness of both trade and FDI in transferring technology and knowledge. Countries with stronger absorptive capacity—built through education—benefit more from FDI. Technology flows work in both directions between investing and host nations.
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Good Practices in Open Innovation
Open innovation has become standard practice in firms establishing dedicated groups and budgets. This paper identifies twelve good practices that drive high-quality open innovation efforts. The authors argue these practices are essential inputs to an effective organizational open innovation system and provide guidance for managers to implement and continuously improve their open innovation processes.
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Absorptive Capacity and Source‐Recipient Complementarity in Designing New Products: An Empirically Derived Framework<sup>*</sup>
This paper examines how firms absorb external design knowledge from sources outside their organization and use it in new product development. Analyzing cases in clothing and construction industries, the authors identify three distinct absorption processes and show that complementarity between the recipient firm's existing knowledge and the source's design knowledge critically determines NPD success. Design knowledge combined with prior marketing or technological knowledge drives better product innovation outcomes.
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Innovation diffusion at the implementation stage of a construction project: a case study of information communication technology
Construction companies often fail to realize benefits from information communication technology despite its potential. This study examined three construction contractors to understand how ICT implementation succeeds or fails. The research identifies critical factors for successful adoption: management support, technical support, workplace environment, and user characteristics. These insights provide a framework for improving ICT adoption across different implementation stages in construction.
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Wither Core Competency for the Large Corporation in an Open Innovation World
Large corporations have shifted from focusing on internal core competencies to acting as system integrators and market coordinators in open innovation networks. Companies now outsource manufacturing and component innovation while broadening their technology base, vertically disintegrating their operations. This transformation reflects a move from closed, internal innovation models to distributed value chains where large firms orchestrate external partners rather than controlling all capabilities internally.
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Expanding Capabilities in a Mature Manufacturing Firm: Absorptive Capacity and the TCS
A small UK manufacturing firm with 70 employees participated in a Teaching Company Scheme over two years, which improved its absorptive capacity—the ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills. The company introduced new organizational routines to codify tacit knowledge, resulting in a 25% increase in turnover. The study shows that structured knowledge-transfer programs help mature small firms expand their managerial capabilities.
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Network cooperation and economic performance of SMEs: Direct and mediating impacts of innovation and internationalisation
Network cooperation drives SME economic performance through two pathways: innovation and internationalization. Studying 117 Indian exporting firms, the research shows that customer and R&D organization networks boost performance primarily via innovation, while government agencies, customers, and R&D organizations influence performance through internationalization. Both innovation and internationalization act as critical mediators between network relationships and firm economic outcomes.
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Examining the Impact of Adoption of Emerging Technology and Supply Chain Resilience on Firm Performance: Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity and Leadership Support
Firms with stronger intellectual capability, agility, and integration adopt emerging technologies more readily, which improves supply chain resilience and performance. Absorptive capacity strengthens the link between intellectual capital and technology adoption, while leadership support amplifies the positive effect of technology adoption on firm performance. The study validates this model across multiple firms.
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Technology, Value Co-Creation and Innovation in Service Ecosystems: Toward Sustainable Co-Innovation
This paper develops a framework for managing value co-creation and sustainable innovation in service ecosystems through technology-mediated resource and knowledge integration. The framework identifies four key drivers—co-design, co-development, co-delivery, and co-learning—operating across micro, meso, and macro levels. A case study of an Italian wood packaging company demonstrates how managers can leverage these mechanisms to enable continuous sustainable innovation and knowledge renewal.
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Complementors as connectors: managing open innovation around digital product platforms
This paper examines how firms coordinate open innovation through digital platform ecosystems. Using Philips Hue smart lighting as a case study, the authors identify three increasingly complex ways independent companies connect complementary products to a focal platform. Managing these connections requires a hybrid approach combining open interfaces for many partners with intensive collaboration for select partners. The research reveals that managing interconnections across multiple digital platforms creates significant coordination challenges.
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How do Scientists Contribute to the Performance of Innovative Start‐ups? An Imprinting Perspective on Open Innovation
Scientists boost innovative startup performance by promoting open innovation through broad and deep external search, but only when multiple scientist founders work together to transfer their lab-based career experiences. This advantage strengthens further when startups adopt strategic planning and commercial goals. However, scientist founders can become a liability if startups neglect strategic planning or prioritize non-commercial objectives.
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Technological development for sustainability: The role of network management in the innovation policy mix
This paper analyzes how policy can strengthen collaborative networks driving sustainable technology development. Using advanced biorefinery technology in Sweden as a case study, the authors develop a framework showing how network management strategies should evolve across different phases of technological development. They demonstrate that ignoring network management in innovation policy leads to inefficient collaboration, fragmented competing networks, and knowledge gaps.
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Innovation network, technological learning and innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises
High-tech cluster enterprises in China improve their innovation performance through strong innovation networks and technological learning. Network position and relationship strength directly boost technology acquisition, digestion, and exploitation. These technological learning stages build sequentially, with each stage enhancing the next, ultimately driving innovation performance. Enterprises should strengthen both their innovation networks and technological learning capabilities.
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Absorptive capacity and mass customization capability
Manufacturing firms in China improve their mass customization capabilities by absorbing knowledge from customers and suppliers. The study identifies four absorptive capacity processes—acquiring knowledge from customers and suppliers, assimilating it, and applying it—that work together to enhance customization. Knowledge from external sources drives improvements both directly and indirectly through internal knowledge management practices.
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The Effects of Diversity and Network Ties on Innovations
This study analyzes how diversity affects innovation in scientific collaboration. Using data from 1,354 researchers who created the Oncofertility field through 469 publications, the authors find that innovation benefits from both homophily and diversity. Shared country residence and prior collaborations reduce uncertainty, while cognitive diversity enables the knowledge recombination necessary for breakthrough innovation.
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Realising potential: The impact of business incubation on the absorptive capacity of new technology-based firms
University technology business incubators strengthen new technology firms' ability to absorb and apply new knowledge. The study finds that collaborative dialogue between founders, mentors, advisers, and incubator directors creates an iterative process that converts potential absorptive capacity into realized capacity. This interaction directly improves how firms develop viable business models and integrate external knowledge.
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Distributed Innovation in Classes of Networks
Digital technologies reshape innovation by reducing communication costs and enabling convergence, creating distributed innovation networks. The authors propose a framework identifying four network types: singular innovation, open source innovation, internal markets of innovation, and doubly distributed innovation networks. These emerge from increasing distribution of control among actors and growing heterogeneity in knowledge resources mobilized during innovation processes.
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The evolution of cooperation in the face of conflict: Evidence from the innovation ecosystem for mobile telecom standards development
This study examines how firms cooperate within innovation ecosystems despite patent litigation conflicts. Using data from mobile telecom standards development, the authors find that firms increase cooperation with litigation opponents while simultaneously strengthening ties with other partners to influence standards direction. Technological complementarities and network position determine whether firms pursue direct cooperation with adversaries or alternative partnerships.
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Industrial Symbiosis, Networking and Innovation: The Potential Role of Innovation Poles
Industrial symbiosis—where companies exchange waste and byproducts—succeeds better when supported by innovation poles, which are government-backed regional networks that promote innovation across industries. The authors argue that innovation poles can accelerate industrial symbiosis by facilitating knowledge sharing and networking among organizations, addressing a gap in existing research that has focused mainly on technical and economic factors rather than innovation and collaboration.
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Do Individual Employees' Learning Goal Orientation and Civic Virtue Matter? A Micro‐Foundations Perspective on Firm Absorptive Capacity
Individual employee characteristics drive firm absorptive capacity—the ability to identify, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge. Employees with learning goal orientation strengthen both potential and realized absorptive capacity. Civic virtue, employees' discretionary involvement in company issues, acts as a social integration mechanism that bridges the gap between potential and realized absorptive capacity in high-technology firms.
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The team absorptive capacity triad: a configurational study of individual, enabling, and motivating factors
Knowledge-intensive teams develop absorptive capacity through three complementary factors: individual team members' knowledge absorption abilities, organizational systems enabling knowledge integration, and motivational structures encouraging knowledge sharing. The study of 48 teams across four Dutch firms shows that weakness in any single factor reduces overall team performance, and these factors function as complements rather than substitutes.
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How controversial innovation succeeds in the periphery? A network perspective of BASF Argentina
BASF's Argentine subsidiary, despite being geographically and organizationally peripheral, successfully developed and implemented controversial innovations. Through interviews and network analysis of employee knowledge sharing, the study identifies contextual and network conditions that enable peripheral subsidiaries of multinational corporations to create and enforce innovations, challenging assumptions that innovation concentrates at corporate headquarters.
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Consumers' Creative Talent: Which Characteristics Qualify Consumers for Open Innovation Projects? An Exploration of Asymmetrical Effects
This study examines which consumer characteristics enable effective participation in open innovation projects. The researchers tested how different creativity components affect consumers' ability to generate ideas, develop concepts, and build prototypes, plus their interest in co-creation. They found that creativity components have asymmetrical effects: some characteristics only matter above certain thresholds, while others show diminishing returns beyond specific levels.
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Knowledge management in regional innovation networks: The case of Lahti, Finland
This paper designs a knowledge management system for regional innovation networks, incorporating explicit, tacit, and self-transcending knowledge alongside knowledge vision and futures studies methods. Using Finland's Lahti regional innovation system as a case study, the authors demonstrate that effective regional innovation networks require both loose network development and systematic, deliberate approaches to managing knowledge-related activities.
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Crowdsourcing without profit: the role of the seeker in open social innovation
Government agencies use crowdsourcing to solve social problems by engaging citizens, a practice called citizensourcing. This study of 18 local government agencies reveals that government crowdsourcing differs fundamentally from corporate crowdsourcing because both seekers and solvers are motivated by non-monetary goals. The researchers show how government organizational choices, team capabilities, and engagement strategies directly shape crowdsourcing project outcomes and success.
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RETRACTED ARTICLE: Startups and the innovation ecosystem in Industry 4.0
Startups incubated at a Brazilian innovation center drive digital manufacturing through open innovation partnerships with companies, universities, and government agencies. These collaborations operate informally and remain at early maturity stages, yet the complex ecosystem of knowledge sources functions as a strategic asset. The study reveals how startup partnerships advance Industry 4.0 adoption while exposing significant implementation challenges in Brazil.
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Open innovation strategies in the food and drink industry: determinants and impact on innovation performance
Food and drink companies adopt three distinct open innovation strategies, from limited collaboration with traditional partners to broad engagement with diverse external sources. Technology pressures drive companies toward greater openness. The research shows that more open collaboration approaches significantly improve innovation performance, but only when companies establish dedicated structures to manage and leverage external knowledge effectively.
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Open innovation in digital journalism: Examining the impact of Open APIs at four news organizations
Four major news organizations—The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, and NPR—adopted Open APIs to embrace open innovation principles. This shift accelerated research and development through collaboration with web developers, created new revenue streams by expanding their product offerings, and built innovation networks that acted as external R&D teams. The organizations continuously balanced openness with control to manage their intellectual property while benefiting from external innovation.
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Idea Convergence Quality in Open Innovation Crowdsourcing: A Cognitive Load Perspective
Open innovation crowdsourcing generates many ideas but struggles to identify quality ones for development. This study tested how different types of cognitive load affect idea convergence quality using laboratory experiments. Germane cognitive load—mental effort directly supporting the task—improved convergence quality and satisfaction, while intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads reduced satisfaction. Knowledge self-efficacy, goal clarity, and need for cognition strengthened these positive effects, offering practical guidance for designing crowdsourcing tasks.
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Open innovation in the public sector: creating public value through civic hackathons
Civic hackathons across the United States generate three main outcomes: digital prototypes, public engagement, and government awareness of open data. Public engagement and relationship building prove more valuable than technical prototypes. These open innovation initiatives enhance public value through better outcomes, democratic accountability, and procedural legitimacy, though their impact remains limited by early adoption stages and low external participation rates.
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Outsourcing creativity: An abductive study of open innovation using corporate accelerators
Corporate accelerators bring startups together with established companies to share innovation and funding. This study examines how these programs actually work by analyzing their strategy, resources, roles, and structure. The research reveals the characteristics and mechanisms of corporate accelerators as an open innovation model, filling a gap in empirical understanding of why companies use them and what they expect to gain.
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Not too close, not too far: testing the Goldilocks principle of ‘optimal’ distance in innovation networks
This paper tests whether firms innovate best when collaborating with partners at moderate distances across non-geographical dimensions like cognitive and organizational proximity. Analyzing 542 Norwegian firms, the researchers find that the most innovative companies partner with others at medium proximity levels, not too close and not too far. Geographical distance can be offset by proximity in other dimensions, enabling innovation despite physical separation.
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Absorptive capacity and knowledge management in small and medium enterprises
Small and medium enterprises need to access external knowledge through relationships, but research has not adequately examined how these relationships support knowledge management. This paper develops a framework using absorptive capacity to explain how SMEs manage external knowledge. It applies this framework to understand how new ventures build capabilities during startup and how knowledge flows within geographical clusters.
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Open innovation in SMEs: How can small companies and start-ups benefit from open innovation strategies?
Small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups can leverage open innovation strategies to access external knowledge, resources, and partnerships that enhance their competitive advantage. By collaborating beyond organizational boundaries, SMEs overcome resource constraints and accelerate innovation cycles, enabling them to compete more effectively in dynamic markets.
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Developing innovation capability through learning networks
Learning networks significantly enhance innovation capability in organizations. The paper examines how firms develop and strengthen their capacity to innovate by participating in collaborative learning networks. These networks facilitate knowledge exchange, skill development, and capability building across participating organizations, enabling them to generate and implement innovations more effectively than isolated competitors.
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Green innovation networks: A research agenda
Green innovations emerge from organizational collaborations, yet little research examines the networks driving them. This literature review of 63 papers identifies green innovations across products, services, processes, business models, and marketing. The authors map different actor types, network structures, and engagement motivations. They propose three research priorities: horizontal collaborations among peers, cross-sectoral partnerships including public-private arrangements, and the role of users as active network participants in developing green innovations.
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The impact of coopetition-based open innovation on performance in nonprofit sports clubs
Nonprofit sports clubs in Germany that collaborate with competitors (coopetition) and adopt external knowledge improve their organizational performance. The study shows this happens through a two-step process: clubs first use outside knowledge, then implement organizational innovations like new services and business models. Both steps boost financial stability and membership growth.
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Business Model for the University-industry Collaboration in Open Innovation
Universities and industrial companies can collaborate effectively through a business model framework that leverages each partner's strengths. Companies lack certain competencies for developing competitive products, while universities provide research capabilities to solve complex problems. The study identifies how Romanian universities and industries currently collaborate and demonstrates significant potential for implementing open innovation practices to create added value.
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Towards building internal social network architecture that drives innovation: a social exchange theory perspective
Organizations spread across multiple locations can drive innovation by deliberately building internal social networks that encourage employee interactions and knowledge sharing. The paper argues that social capital and relationship-building should be prioritized alongside formal organizational structures. By fostering both strong bonds within teams and bridges across departments, companies can improve collaboration, knowledge flow, and innovation capacity in dispersed workforces.
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GE's Ecomagination Challenge: An Experiment in Open Innovation
GE's ecomagination Challenge used open innovation to solicit green energy ideas from external entrepreneurs and startups, investing $140 million across 23 ventures by 2011. The case examines whether this approach delivered sufficient returns relative to GE's massive energy business, and considers how the company should measure success and structure future open innovation efforts to generate meaningful commercial outcomes.
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OPEN INNOVATION, GENERATIVITY AND THE SUPPLIER AS PEER: THE CASE OF IPHONE AND ANDROID
This paper examines how suppliers in open innovation networks shift from passive contractors to active creative peers. Using iPhone and Android as case studies, the authors argue that generative capacity—not mere openness—drives platform wealth creation. Both platforms achieve generativity through different balances of openness and control, demonstrating that suppliers contribute most effectively when platforms enable creative participation alongside strategic governance.
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Research Networks and Inventors' Mobility as Drivers of Innovation: Evidence from Europe
This paper examines how inventor mobility and research collaboration networks drive regional innovation across Europe. Using spatial econometric methods, the authors find that when inventors move within regions, innovation increases significantly. However, the relationship between research network characteristics and innovation is less straightforward. The study accounts for geographic spillovers and spatial dependencies in innovation patterns.
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Firms' open innovation policies, laboratories' external collaborations, and laboratories' R&D performance
This study analyzes 203 laboratories in Japanese firms to measure how open innovation policies at the firm and laboratory levels affect R&D performance. The research finds that firm-level open innovation policies significantly boost laboratory collaborations with universities and businesses, which in turn improves R&D performance. The impact varies depending on the type of R&D work being conducted, offering insights for managing research and development effectively.
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Innovation and Innovators Inside Government: From Institutions to Networks
This study examines how innovation happens within government by analyzing 947 politicians and bureaucrats across 11 Australian municipalities. The researchers found that innovation inside government depends less on formal job positions and more on informal networks and relationships. Using social network analysis, they show that access to advice and strategic information networks among senior officials significantly determines who becomes an innovator within government institutions.
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Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) manufacturing strategy for network innovation agility: the case of Taiwanese manufacturing networks
Taiwanese original equipment manufacturers can pursue two distinct strategies—dedicated OEM service or own-brand products—both enabling innovation agility in global networks. Dedicated OEM suppliers should prioritize manufacturing flexibility and modular product design, while own-brand manufacturers need strong cross-functional integration. Market orientation proves essential for both approaches to succeed in collaborative innovation networks.
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A data-driven robust optimization in viable supply chain network design by considering Open Innovation and Blockchain Technology
This paper develops a supply chain network design model that integrates open innovation and blockchain technology to improve resilience and sustainability. Using robust optimization and risk management techniques, the model minimizes costs while reducing CO2 emissions and energy consumption. The authors demonstrate that adding open innovation and blockchain platforms reduces costs by 0.2% and enhances overall supply chain performance against disruptions.
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Business Model, Open Innovation, and Sustainability in Car Sharing Industry—Comparing Three Economies
Car-sharing companies Uber, DiDi Chuxing, and KakaoT adopt different business models shaped by open innovation strategies and interactions with government, taxi industries, public transit, and automakers. The study finds business models are dynamic rather than fixed, and open innovation approaches directly determine how these firms structure revenue, responsibility, and system operations across the United States, China, and South Korea.
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Knowledge Management, Knowledge Creation, and Open Innovation in Icelandic SMEs
Two Icelandic SMEs—a software company and a food producer—manage knowledge and innovation differently. The software company uses inside-out open innovation, engaging customers late in development. The food company uses outside-in innovation, involving customers and suppliers early. Both treat knowledge creation as a learning process, confirming that high-tech firms favor internal-to-external strategies while low-tech firms rely on external input from the start.
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Insights for orchestrating innovation ecosystems: the case of EIT ICT Labs and data-driven network visualisations
This paper demonstrates how data-driven network visualization and social network analysis can help orchestrate innovation ecosystems. Using EIT ICT Labs as a case study, the authors reveal key actors, connections, and characteristics within Europe's ICT innovation ecosystem. Their framework enables decision-makers to develop shared vision and strategically guide ecosystem transformation through continuous visual and quantitative analysis.
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The ‘KIBS Engine’ of Regional Innovation Systems: Empirical Evidence from European Regions
Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) drive regional innovation across Europe. The study maps how KIBS and manufacturing co-evolve in European regions, revealing that KIBS presence defines high-performing innovation systems, while their absence marks weak performers. Some core manufacturing regions follow a distinct path, transforming into knowledge-oriented service-manufacturing complexes rather than adopting traditional KIBS-dependent models.
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INITIATING OPEN INNOVATION COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN INCUMBENTS AND STARTUPS: HOW CAN DAVID AND GOLIATH GET ALONG?
This study examines how large established firms select startup partners for open innovation collaborations. Using qualitative research with perspectives from both incumbents and startups plus external experts, the authors develop a process model showing how partner selection works in these asymmetric partnerships. The research addresses a gap in understanding how open innovation collaborations actually get initiated, beyond just their success factors.
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Intellectual Property Norms in Online Communities: How User-Organized Intellectual Property Regulation Supports Innovation
User-organized intellectual property norms in online communities like Threadless enable innovation by providing legal certainty and protecting creators' work without formal law enforcement. The study identifies an integrated system of established norms that regulate IP use, fostering cooperation and cumulative innovation in anonymous, large-scale communities. These norms-based systems compensate for formal IP law's ineffectiveness online and offer practical guidance for managing crowdsourcing platforms.
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The combined influence of top and middle management leadership styles on absorptive capacity
This study examines how leadership styles of top and middle managers together influence organizational absorptive capacity—the ability to learn and apply new knowledge. The research finds that different management style combinations work best for different learning types: exploratory learning requires both levels to use transformational leadership, transformative learning works when top management uses transformational and middle management uses transactional styles, and exploitative learning succeeds when both use transactional styles. Organizational context attributes also affect how well these leadership combinations perform.
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Networking and innovation in SMEs: evidence from Guangdong Province, China
This study examines how business network structures affect innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises. Using survey data from 92 packaging and printing firms in Guangdong Province, China, the researchers found that network density, reciprocity, and multiplicity positively correlate with firms' innovative capabilities. SMEs can boost innovation by strategically understanding and leveraging their business network structures.
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MNC KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER, SUBSIDIARY ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND HRM.
This study of 169 multinational corporation subsidiaries in the USA, Russia, and Finland shows that human resource management practices strengthen subsidiaries' ability to absorb and apply knowledge from parent companies. The research identifies absorptive capacity as having two components—employee ability and motivation—and demonstrates that when both dimensions work together, knowledge transfer from other parts of the corporation becomes significantly more effective.
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The impact of open-border organization culture and employees’ knowledge, attitudes, and rewards with regards to open innovation: an empirical study
Organizations with open-border cultures are significantly more likely to adopt open innovation practices. Employee knowledge and rewards act as key mediators strengthening this relationship. The study analyzed 528 employees across 28 industrial sectors in 37 European countries, finding that organizational openness directly increases open innovation adoption, while employee knowledge and reward systems amplify this effect.
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Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena
This paper identifies the key conditions for establishing successful open innovation arenas within organizations. Through a survey of 25 researchers at a Portuguese engineering institute, the authors find that culture, leadership, and strategy are the primary drivers enabling firms to access external knowledge and collaborate effectively. Culture emerges as the most critical factor, followed by resources, processes, and measurement systems that support open innovation practices.
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Open Service Innovation: The Role of Intermediary Capabilities
Intermediaries with digital service platforms develop three key capabilities—technological, marketing, and co-creation—to help clients innovate their services. Co-creation capabilities act as a higher-order capability that shapes and improves how technological and marketing capabilities work together. These intermediaries enable clients to overcome internal barriers and successfully pursue open service innovation within their service ecosystems.
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The Influence of Entrepreneurship and Social Networks on Economic Growth—From a Sustainable Innovation Perspective
Entrepreneurship and social networks both significantly drive regional economic growth in China, with effects varying by geography. Eastern regions benefit most from entrepreneurship, while central regions gain more from social networking. The study analyzed 31 Chinese provinces from 2007–2016 using dynamic panel methods, finding that entrepreneurship's impact strengthens when combined with social networks. Policymakers should tailor entrepreneurship support to regional conditions and leverage social networks to maximize economic efficiency.
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Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
Two departments in an urban school district worked with the same external partner on improvement efforts, but only one successfully integrated the partner's ideas into policies and routines. The difference stemmed from organizational conditions that foster absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge—and the quality of interactions between departments and their partners.
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How Environmental Innovations Emerge and Proliferate in Supply Networks: A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective
Environmental innovations in supply networks emerge through self-organizing processes that cross organizational boundaries, according to this qualitative study of two firms. The research shows that once innovations enter the network, they spread through decentralized coordination rather than top-down control by dominant firms. The authors develop a process model explaining how environmental innovations come into being and proliferate across supply networks over time.
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Leveraging Open Innovation Using Intermediary Networks
Open innovation intermediary networks like InnoCentive connect firms seeking solutions with external knowledge holders through one-off transactions. The paper shows that companies successfully source codified and uncodified knowledge through these platforms by applying procurement and design engineering processes to create organizational learning routines. These routines enable effective knowledge transfer and competitive advantage despite theoretical challenges in knowledge search and transfer.
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OPENNESS IN PRODUCT AND PROCESS INNOVATION
Open innovation benefits both product and process innovation in Australian firms, but external information sources show diminishing returns over time. Internal and external knowledge complement each other primarily for new products and services rather than process innovation. Investment in absorptive capacity yields declining marginal returns for process innovation but not for product innovation.
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Managing knowledge within networked innovation
Firms succeed in networked innovation by adopting strategic knowledge management practices. The paper identifies two types of innovation networks: those exchanging explicit knowledge and intellectual property, and those co-creating new knowledge and opportunities. Success requires firms to understand their partners' business models and strategic motivations, enabling effective knowledge management across collaborative relationships.
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Enabling knowledge creation through outsiders: towards a push model of open innovation
This paper introduces a push model of open innovation where external individuals and organizations voluntarily create and contribute knowledge to firms' projects. Analyzing the Eclipse Development Platform, the authors find that outsiders invest as much effort as the founding firm. They identify four enabling conditions: preemptive generosity, continuous commitment, adaptive governance, and low entry barriers that facilitate this external knowledge creation and contribution.
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Industry Convergence and Its Implications for the Front End of Innovation: A Problem of Absorptive Capacity
When industries converge, companies struggle with idea generation and selection because they must integrate knowledge from different sectors. This study analyzed 54 R&D projects to understand how firms innovate during convergence. The research reveals that companies use different approaches to manage convergence innovation, and firms must develop absorptive capacity on both market and technological dimensions to succeed.
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The Importance of Public Research Institutes in Innovative Networks-Empirical Results from the Metropolitan Innovation Systems Barcelona, Stockholm and Vienna
Public research institutes play a smaller role in supporting business innovation than regional innovation theory suggests. Analysis of three European metropolitan areas—Barcelona, Stockholm, and Vienna—using the Regional Innovation Survey reveals that while research institutes are considered important for innovation networks, firms actually rely on them less than conceptual models predict.
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The impact of knowledge management on performance in nonprofit sports clubs: the mediating role of attitude toward innovation, open innovation, and innovativeness
Knowledge management directly improves performance in nonprofit sports clubs and indirectly boosts it by fostering positive attitudes toward innovation and open innovation practices. Clubs that systematically develop and share knowledge—from both internal and external sources—enhance their ability to adopt external ideas, build innovation-friendly cultures, and ultimately innovate more effectively and perform better organizationally.
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Exploring Innovation Ecosystem from the Perspective of Sustainability: Towards a Conceptual Framework
This paper develops a conceptual framework connecting innovation and sustainability across three levels: individual firms, supply chains, and broader ecosystems. The authors argue that achieving sustainable innovation requires involving multiple stakeholders—customers, partners, government, and universities—working together systematically. The framework emerges from literature review and case studies, identifying how different actors can collaborate to embed sustainability into innovation processes.
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Jack of All, Master of Some: Information Network and Innovation in Crowdsourcing Communities
Firms that operate both customer support and innovation crowdsourcing communities gain significant advantages. Participants who engage in customer support communities accumulate knowledge about customer needs and solutions, which they then apply to generate higher-quality, more novel and feasible ideas in innovation communities. Companies can identify high-potential innovators by tracking their customer support activities and strategically mobilize them for innovation tasks.
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When do firms undertake open, collaborative activities? Introduction to the special section on open innovation and open business models
This introductory article frames the intellectual context of the World Open Innovation Conference, summarizing four leading papers on open innovation and open business models. The authors synthesize conference submissions and sessions to establish a research agenda for understanding when and why firms engage in collaborative, open innovation activities.
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Prospects for Developing Absorptive Capacity Through Internal Information Provision
Managers can build organizational absorptive capacity by distributing knowledge internally to employees who might adopt new practices. The effectiveness of this information provision depends on what employees already know from other sources. Prior experience with related practices strengthens the impact of managerial information, while knowledge from previous adopters weakens it. This clarifies when absorptive capacity creates lasting competitive advantage.
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Innovation and users: virtual reality in the construction sector
Construction firms act as users of virtual reality technology developed outside their sector, shaping how the technology evolves through their practical needs. A study of 11 construction organizations found that project characteristics—particularly project size and design reuse—drive different technological requirements for virtual reality use. These divergent user needs, communicated to suppliers, generate distinct solutions tailored to different project types.
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Open innovation based knowledge management implementation: a mediating role of knowledge management design
Open innovation drives successful knowledge management implementation in organizations. The study shows that open innovation processes significantly influence how knowledge management systems should be designed, which in turn determines implementation success. Knowledge management processes reinforce each other through interaction effects. Organizations must adapt their knowledge management design based on their chosen open innovation approach to achieve effective knowledge management outcomes.
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Public support for innovation and the openness of firms’ innovation activities
Public support for innovation increases firms' openness to external collaboration and open innovation practices across 5,000+ European firms. However, this effect weakens for already-innovative firms, suggesting potential crowding-out. Non-financial support—institutions and policies—proves more effective than monetary subsidies at fostering open innovation, offering budget-constrained policymakers a cost-effective alternative.
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Inbound and Outbound Open Innovation: Organization and Performances
This study examines how open innovation practices relate to company characteristics, R&D organization, and financial performance in 126 major bio-pharmaceutical firms from 2008-2012. Small and young companies adopt open innovation most frequently. Inbound practices (acquiring external knowledge) substitute for internal R&D and show an inverted-U relationship with performance, while outbound practices (licensing out technology) complement internal R&D but correlate with declining financial performance.
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<scp>CAP</scp> Reform and Innovation: The Role of Learning and Innovation Networks
European agricultural innovation requires networks connecting farmers, experts, businesses, and knowledge institutions to develop sustainable practices. The paper proposes Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA) as policy mechanisms that enable knowledge sharing and collaborative problem-solving across the rural economy. These networks can help agriculture adapt to future environmental and economic constraints while advancing sustainability goals.
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Communication channels, innovation tasks and NPD project outcomes in innovation‐driven horizontal networks
This study examines how communication channels affect new product development in inter-organizational networks. Analyzing 93 innovation-driven horizontal networks with 372 respondents, the researchers found that tasks requiring less analysis use richer communication channels, which in turn strengthen network ties and reduce development time. Communication channel richness partially mediates the relationship between task complexity and project outcomes.
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Overcoming barriers to innovation in SMEs in China: A perspective based cooperation network
Chinese manufacturing SMEs face significant innovation barriers, with lack of technical experts being the primary obstacle. Customer relationships emerge as the most valuable cooperation partners for innovation. Tax incentives are the most effective policy support. The research shows SMEs struggle with innovation success and require tailored policies addressing both internal constraints and firm characteristics like size and ownership structure.
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MANAGING WITHIN DISTRIBUTED INNOVATION NETWORKS
Effective innovation requires management across organizational networks involving suppliers, customers, and partners. This paper identifies relational capabilities needed for distributed innovation management—where multiple organizations collaborate to co-design, co-produce, and co-service customer needs. The authors present a framework and tools supporting innovation from individual employees to network level, illustrated through a case study of six biotechnology organizations working together.
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Modeling diffusion of innovations in a social network
This paper presents a mathematical model showing how innovations spread through social networks when people must weigh upgrade benefits against costs. Agents decide whether to improve their technology level based on local information and economic trade-offs. The model identifies a critical threshold where technological adoption follows power-law patterns, and this threshold maximizes long-term technological growth across the network.
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How does IT capability affect open innovation performance? The mediating effect of absorptive capacity
This study examines how information technology capability drives open innovation performance in Chinese firms. Using survey data from 232 companies, the researchers found that both internal and external IT capabilities boost open innovation performance. Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—mediates this relationship. The findings suggest Chinese businesses should strengthen the connection between IT investment, knowledge absorption, and innovation outcomes.
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Open data for open innovation: managing absorptive capacity in SMEs
Small and medium enterprises struggle to use open data for innovation because they lack specific capabilities to acquire, process, and apply it effectively. The study identifies core factors that shape how SMEs handle open data and finds that without developing these unique capabilities, most SMEs cannot successfully leverage open data for digital innovation, explaining why adoption remains limited.
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DataONE: Data Observation Network for Earth Preserving Data and Enabling Innovation in the Biological and Environmental Sciences
DataONE is a federated data network that preserves environmental and biological data while enabling scientific innovation. The system improves data access through secure storage, user-friendly discovery and analysis tools, and community engagement across science, library, and policy sectors. The paper describes DataONE's architecture, data management procedures, and EZID service for managing long-term digital identifiers.
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Strategic Alliance Networks and Innovation: A Deterministic and Voluntaristic View Combined
This paper reviews literature on strategic technology alliances and interfirm collaboration in high-tech sectors. It contrasts two perspectives: a structuralist view emphasizing how network embeddedness constrains firms, and a voluntaristic view showing how firms actively shape networks to achieve strategic goals. The authors argue the voluntaristic approach better explains network dynamics and change, addressing a major gap in existing research.
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Exploring blockchain adoption intentions in the supply chain: perspectives from innovation diffusion and institutional theory
Supply chain managers are more likely to adopt blockchain technology when government regulations mandate product origin tracking, organizations use modern cloud systems, and engage third-party consultants. The study finds that normative pressures, perceived advantages, compatibility with existing systems, and manageable complexity drive active blockchain adoption. These conditions identify which supply chain networks are ready for blockchain implementation.
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Evolving a Value Chain to an Open Innovation Ecosystem: Cognitive Engagement of Stakeholders in Customizing Medical Implants
A medical device firm transformed its traditional value chain into an open innovation ecosystem to customize orthopedic implants using 3D printing. The company used cognitive artifacts—shared visual and conceptual tools—to help diverse stakeholders develop common understanding and collaborate effectively. This approach enabled the firm to pursue mass customization while avoiding suboptimal local strategies and managing the constraints that external partnerships can impose on innovation strategy.
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How journalists innovate in the newsroom. Proposing a model of the diffusion of innovations in media outlets
Spanish journalists leading newsroom innovation describe how media outlets drive change through innovations in content production, internal organization, distribution, and commercialization. The study identifies key factors that shape how innovations are adopted and implemented in newsrooms, then proposes a model explaining how media innovations spread across the industry.
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Direct and mediated ties to universities: “Scientific” absorptive capacity and innovation performance of pharmaceutical firms
Pharmaceutical firms access university knowledge through direct collaborations or indirect ties via biotech intermediaries. The study finds that firms with strong internal scientific capacity benefit more from direct university partnerships, while firms with weaker capacity perform better using biotech brokers—unless those brokers connect to top universities. Success depends on matching a firm's research organization to its knowledge-sourcing strategy.
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Dynamic structures of control and generativity in digital ecosystem service innovation: the cases of the Apple and Google mobile app stores
This paper analyzes how Apple and Google's mobile app stores manage service innovation through digital ecosystems. Using narrative analysis of web articles, the authors identify core generative and controlling actions that structure innovation within these platforms. They reveal how stakeholders interact to drive service innovation and show that successful ecosystem strategies balance control mechanisms with generative capacity to enable competitive advantage.
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Building Constructive Innovation Networks: Role of Relationship Management
This case study examines how the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation manages relationships across multiple organizations to drive innovation. The research finds that relational governance—based on trust and cooperation rather than contracts—is essential for these networks, though supplemented by other governance approaches. The authors develop a relationship management framework and identify key lessons for designing and operating interorganizational innovation networks effectively.
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DiffuNET: The impact of network structure on diffusion of innovation
This paper develops a model linking network structure to innovation diffusion rates. The researchers show that specific network properties—such as centralization—directly influence how quickly innovations spread through populations via innovation and imitation. By redesigning network structures strategically, managers can accelerate product adoption and diffusion. The model integrates previously separate diffusion research traditions and allows practitioners to predict diffusion potential from measurable network characteristics.
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Beyond Education: The Role of Research Universities in Innovation Ecosystems
Research universities drive innovation ecosystems in Brazil's São Paulo state, generating patents, software, and knowledge-intensive startups. The study finds universities' effects are geographically localized to cities rather than broader regions. While human capital formation matters, research excellence at major institutions proves more influential. Policymakers face challenges: peripheral areas gain little from proximity to successful hubs, and building innovation ecosystems requires long-term investment in high-quality universities rather than short-term interventions.
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The effect of network structure on radical innovation in living labs
Living labs with a distributed multiplex network structure generate radical innovations, while distributed and centralized structures produce incremental innovations. The study analyzed 24 living labs across four countries and found that radical innovation also depends on the driving actor and strategic objectives. A provider- or utilizer-driven living lab combined with distributed multiplex networks and clear future-oriented goals offers the best conditions for radical innovation.
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Corporate Philanthropy, Research Networks, and Collaborative Innovation
Corporate direct giving to research activities increases innovation output and impact. Firms use philanthropy strategically to build research networks and collaborative partnerships that produce more influential and original innovations. Direct giving proves especially valuable for opaque firms and in competitive industries, revealing that philanthropy serves as a tool for expanding innovation networks beyond firm boundaries.
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Framework of open innovation in SMEs in an emerging economy: firm characteristics, network openness, and network information
This study examines open innovation practices among small and medium enterprises in China using survey data from 420 firms. The research shows that firm characteristics like innovation capacity and barriers, combined with network openness and information flow, significantly influence how Chinese SMEs engage in open innovation. The findings demonstrate that open innovation represents a viable strategy for emerging market SMEs seeking to overcome resource constraints.
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An empirical study of firm’s absorptive capacity dimensions, supplier involvement and new product development performance
This study examines how manufacturing firms develop new products by analyzing the role of supplier involvement and absorptive capacity—the organization's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. Using data from 161 firms, the research finds that absorptive capacity dimensions have varying effects on both financial and non-financial new product performance, and that absorptive capacity moderates how supplier involvement influences outcomes.
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Introduction: Small Business and Networked Innovation: Organizational and Managerial Challenges
Small and medium-sized enterprises face distinct organizational and managerial challenges when participating in networked innovation. This introduction to a special issue outlines these challenges and synthesizes findings from included articles that advance understanding of how smaller firms navigate collaborative innovation ecosystems and manage the complexities of working across organizational boundaries.
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Paradoxical tensions in open innovation networks
Open innovation networks in Finland exhibit paradoxical tensions that managers must actively navigate. The study found that these networks—involving companies, universities, and government agencies—face internal and external complexities beyond those seen in single-organization innovation efforts. Managers who employ diverse behavioral approaches to handle these tensions achieve greater innovation outcomes. The research reveals that paradox management deserves explicit attention in open innovation strategy.
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User Involvement in Innovation Processes : Strategies and Limitations from a Socio-Technical Perspective
This paper examines how users participate in innovation processes and identifies the strategic approaches and constraints involved from a socio-technical viewpoint. The author analyzes different strategies for involving users in developing new technologies and products, while highlighting the practical and theoretical limitations that affect meaningful user engagement in innovation.
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Social labs as an inclusive methodology to implement and study social change: the case of responsible research and innovation
This paper proposes a social lab methodology to implement and study responsible research and innovation (RRI) in practice. The methodology combines agility and real-world focus with action research and experiential learning, enabling parallel investigation and promotion of RRI while addressing the circular challenge of needing evidence to establish practices that don't yet exist widely.
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Innovation in service ecosystems
This paper examines how values resonance drives innovation in service ecosystems by integrating brands, service systems, and experience spaces. Through a case study using narrative analysis, the authors identify four key lessons showing that shared values enable service innovation, strengthen brand integration, facilitate resource integration across system boundaries, and support value co-creation through coherent servicescapes.
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Knowledge Spillovers, Absorptive Capacities and the Impact of FDI on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Transition Economies
Foreign direct investment boosts economic growth in transition economies primarily through knowledge spillovers rather than capital alone. The study finds that countries with higher government and business R&D spending capture greater growth benefits from FDI. The research demonstrates that FDI targeting manufacturing sectors and focused on knowledge and efficiency gains produces stronger economic outcomes than other investment types.
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The Driving Forces of Subsidiary Absorptive Capacity
This study examines how multinational corporations strengthen their subsidiaries' ability to absorb and implement marketing strategies. The research shows that subsidiaries operate within two competing environments—the MNC network and their local host country market. MNCs can enhance subsidiary competitiveness by creating organizational mechanisms that build absorptive capacity. Analysis of 213 subsidiaries reveals specific structures that enable effective strategy adoption in dynamic markets.
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Innovation and collaboration in traditional food chain networks
Small and medium-sized enterprises in traditional food sectors across Italy, Hungary, and Belgium prioritize product innovation over organizational innovation. Collaboration among chain network members—suppliers, manufacturers, and customers—strengthens firms' innovation capabilities, though collaboration intensity varies by position in the network. The study identifies collaboration as a key driver of innovation competence in traditional food SMEs.
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Catching up in the global wine industry: innovation systems, cluster knowledge networks and firm-level capabilities in Italy and Chile
Wine producers in Italian and Chilean clusters learn technology differently based on their knowledge resources and network positions. Strong geographic proximity alone doesn't create effective knowledge networks. Knowledge transfer from research institutions to firms succeeds only when firms occupy gatekeeper and broker roles within their clusters. Policy should strengthen these internal network connections rather than assuming proximity automatically generates innovation.
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Researching ecosystems in innovation contexts
The paper clarifies the concept of 'innovation ecosystem' by reviewing how scholars use the term across different contexts. The authors identify three basic types of ecosystems, all centered on producing coherent system-level outputs. They provide a framework to distinguish between different ecosystem types, reducing conceptual confusion and enabling clearer communication among researchers studying innovation.
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Web mining for innovation ecosystem mapping: a framework and a large-scale pilot study
This paper develops a web mining framework to map innovation ecosystems by analyzing firm websites at scale. Testing on 2.4 million German firms, the authors extract innovation-related information from websites to identify products, services, and business cooperation. They find systematic biases: larger, older, urban, and patenting firms are overrepresented because they maintain more sophisticated websites, while low broadband availability excludes some firms entirely. The framework successfully maps Berlin's artificial intelligence sector and demonstrates web mining as a cost-effective alternative to traditional innovation surveys.
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Differential Innovativeness Outcomes of User and Employee Participation in an Online User Innovation Community
This study examines how employees and external users contribute differently to online innovation communities. Using data from Salesforce's IdeaExchange platform, the researchers found that employees who access diverse, well-documented user ideas generate and promote more ideas themselves. Critically, ideas contributed by employees get implemented at higher rates than those from external users alone, suggesting employees play a vital but underexamined role in converting community input into actual innovation.
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Open innovation search in manufacturing firms: the role of organizational slack and absorptive capacity
This study examines how organizational slack influences manufacturing firms' openness to external innovation search. Using ten years of data from 298 U.S. manufacturers, the researchers found that absorbed slack discourages open innovation search, while unabsorbed slack encourages it. Absorptive capacity moderates this relationship, reducing the negative effect of absorbed slack. The findings apply across both high-tech and low-tech firms of varying sizes.
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SME innovation and learning: the role of networks and crisis events
Small and medium enterprises learn and innovate primarily through informal networks, mentoring, and coaching rather than formal training. Innovative SMEs show stronger commitment to learning, embrace shared organizational vision, and learn effectively from crisis events through reflection. Access to external mentors and informal networks significantly supports SME innovation and learning.
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Supply Chain Management Open Innovation: Virtual Integration in the Network Logistics System
Modern supply chains require virtual integration through digital platforms to meet customer demands under Industry 4.0. Traditional supply chain management cannot identify individual customer needs effectively. The authors argue that logistics platforms act as virtual system integrators, enabling scalable partner networks that reduce costs and increase competitiveness. They analyze global best practices to show how platform business models create this integration in the digital economy.
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Social Entrepreneurship Education as an Innovation Hub for Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: The Case of the KAIST Social Entrepreneurship MBA Program
Social entrepreneurship education programs function as innovation hubs that build entrepreneurial ecosystems by cultivating entrepreneurs' ability to connect diverse stakeholders. The authors propose a framework emphasizing internal connectivity among program members and external connectivity with universities, firms, government, civil society, and environmental entities. Analysis of a Korean MBA program identifies isolated entities needing stronger interaction to achieve social entrepreneurship education's goals.
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Evolving Absorptive Capacity: The Mediating Role of Systematic Knowledge Management
Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to acquire and use external knowledge—drives innovation more effectively when supported by systematic knowledge management practices. The study of 127 manufacturing and technology firms in Croatia found that firms with stronger knowledge acquisition and transformation capabilities can build better knowledge management systems, which then produce higher innovation output. This explains why knowledge management alone sometimes fails to boost innovation.
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Organizational Learning of Absorptive Capacity and Innovation: Does Leadership Matter?
This study examines how leadership styles affect the relationship between organizational learning and innovation. Using survey data from the United Arab Emirates, the researchers found that transformational leadership strengthens the connection between exploratory learning and innovation, while transactional leadership does not enhance the link between internal learning and innovation. The findings explain why some firms convert external knowledge into strategic innovations more effectively than others.
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What are the most promising conduits for foreign knowledge inflows? innovation networks in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry
This study examines how Chinese pharmaceutical companies access foreign knowledge through innovation networks. The research finds that while multinational enterprises facilitate some knowledge transfer, research institutions like universities and research centers from advanced economies play a more critical role. Individual researchers from these institutions create networks that connect China to global knowledge sources more effectively than organizational MNE channels.
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Distance to Customers, Absorptive Capacity, and Innovation in High‐Tech Firms: The Dark Face of Geographical Proximity
This study of 158 high-tech firms in Italy finds that geographical proximity to customers does not drive innovation as commonly assumed. Instead, relational proximity to key customers works together with a firm's absorptive capacity to boost innovation. The research challenges the prevailing view that being physically close to customers automatically enhances innovative performance.
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Introduction: knowledge generation and innovation diffusion in the global automotive industry--change and stability during turbulent times
This introduction examines how automotive firms generate knowledge and diffuse innovations while navigating globalization, regulation, and technological change. The papers analyze both transformations and continuities in the industry, particularly how Original Equipment Manufacturers maintain control over product architecture and supply chains despite pressures from electronics, communication, and drivetrain advances. The collection explores why some innovative practices evolve while others persist.
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Smart innovation policy: How network position and project composition affect the diversity of an emerging technology
Government subsidies for collaborative innovation projects shape technological diversity in emerging technologies. This study of Dutch biogas energy innovation reveals that projects sharing many actors reduce diversity, while projects with diverse actor types increase it. Larger project consortia decrease diversity. These findings suggest policymakers can design smarter innovation programs by strategically managing network connections and project composition to foster technological diversity and avoid technological lock-in.
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Use of Social Media in Inbound Open Innovation: Building Capabilities for Absorptive Capacity
Social media use in open innovation strengthens companies' ability to absorb external knowledge. Case studies of two large high-tech firms show that social media enables transparent, multi-directional interactions that build four key capabilities: connectedness, socialization tactics, cross-functionality, and receptivity. Social media acts as a boundary-spanning tool that helps companies access and integrate external ideas more effectively.
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Special Topic Forum On Innovation In Business Networks From A Supply Chain Perspective: Current Status and Opportunities for Future Research
This editorial identifies a significant gap between how businesses value innovation in supply chain networks and the limited academic research addressing this intersection. The authors assess current research status, highlight key issues, and propose a future research agenda while acknowledging the challenges scholars will face in pursuing these directions.
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Regional Innovation Systems and Knowledge-Sourcing Activities in Traditional Industries—Evidence from the Vienna Food Sector
This study examines how food companies in Vienna source knowledge for innovation, combining formal scientific learning with practical experience-based learning. The research finds that innovative food firms selectively integrate into the regional innovation system, drawing on both local scientific knowledge and knowledge networks outside the region. The spatial pattern of knowledge links reflects the relative importance of these two learning modes in traditional industries.
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Lead-User Research for Breakthrough Innovation
Lead-user research identifies customers whose needs and preferences lead the market, rather than typical users. These lead users modify products creatively to solve their problems. The paper reviews how this systematic method, developed in the late 1990s, has evolved and been adapted using online tools and communities. Lessons from over 20 projects show how companies can capture innovations from these advanced users to develop breakthrough products and services.
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Open science: policy implications for the evolving phenomenon of user-led scientific innovation
Non-scientists increasingly contribute to scientific research through citizen science projects, but legal barriers and access restrictions limit participation. The paper argues that open science policies—including the Reproducible Research Standard that makes publications, code, and data freely accessible—enable broader public engagement in research. Open dissemination models are reshaping how scientists share work and collaborate, blurring traditional distinctions between professional and lay contributors and requiring new approaches to peer review and recognition.
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Measurement of Social Networks for Innovation within Community Disaster Resilience
Social networks are critical for community disaster resilience, but measuring their impact has lacked standardized methods. This paper reviews empirical studies from the Global South using social network analysis to quantify social capital in disaster risk reduction. The authors find that robust social network analysis methodologies are emerging, enabling better cross-study comparison. They argue that mapping local social networks is essential for effective disaster preparedness policy, and recommend social network analysis as a core methodology for future resilience research and planning.
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The Unexplored Contribution of Responsible Innovation in Health to Sustainable Development Goals
Responsible Innovation in Health represents an emerging approach that addresses multiple Sustainable Development Goals beyond health alone. The study identified 105 health innovations, mostly from non-profits and universities, with 47% originating in the United States and targeting Africa, Central/South America, and South Asia. These innovations addressed newborn care, mobility issues, infectious diseases, and healthcare access. Most aligned with goals on reducing inequalities and partnerships, while fewer addressed economic development or environmental sustainability. The innovations combined entrepreneurship with social impact to tackle health determinants.
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External knowledge acquisition and innovation: the role of supply chain network-oriented flexibility and organisational awareness
This study examines how companies acquire external knowledge and convert it into product innovation through flexible supply chain networks. The research finds that supply chain flexibility and information sharing structures mediate the relationship between external knowledge and innovation capability. Organizational awareness—employees' understanding and knowledge—strengthens firms' ability to leverage external knowledge and supply chain capabilities to improve product innovation and overall performance.
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The Geography and Structure of Global Innovation Networks: A Knowledge Base Perspective
This paper examines how global innovation networks are structured and organized geographically across two multinational companies in different industries. Using social network analysis, the authors identify two distinct organizational models: globally-organized and locally-organized networks. The study shows that a company's knowledge base fundamentally shapes both where its innovation network spreads and how it is internally organized.
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Enhancing Innovation Capacity in SMEs through Early Network Relationships
Small firms develop innovation capacity through early network relationships that combine characteristics of both weak and strong ties. A longitudinal case study of a mobile-commerce startup shows that networks formed during the firm's earliest stages proved critical for sustained innovation. The research challenges traditional network theory's weak-strong tie distinction and recommends that entrepreneurs prioritize building strong relationships from the outset of network formation.
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Global network configuration for innovation: a study of international fibre innovation
This study examines how firms configure innovation networks in the global fibre industry. The research identifies three types of network configurations and shows that successful innovation depends on firms recognizing where innovation value exists across dispersed networks and developing capabilities to access it. Firms struggle with this because they remain embedded in their own knowledge bases and established relationships.
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Learning from users for radical innovation
Companies need radical innovations to stay competitive, not just incremental improvements. This study examined five medical technology projects—including robots and navigation systems—to identify which users contribute most effectively to radical innovation development. The researchers found that users with high motivation, openness to new technology, diverse skills, and supportive environments substantially advanced innovation. Manufacturers who adopted these users' ideas and prototypes significantly improved their radical innovation capabilities, suggesting firms should systematically identify and engage such users as a learning mechanism.
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Effect of network embeddedness on innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises
Network embeddedness significantly boosts innovation performance in small and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs that combine strong network connections with openness to innovation achieve substantially better innovation outcomes than those relying on networks alone. The study of 388 Ghanaian SMEs shows that organizational structures emphasizing trust and collaborative openness enable effective knowledge transfer and innovation.
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Network centrality and innovation performance: the role of formal and informal institutions in emerging economies
Network centrality affects innovation performance differently depending on institutional context. In Chinese entrepreneurial firms, strong market institutions boost the positive effect of network centrality on innovation, while strong social cohesion weakens it. The combination matters most: firms gain maximum innovation benefits from central networks when markets are competitive and social ties are loose.
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Importance of innovation and flexibility in configuring supply network sustainability
This study examines how organizational culture, green supplier development, supplier relationships, flexibility, and innovation affect supply network sustainability in South African manufacturing firms. The research finds that organizational culture strengthens supplier relationships and drives innovation and flexibility. Institutional pressures from government regulations amplify the link between innovation and sustainable supply networks, particularly when firms adopt eco-friendly practices and collaborate with specialist suppliers.
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Knowledge exchanges in innovation networks: evidences from an Italian aerospace cluster
This study examines how firms, universities, and research centers in an Italian aerospace cluster exchange different types of knowledge to drive innovation. The researchers found that technological knowledge flows openly among all cluster actors, while market and managerial knowledge exchanges are more selective. Different organizations play distinct roles in these knowledge networks, suggesting that innovation emerges from combining multiple knowledge types through heterogeneous collaborations.
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Absorptive capacity from foreign direct investment in Spanish manufacturing firms
This paper examines what determines a firm's ability to absorb knowledge from foreign direct investment in Spanish manufacturing. The researchers find that firm behavior, capabilities, and structure—including R&D activities, innovation organization, external partnerships, human capital quality, management type, and business complexity—all drive absorptive capacity. The study shows how different approaches to innovation activities mediate this capability.
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From single firm to network-based business model innovation
This paper examines how companies develop network-based business models by studying three networks. The research reveals that network partners have different business models and success criteria, making it difficult to align their value equations during innovation. Partners also face varying demands to change their individual business models depending on how the network is constructed. Understanding these differences is critical for successfully moving network-based innovations from concept to market.
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Absorptive Capacity and Social Capital in Regional Innovation Systems: The Case of the Lahti Region in Finland
This study examines how absorptive capacity and social capital function in regional innovation systems, using the Lahti region in Finland as a case study. The research identifies three forms of social capital—organisational bonding, regional bridging, and personal creative—and categorizes actors into three interaction behavior groups: Missionaries, House Mice, and Passive Resistance. The findings show that social relationships and human interaction significantly influence how actors navigate structural gaps in innovation systems.
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Framework to study the social innovation networks
This paper develops a framework for studying how social networks influence economic innovation within organizations. The authors clarify what economic innovation means, identify key questions for researching innovation processes, and propose methods for collecting data about innovations. They argue that understanding innovation requires combining social and psychological factors with organizational material aspects, offering a holistic approach to studying how innovations actually develop.
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Probability-Guaranteed Distributed Filtering for Nonlinear Systems With Innovation Constraints Over Sensor Networks
This paper develops a distributed filtering algorithm for nonlinear systems across sensor networks. The method uses innovation constraints with adaptive thresholds to handle abnormal data during transmission. The algorithm keeps estimation errors within specified bounds with guaranteed probability while meeting disturbance attenuation requirements. The authors derive conditions for the filter's existence and provide optimization methods to find optimal filtering parameters.
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Constructing innovative users and user-inclusive innovation communities
User involvement in innovation requires more than applying standard methods. The paper examines four case studies to show that effective user-inclusive innovation communities take varied forms. User contribution to innovation isn't an inherent user trait but results from how companies foster interaction and respond to user initiatives. Success depends on managing knowledge sharing, using mediating artifacts, and aligning divergent interests between users and producers.
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The Diffusion of Management Innovations: The Possibilities and Limitations of Memetics
This paper applies memetics theory to explain how management innovations spread through organizations as evolutionary processes. Using case studies of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) implementation, the author shows that innovations replicate, mutate, and get selected in ways that function like evolutionary algorithms. The analysis reveals how innovations drive their own replication and why high failure rates in BPR can paradoxically increase the innovation's chances of spreading.
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The Role of Universities in the Regional Innovation Systems of the North East of England and Scania, Sweden: Providing Missing Links?
Universities play different roles in regional innovation systems depending on local economic conditions. This study compares the North East of England and Scania, Sweden, showing that universities contribute to regional development through varied institutional arrangements rather than a single entrepreneurial model. The specific constellation of university involvement depends on the particular innovation challenges each region faces.
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Forms of host‐country national learning for enhanced MNC absorptive capacity
This study identifies twelve forms of learning that host-country nationals in multinational corporation subsidiaries need to improve knowledge absorption and transfer. Through interviews with managers across three organizational levels, the researchers found that effective learning areas include language skills, cross-cultural awareness, technical management, and understanding MNC strategy and culture. These learning forms enhance the corporation's ability to generate and distribute knowledge globally.
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Research on the influence of network embeddedness on innovation performance: Evidence from China's listed firms
Network embeddedness significantly influences innovation performance in Chinese listed firms. Structural embeddedness has a positive effect on innovation, while relational embeddedness shows an inverted U-shaped relationship. Technological diversification mediates these effects. State-owned enterprises depend less on network resources than private firms but benefit more from structural embeddedness.
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Restructuring existing value networks to diffuse sustainable innovations in food packaging
Sustainable food packaging innovations struggle to reach markets because existing industry networks resist change. This study examines how value networks must restructure to enable diffusion of sustainable packaging made from agro-food waste. The research identifies necessary changes across firm, network, and macro levels: recognizing opportunities, integrating new actors and resources, building new relationships, creating supportive regulations, and stimulating market demand. Adopting sustainable packaging requires fundamental reorganization of entire value networks, not just product innovation.
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RRI legacies: co-creation for responsible, equitable and fair innovation in Horizon Europe
The paper argues that Horizon Europe's shift from research-focused H2020 to innovation-centered funding requires Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) to evolve. The authors contend that co-creation—particularly fair and equitable approaches—should anchor new policy initiatives like Missions and Open Innovation 2.0. They position co-creation as a bridge connecting open science principles with open innovation practices, embedding responsible innovation methods throughout the funding framework.
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How social capital affects innovation in a cultural network
Bonding and bridging social capital play distinct roles in innovation within cultural networks of firms. Bridging social capital—open relationships across distant sources—enables idea experimentation and combination, while bonding social capital—tight emotional ties—better supports implementing innovations. Both dimensions work together throughout the innovation process, with each contributing uniquely at different stages.
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Regional Innovation Cluster for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME): A Triple Helix Concept
Regional innovation clusters strengthen small and medium enterprises by fostering collaboration between academia, industry, and government—a triple helix approach. These clusters form part of broader regional innovation systems that support national economic growth. Government programs promoting cluster development enhance SME competitiveness and contribute significantly to the economy.
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Leveraging micro‐ and macro‐structures of embeddedness in alliance networks for exploratory innovation in biotechnology
This study examines how alliance network structures affect exploratory innovation in biotechnology firms. Using patent data from 455 biotech companies and 2,933 alliances between 1986–1999, the research finds that firms achieving high exploratory innovation have short indirect connections to many other firms within their own alliance portfolios, while operating in dense industry networks centered around key hub firms. These effects follow curvilinear patterns.
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The formation of international innovation networks in the multinational corporation: an evolutionary perspective
This paper examines how multinational corporations develop international innovation networks by studying ABB's historical growth. The author argues that existing frameworks overlook how a company's specific history and past events shape its ability to integrate knowledge across global operations. Understanding the actual processes behind network formation matters as much as analyzing the final structure.
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Innovation ecosystems and national talent competitiveness: A country-based comparison using fsQCA
This study examines how innovation ecosystems drive national talent competitiveness across 33 countries. The research identifies e-government efficiency as a necessary condition for high talent competitiveness and reveals three distinct ecosystem types that generate competitive talent pools: business investment-driven, e-government-led, and R&D-driven models. The findings show asymmetric relationships between ecosystems producing high versus low talent competitiveness.
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The relationship between innovation network and innovation capability: a social network perspective
This study examines how a firm's position within innovation networks affects its innovation capability in the semiconductor industry. Using social network analysis, the researchers found that firms occupying central positions in networks and operating in denser networks develop stronger innovation capabilities. However, firms with tighter connections within isolated sub-clusters show weaker innovation capability, suggesting that broader network reach matters more than local clustering.
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Absorptive Capacity and Ambidexterity in R&D: Linking Technology Alliance Diversity and Firm Innovation
Spanish manufacturing firms benefit from diverse technology alliances by leveraging their absorptive capacity and R&D ambidexterity. These internal capabilities act as mediating mechanisms that enable firms to combine knowledge from multiple alliance partners and translate it into innovation. The study demonstrates that firms with stronger knowledge-combining abilities gain greater innovation returns from their alliance portfolios.
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Living Labs for User-Driven Innovation: A Process Reference Model
Living labs bring together software companies, researchers, and users to co-create and test new products and services. The authors studied six living labs to develop a process reference model that outlines effective practices for managing collaboration within these innovation environments. The model helps living labs implement efficient management strategies to maximize benefits for all participants.
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Orchestrating Smart Business Network dynamics for innovation
This paper introduces orchestrating smart business networks as a managerial function that drives innovation by shaping network structure and dynamics. Using commitment and dynamic capabilities, managers can guide networks toward innovation by controlling structural changes, network boundaries, and digital platforms. The author tests this framework through a case study examining centripetal and centrifugal forces within networks.
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Absorptive Capacity in R&D Project Teams: A Conceptualization and Empirical Test
This study develops and tests a multidimensional model of absorptive capacity in R&D project teams using data from 100 innovations. The research finds that teams' ability to evaluate external knowledge directly supports their capacity to assimilate it. Both individual and collective assimilation—particularly reaching shared understanding—matter for applying external knowledge. Prior knowledge reduces the benefit of individual assimilation, while team autonomy strengthens it. The findings clarify how different dimensions of absorptive capacity operate at individual and collective levels.
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Technology convergence capability and firm innovation in the manufacturing sector: an approach based on patent network analysis
This study measures how manufacturing firms develop technology convergence capabilities—the ability to combine different technologies—using patent network analysis. The researchers analyzed the top 30 firms across four manufacturing industries and found that firms with high connectivity in their patent networks produce more patents overall, but fewer convergent innovations. Conversely, firms that bridge different technology areas generate more convergent innovations. The findings suggest firms must balance depth in similar technologies with breadth across different technology domains to effectively pursue convergence innovation.
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Experiments in interdisciplinarity: Responsible research and innovation and the public good
European responsible research and innovation (RRI) policy requires scientists, engineers, and social science scholars to collaborate early in research projects to serve the public good. The authors argue that interdisciplinary collaboration between natural scientists and humanities scholars faces real challenges, and that RRI's meaning and implementation must be determined through experimental coresearch rather than assumed in advance.
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Enabling Ecosystems for Social Enterprises and Social Innovation: A Capability Approach Perspective
Social enterprises can solve social problems innovatively, but their success depends on supportive ecosystems. This study analyzed data from 164 stakeholder interviews, 850 social enterprises across 11 EU countries, and behavioral experiments to identify what enables social innovation. The authors recommend policymakers adopt integrated, multi-disciplinary approaches to create ecosystems that help social enterprises develop and innovate effectively.
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Soaking It Up: Absorptive Capacity in Interorganizational New Product Development Teams
This study measures absorptive capacity—the ability to acquire, assimilate, and exploit knowledge—at the team level in interorganizational product development. Analyzing 98 teams across organizations, the researchers found that work-style similarity and moderate knowledge complementarity between partner teams strengthen absorptive capacity, while social similarity does not. Teams with higher absorptive capacity produced more innovative products, demonstrating that knowledge absorption at the team level directly drives innovation outcomes.
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The Role of Absorptive Capacity in Acquisition Knowledge Transfer
This study examines how absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—affects knowledge transfer during company acquisitions. The researchers identify key factors that strengthen absorptive capacity: reducing cultural differences between nations, minimizing employee withdrawal, improving communication during integration, and establishing effective knowledge processing systems. Testing their model on Finnish acquisitions, they demonstrate that absorptive capacity significantly determines whether acquired companies successfully transfer knowledge to their new owners.
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Organizing the Innovation Process: Complementarities in Innovation Networking
This paper examines how manufacturing plants in the UK and Germany use external networks across different stages of innovation. German firms show stronger complementarities between external networking activities, while UK firms tend to substitute external networks across stages. The findings reveal that optimal innovation strategies differ between countries and that the relationship between internal and external knowledge sources is more complex than previously understood.
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The Anchor Tenant Hypothesis: Exploring the Role of Large, Local, R&D-Intensive Firms in Regional Innovation Systems
Large, R&D-intensive firms acting as anchor tenants strengthen regional innovation systems by improving how local universities' research translates into commercial innovation. The authors examined three technology areas and found that regions with such anchor firms convert academic research into local industrial R&D more effectively than regions without them, despite similar university research presence across regions.
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The evolution of knowledge-intensive innovation ecosystems: co-evolving entrepreneurial activity and innovation policy in the West Swedish maritime system
This paper examines how innovation ecosystems emerge by studying Sweden's West Swedish maritime cluster. The authors argue that sustainable innovation requires both top-down policy exploration by government and bottom-up entrepreneurial activity. They find that knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship combined with experimental policymaking and new collaborative approaches drive progress toward innovation-led sustainable development.
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Collaborative innovation and human-machine networks
Digital technology shapes how public organizations collaborate and innovate. Through case studies of cross-sector coordination, the authors show that technology is not neutral—it actively determines who participates, how they interact, and what outcomes emerge. Technology can either enable or obstruct effective collaboration depending on how it structures human-machine interactions.
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Innovative products and services with environmental benefits: design of search strategies for external knowledge and absorptive capacity
French firms pursuing environmental innovations use different external knowledge strategies depending on their goals. Acquiring machinery and equipment drives eco-process innovations, while external R&D partnerships specifically support eco-product development. Collaborative R&D sharing advances both types of environmental innovation. Market-based information sources consistently support all environmental innovation efforts.
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Connecting corporations and communities: Towards a theory of social inclusive open innovation
The paper argues that existing institutions fail to address persistent social needs and unmet challenges. It proposes that corporations must adopt open innovation approaches that blend grassroots ideas with corporate expertise in reciprocal and respectful ways. The authors contend that socio-ecological systems recognizing and rewarding innovation can respond quickly to emerging challenges, and that appropriate manufacturing and supply chain design must integrate with open innovation ecosystems to create jobs, build skills, and generate entrepreneurial opportunities.
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Responsible innovation in the light of moral responsibility
This paper examines moral responsibility within responsible innovation frameworks, particularly in supply chains and innovation networks. The authors critique responsible innovation advocates for underdeveloping the concept's normative foundations and neglecting corporate social responsibility approaches. They map ten philosophical meanings of responsibility—distinguishing negative from positive conceptions—and explore how these meanings apply practically to supply chains and innovation networks.
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Do Regions Make a Difference? Regional Innovation Systems and Global Innovation Networks in the ICT Industry
Regional innovation systems shape how firms access global innovation networks in the ICT industry. The study compares European, Chinese, and Indian regions using firm surveys and case studies. Regions with weaker organizational and institutional thickness actually participate more in global networks, suggesting global connections compensate for local innovation system deficiencies.
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Development of small and medium-sized enterprise horizontal innovation networks: UK agri-food sector study
Small and medium-sized bakery businesses in the UK agri-food sector formed a horizontal innovation network to share resources and develop new products together. Over 27 months, researchers tracked how this network evolved through three distinct stages. The study shows that competing businesses can overcome rivalries through collaboration, using shared knowledge and social connections to increase competitiveness and drive joint innovation.
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Exploring Social Network Dynamics Driving Knowledge Management for Innovation
Knowledge management drives innovation, but the process remains complex and poorly understood. This paper examines how social networks facilitate knowledge management for innovation by studying three university-industry partnerships. The research tracks how structural, relational, and cognitive social capital evolve across different innovation phases, identifying which network characteristics matter most at each stage.
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The role of a firm's absorptive capacity and the technology transfer process in clusters: How effective are technology centres in low-tech clusters?
Small and medium-sized firms in low-tech manufacturing clusters access technology centres and research institutes based on their absorptive capacity—their internal resources and ability to learn. The study of 80 firms found that knowledge-intensive sectors use research infrastructure more effectively, while less knowledge-intensive sectors rely instead on supplier relationships. Technology centres alone cannot drive innovation; firms must actively seek out and engage with available knowledge sources.
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Network of Collaborations for Innovation: The Case of Biotechnology
Biotechnology firms developing new drugs and agricultural products increasingly rely on collaborations to navigate product development and commercialization. This study of 27 organizations examines how inter-institutional partnerships differ across various stages of introducing biotech products to market, comparing collaboration patterns between pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors.
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Innovation and heterogeneous knowledge in managerial contact networks
Managers innovate more effectively when they interact with colleagues who possess diverse knowledge, but only when their local networks are sparse. The study of 106 high-tech managers shows that knowledge diversity alone doesn't guarantee innovation—managers need both exposure to heterogeneous knowledge and enough local autonomy to synthesize new ideas. Sparse networks provide the independence required to develop and implement innovations.
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Knowlege networks for innovation in small Scottish software firms
Small Scottish software companies rely on regional knowledge networks and clusters of complementary expertise to innovate and grow. The study reveals how learning through sociotechnical networks drives firm development, and shows that Scotland's infrastructure supports indigenous software ventures despite competition from foreign multinationals. Policy efforts to create a 'silicon glen' effect must account for these localized knowledge dynamics.
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Start-up collaboration units as knowledge brokers in Corporate Innovation Ecosystems: A study in the automotive industry
Start-up collaboration units within large automotive companies act as knowledge brokers between established firms and startups. The study identifies key barriers to knowledge exchange—including mismatched interpretations and conflicting expectations—and reveals six strategies SCUs use to improve collaboration: building networks, integrating communication, eliciting knowledge, orchestrating dialogue, encouraging creative thinking, and increasing organizational agility.
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Green innovation peer effects in common institutional ownership networks
Chinese firms imitate their peers' green innovation decisions when they share common institutional investors. The study finds two mechanisms drive this: institutional investors sharing information about green innovation, and competitive pressure between firms with shared investors. Firms with tight finances and lower risk tolerance imitate more, preferring peers in similar industries with matching ownership structures. This peer-driven imitation improves firm value, suggesting it reflects genuine strategic adoption rather than hollow mimicry.
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Orchestrating innovation networks: Alignment and orchestration profile approach
This paper develops an orchestration profile approach for managing inter-organizational innovation networks. The authors identify three generic orchestration profiles—translative, transformative, and transcending—that align management practices with different network types and value-creation logics. These profiles provide practical guidance for managers designing effective orchestration strategies across diverse innovation networks.
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Exploring regional innovation ecosystems: an empirical study in China
This study examines regional innovation ecosystems in China through three case studies, developing a 4C framework covering construct, cooperation, configuration, and capability. The research shows that organizations coevolve within ecosystems, and that complementarity-based collaboration within and between regional ecosystems—supported by government—strengthens national innovation capacity. The framework helps redistribute roles, coordinate resources, and identify partnership opportunities.
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Dual Networking: How Collaborators Network in Their Quest for Innovation
Organizations divide innovation work between specialist and generalist roles. This study finds that collaborating pairs perform better when they network within the same groups but connect to different individuals, rather than splitting into entirely separate networks. This dual networking approach enables partners to interpret information from multiple angles, influence stakeholders more effectively, and champion ideas more successfully than pure divide-and-conquer strategies.
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Applying open innovation strategies in the context of a regional innovation ecosystem: The case of Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Janssen Pharmaceuticals in Belgium actively shaped a regional innovation ecosystem around its R&D center by opening firm boundaries, sharing infrastructure, mobilizing funding, and influencing policy to attract external talent and expertise. The company moved beyond traditional open innovation to strategically embed itself in a regional environment, creating a world-class research hub. This approach integrates open innovation, innovation ecosystems, and regional economics theories.
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Network Centrality and Open Innovation: A Social Network Analysis of an SME Manufacturing Cluster
Small and medium-sized manufacturers in an Irish cluster benefit from their position within innovation networks. Firms occupying central network positions—connected to more cluster members—show greater innovation activity in product development. Firm size, absorptive capacity, and managerial orientation determine a firm's network position. Despite knowledge-sharing concerns, networking activity correlates positively with innovation performance in low-technology manufacturing.
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Supply chain agility: a mediator for absorptive capacity
This study examines how supply chain agility mediates the relationship between absorptive capacity and firm performance. Using data from 231 Spanish firms, the authors find that supply chain agility does indeed mediate this relationship. Firms with more agile supply chains benefit more from their investments in absorptive capacity when improving overall performance.
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The contrasting effects of active and passive cooperation on innovation and productivity: Evidence from British local innovation networks
This study examines how different types of cooperation affect innovation and productivity in British firms. Active cooperation with suppliers and customers boosts innovation and productivity, while active cooperation among competitors actually reduces innovation rates. Passive knowledge spillovers from competitors' activities benefit firms. The findings suggest innovation policies should encourage cooperation within supply chains while discouraging direct competitor collaboration to maximize system-wide productivity gains.
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Network centrality, organizational innovation, and performance: A meta‐analysis
Network centrality—an organization's position within its network—drives both innovation and performance across 15,860 organizations in 40 studies. Small organizations gain stronger innovation benefits from central network positions, while large organizations see stronger performance gains. Organizations in developed institutional environments and knowledge-intensive industries benefit most from network centrality.
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Networks and innovation in European construction: benefits from inter-organisational cooperation in a fragmented industry
Construction industries across five European countries show varying performance levels. The research reveals that stronger inter-organisational networks—particularly between contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, government, universities, architects, clients, and international partners—correlate with better industry performance. Cooperation networks drive innovation in this fragmented sector.
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Global drug diffusion and innovation with the medicines patent pool
The Medicines Patent Pool, a joint licensing platform for patented drugs, significantly increases generic drug supply in developing countries, especially those with stronger patent protection. The pool enables generic firms worldwide to license drug bundles affordably for sales in designated developing nations. Analysis of licensing contracts, procurement data, clinical trials, and drug approvals shows the pool also generates modest increases in clinical trials and new drug approvals, primarily from non-pool firms.
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Transformative governance of innovation ecosystems
This paper examines how governance structures shape innovation ecosystems and their transformative capacity. The authors analyze funding mechanisms and institutional frameworks that support innovation development, drawing on Finnish and European research programs. They identify governance approaches that enable ecosystems to adapt and create value across multiple sectors and stakeholder groups.
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Strategic marketing approaches for the diffusion of innovation in highly regulated industrial markets: the value of market access
Two multinational healthcare companies in Italy overcame regulatory barriers to product diffusion by adopting three strategic approaches: conducting educational activities with opinion leaders and patient associations, simulating innovation impacts on the healthcare system, and establishing dedicated market access units. These strategies enabled firms to achieve regulatory compliance while promoting new product adoption in highly regulated markets.
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How ability, motivation and opportunity influence travel agents performance: the moderating role of absorptive capacity
This study examines how travel agents' manager competencies—ability, motivation, and opportunity-seeking—influence knowledge transfer and employee performance in Egypt. The research finds that all three competencies positively affect knowledge received by employees, with absorptive capacity moderating these relationships. Employees with greater absorptive capacity better convert received knowledge into improved travel agent performance, suggesting that developing employee capacity to absorb and apply external knowledge strengthens organizational competitiveness.
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Industry Platforms and Ecosystem Innovation
This paper distinguishes between internal platforms (company-specific product foundations) and external platforms (industry-wide foundations for ecosystem innovation). The authors analyze how platform leaders like Intel manage innovation, competition, and technological change. They identify design principles, economic factors, and strategic practices that enable effective platform leadership and ecosystem development across diverse industries.
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State and development of innovation networks
Innovation networks are increasingly important in the European automotive industry, enabling companies to access technologies flexibly, strengthen customer relationships, and retain suppliers. A study of 39 networks across large manufacturers and small suppliers found these networks perform well overall, though management practices have room for improvement. The research identifies key formation and governance patterns that could enhance network effectiveness.
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SIMULATING KNOWLEDGE-GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION PROCESSES IN INNOVATION COLLABORATIONS AND NETWORKS
This paper presents an agent-based simulation model that represents how knowledge generation and distribution work in innovation networks. The model captures heterogeneous agents with different knowledge stocks, uncertainty, learning from experience and collaboration, and the effects of failure. The simulation demonstrates that artificial innovation networks exhibit characteristics matching real innovation networks in knowledge-intensive industries, revealing dynamics that traditional economic models cannot capture.
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Exploration, Exploitation and Co-evolution in Innovation Networks
This study examines how sectoral innovation systems co-evolve by analyzing the relationships between institutional environments, firm networks, and learning regimes. Using multimedia and pharmaceutical biotechnology sectors in the Netherlands as case studies from the late 1980s to early 2000s, the research identifies a general co-evolutionary pattern while showing that how this pattern manifests in network structures and coordination mechanisms depends on each sector's specific institutional setup.
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From ego‐systems to open innovation ecosystems: A process model of inter‐firm openness
This study identifies how firms transition from closed innovation systems to open ecosystems through four distinct phases: realization, socialization, strategic alignment, and two-way openness. Based on 54 interviews with Australian business park managers, the research shows that phase transitions begin spontaneously but grow more complex as openness increases. Interdependence, social exchange, and trust drive successful ecosystem development.
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Resource constrained innovation in a technology intensive sector: Frugal medical devices from manufacturing firms in South Africa
South African manufacturing firms develop frugal medical devices by building advanced internal capabilities and forging knowledge collaborations to overcome resource constraints and institutional gaps. These firms design affordable, functional devices through bottom-up collaborative processes that address local health challenges while reducing costs in design, engineering, and manufacturing. State support and global non-profits play critical roles in scaling these innovations for public health impact.
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The global connectivity of regional innovation systems in Italy: a core–periphery perspective
This study examines how Italian regional innovation systems connect to global knowledge sources. The research finds that foreign companies and entities drive Italy's access to global innovation networks, while Italian firms show weak outward connections. Foreign investment and presence in Italian regions, rather than Italian firms reaching outward, explains the country's growing integration into global innovation systems.
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Enriching innovation ecosystems: The role of government in a university science park
This case study of a Chinese science park shows how local government acts as an 'ecosystem enricher' by fostering connections between universities, industry, and other innovation stakeholders. The government's top-down approach successfully drove university-industry partnerships, but the researchers identify gaps in priority-setting, collaboration frameworks, and intermediary support. They argue that innovation ecosystems need hybrid governance combining top-down direction with bottom-up policies.
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Network Embeddedness and Innovation: Evidence From the Alternative Energy Field
This study examines how network embeddedness affects innovation outcomes in a large U.S. energy company. Using 16 years of patent data from 1,561 inventors, the researchers find that relational and structural embeddedness both strengthen exploitative innovation but show inverted U-shaped relationships with exploratory innovation. The overall network structure matters significantly. The findings suggest innovators should adjust their network embeddedness levels strategically depending on the type of innovation they pursue.
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Makers and clusters. Knowledge leaks in open innovation networks
This study examines how knowledge flows through open innovation networks involving makers in an Italian high-tech cluster. Using social network analysis, the researchers found that unintended knowledge leaks occur within these maker ecosystems. The findings reveal previously unstudied patterns of knowledge exchange in innovation networks, with implications for understanding how information spreads beyond formal channels in collaborative innovation environments.
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SIMULATING KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS IN INNOVATION NETWORKS (SKIN)
This paper presents SIMKIN, an agent-based simulation model that represents how innovation occurs in knowledge-based industries. The model features heterogeneous agents with different knowledge stocks who interact through markets and knowledge exchange. It captures uncertainty, learning from experience and collaboration, agent failure, and historical change. The simulation allows researchers to explore dynamic innovation processes in complex systems.
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Innovation networks in the advanced medical equipment industry: supporting regional digital health systems from a local–national perspective
This study maps innovation networks in China's advanced medical equipment industry using patent data from 2005–2024. The national network shows sparse, core-periphery structure dominated by Beijing and Shanghai, with weak participation from central and western regions. The Yangtze River Delta region, by contrast, has built a denser polycentric network with Shanghai, Nanjing, and Suzhou as hubs. Economic development, technological capability, and government policy drive network formation, with infrastructure as a key enabler.
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Knowledge innovation network externalities in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area: borrowing size or agglomeration shadow?
The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area shows unequal knowledge innovation networks where Guangzhou and Hong Kong dominate, with Shenzhen emerging as a secondary hub after 2012. Smaller cities remain peripheral and fail to benefit from core city innovation, trapped instead in their shadow. Institutional and cultural differences between cities block cooperation more than distance does. The study reveals negative network externalities, recommending the region reduce spatial disparities and restructure its innovation network.
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Virtual user communities contributing to upscaling innovations in transitions: The case of electric vehicles
Virtual communities of electric vehicle users contribute significantly to scaling up EV adoption by enabling knowledge exchange across distances. The authors studied a large online EV community using internet ethnography and identified how virtual communities foster technology upscaling through distinctive participation mechanisms. These communities play an important role in promoting electric vehicle use beyond early technology development phases.
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The role of business networks for innovation
Business networks—interconnected companies linked by social and economic ties—shape innovation in two ways: innovations emerge from partner interactions, and innovations must fit within or reshape existing network patterns. This paper categorizes how different network characteristics produce incremental, radical, or disruptive innovations, and how each innovation type affects the network itself. Six case studies reveal that innovation type directly correlates with network role and consequences, filling a gap in research that typically ignores how innovations restructure business networks.
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The social dynamics of heterogeneous innovation ecosystems
This paper develops a framework for analyzing innovation ecosystems that goes beyond focusing on single organizations. It examines how communities and firms interact through distributed innovation, showing how different levels of openness shape ecosystem dynamics. The authors apply their framework to two cases—the RepRap 3D printer and ARA modular smartphone—demonstrating how openness differences affect community-firm relationships and ecosystem functions.
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The effect of organizational structure on absorptive capacity in single and dual learning modes
This paper examines how organizational structure influences absorptive capacity—an organization's ability to acquire and use new knowledge—in both single and dual learning modes. Through literature review, the authors identify structural design characteristics that enhance absorptive capacity and propose contingency models linking organizational structure to knowledge absorption across initiation and implementation stages. The work advances theory by treating absorptive capacity as an independent variable and focusing on behavioral dimensions.
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Knowledge transfer from business schools to business organizations: the roles absorptive capacity, learning motivation, acquired knowledge and job autonomy
In-service business students in Vietnam serve as channels for knowledge transfer from business schools to organizations. The study finds that learning motivation directly drives both knowledge acquisition and transfer, while absorptive capacity only affects knowledge acquisition. Acquired knowledge itself determines successful transfer. Job autonomy moderates the relationship between acquired knowledge and transfer outcomes. These factors collectively shape how organizational knowledge flows through trained employees.
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The diffusion of grassroots innovations for sustainability in Italy and <scp>G</scp>reat <scp>B</scp>ritain: an exploratory spatial data analysis
Grassroots sustainability networks spread unevenly across space and time. Transition Towns and Solidarity Purchasing Groups diffused differently in Great Britain and Italy, with similar patterns only in central Italy. The research reveals that spatial structure matters for grassroots innovation diffusion, challenging assumptions about their universal momentum and highlighting the importance of institutional context, cross-movement collaboration, and geographic proximity.
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Social network analysis in innovation research: using a mixed methods approach to analyze social innovations
Social networks drive innovation diffusion and social change by enabling learning, problem-solving, and idea sharing among actors. This paper demonstrates how mixed-methods social network analysis can reveal how networks foster innovation by connecting resources and knowledge. The author applies this approach to five education networks focused on sustainable development, showing practical implementation of SNA for studying innovation processes.
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Festival Innovation: Complex and Dynamic Network Interaction
Festival innovation emerges through complex, dynamic networks of multiple actors with diverse interests rather than isolated efforts. Swedish case studies reveal that innovation occurs unpredictably through new partnerships and improvisation, resisting formal planning. Some innovations eventually become institutionalized in partnership routines. Festival organizers must strategically understand their networks and leverage partner contributions to drive successful innovation.
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How firms realign to tackle the grand challenge of climate change: An innovation ecosystems perspective
This study examines how established electric utilities and clean-tech startups collaborate in innovation ecosystems to address climate change. Analyzing 10 utilities and 57 startups across pilot projects, the researchers identify three ecosystem configurations that drive climate impact: incumbent-led digital platforms, device complementors that enable customers, and new orchestrators. These configurations succeed by improving resource efficiency, enhancing infrastructure flexibility, and enabling better information sharing.
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Analysis of open innovation communities from the perspective of social network analysis
This paper analyzes online open innovation communities using social network analysis to understand how members participate and contribute ideas. The research measures correlations between different participation types and examines how collective intelligence evaluation methods can identify the most valuable user-generated ideas. The findings help organizations and community managers efficiently evaluate large volumes of ideas shared in online innovation platforms.
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Understanding the early stages of the innovation diffusion process: awareness, influence and communication networks
This paper examines how awareness and influence shape early-stage innovation adoption in the UK construction sector. Using social network analysis on data from chartered professionals and a case study organization, the research reveals that awareness and influence networks vary significantly across actors. The findings demonstrate that social network analysis effectively maps how innovations spread through professional networks and identifies key influencers, providing a framework for understanding adoption patterns in construction.
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Regional Innovation Systems: The Case of Angling Tourism
The Sea Trout Funen initiative in Denmark demonstrates how regional innovation systems work in tourism. Starting in 1989, collaboration between government, anglers, businesses, and educational institutions produced innovations in tourist products, environmental protection, and workforce development. The case shows that innovation systems theory applies to tourism and that stable multi-sector partnerships generate tangible benefits and adapt successfully to external changes.
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Tribal mattering spaces: Social-networking sites, celebrity affiliations, and tribal innovations
This paper examines how social-networking sites create tribal communities around celebrity brands. The authors analyze online fan groups to understand how members develop shared identities, interact creatively, and critique marketing practices. They identify tribal innovations that emerge from the sense of belonging and togetherness within these emotional communities.
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The use of social network analysis in innovation studies: Mapping actors and technologies
Social network analysis remains underused in innovation policy and management. This paper identifies three research themes where SNA creates value: collaboration networks, communication networks, and technology networks. The authors examine how applying SNA to these themes generates insights for policy development and organizational management, and outline directions for future research.
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Regions, Absorptive Capacity and Strategic Coupling with High-Tech TNCs
Developing countries can build successful high-tech regions by adopting a regional innovation systems approach that enables strategic partnerships with multinational corporations. The authors argue that regional innovation systems theory effectively links regions to high-tech industries and provide policy guidance. Case studies from Bangalore's IT sector in India and Shanghai's high-tech sector in China demonstrate how this framework helps developing regions attract and integrate with global technology companies.
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Impact of organizational learning on sustainable firm performance: Intervening effect of organizational networking and innovation
This study examines how organizational learning drives sustainable performance in small and medium manufacturing enterprises in Laos. Using surveys of 710 SME owners and structural equation modeling, the researchers found that organizational learning directly improves performance, while organizational networking and innovation act as intervening mechanisms. The results show that innovation alone doesn't guarantee better performance—it must be informed by strong information networks and learning processes.
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External knowledge search and firms’ incremental innovation capability: the joint moderating effect of technological proximity and network embeddedness
External knowledge search strengthens firms' incremental innovation capability, especially when firms share similar technology with their partners and occupy central positions in innovation networks. The study analyzed patents in the unmanned aerial vehicle industry from 2004 to 2018, finding that technological proximity and network embeddedness jointly amplify how external knowledge collaboration drives incremental innovation.
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Open social innovation dynamics and impact: exploratory study of a fab lab network
Open social innovation through fab labs and makerspaces in Eastern Europe enables rapid local adaptation and social impact. A study of 170 fab labs in the CMIT network found that despite identical initial funding and rules, an open approach produced three distinct types—Education, Industry, and Residential—each tailored to local needs. This decentralized strategy delivered measurable social impact within years, outperforming top-down approaches. The research identifies key challenges social entrepreneurs face and proposes sustainability strategies.
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Business Models for Open Data Ecosystem: Challenges and Motivations for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Open data ecosystems bring together data providers, consumers, and service creators to develop new business opportunities. This study interviewed six ecosystem actors to understand their motivations, relationships, and business model needs. Actors recognize significant potential in open data but identify barriers preventing win-win conditions for all participants. The research reveals both strong motivations for engagement and critical obstacles requiring resolution to enable sustainable open data businesses.
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Accelerating Innovation that Enhances Resource Recovery in the Wastewater Sector: Advancing a National Testbed Network
The paper proposes creating a national testbed network to accelerate innovation in wastewater treatment and resource recovery. This virtual network connects physical testing facilities, researchers, investors, technology providers, utilities, and regulators to speed adoption of new technologies and processes. The authors identify key challenges and opportunities for building sustainable water infrastructure through coordinated innovation efforts.
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Coordination in innovation‐generating business networks – the case of Finnish Mobile TV development
This study examines how coordination mechanisms evolve in innovation-generating business networks through a case study of Finnish Mobile TV development. The research finds that successful network coordination combines two distinct approaches: orchestration, which builds vision and social capital in early phases, and management, which coordinates activities closer to commercialization. The findings show how these mechanisms shift as networks develop.
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The role of relative absorptive capacity in improving suppliers' operational performance
This study examines how suppliers' absorptive capacity affects their operational performance in customer-supplier relationships. Using data from 218 Canadian manufacturers, the researchers found that knowledge-sharing routines between customers and suppliers drive knowledge transfer, which then improves supplier performance. Surprisingly, overlapping knowledge bases did not significantly influence knowledge transfer, suggesting the mechanism works differently than expected.
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Social capital, internationalization and absorptive capacity: The electronics and ICT cluster of the Basque Country
Social capital and internationalization strengthen how electronics and ICT clusters absorb and use external knowledge. The Basque Country's successful high-tech cluster demonstrates that social capital builds internal knowledge connections between firms, while internationalization creates external knowledge linkages. Together, these factors increase a cluster's absorptive capacity and sustain long-term growth in mature industrial regions.
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Networks, Propinquity, and Innovation in Knowledge-intensive Industries
Geographic proximity and network position jointly influence innovation in biotechnology firms. The study analyzed U.S. life science patents from 1988–1999 and found that regional clustering and network centrality have complementary but interdependent effects on patenting. Firms benefit from local connections to other biotech companies and universities, but this advantage depends on their global network ties. Regional agglomeration shapes how information flows through networks and determines the innovation impact of network centrality.
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Organizational Learning, Diffusion of Innovation, and International Collaboration in Telemedicine
This paper examines how telemedicine practices spread across organizations and what organizations learn from adopting telemedicine. The authors identify competing forces that influence this diffusion process and propose five sets of propositions explaining how telemedicine collaboration generates learning effects and shapes institutional development. The work addresses implications for building telemedicine networks.
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Innovation, Networks and Plant Location: Some Evidence for Ireland
Networks significantly influence whether plants innovate and the success of their innovations across Irish regions. The study examined four area types—urban, urban-periphery, rural, and second centres—and found no evidence supporting the urban hierarchy model of innovation. This suggests Ireland's regional dispersal policies had minimal impact on innovation outcomes, though network-based development strategies show promise.
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Building Networks to Harness Innovation Synergies: Towards an Open Systems Approach to Sustainable Development
Open innovation networks enable individuals, firms, and organizations to share knowledge across boundaries and drive sustainable development. The paper proposes an open systems model with institutional support that accelerates knowledge flows, expands participation among diverse socioeconomic agents, and promotes environmental greening and social equity. Examples show how farms, businesses, and organizations can connect with critical knowledge nodes to participate actively in innovation networks.
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How Institutions Influence SME Innovation and Networking Practices: The Case of Vietnamese Agribusiness
Vietnamese agribusiness SMEs operate within institutional constraints that discourage long-term investment and innovation. Instead of developing new products, firms pursue cost-control strategies. Social norms drive reliance on friendship-based networks that limit knowledge sharing and business effectiveness. Institutional pressures prevent SMEs from balancing exploration and exploitation. The study demonstrates how institutional frameworks in emerging economies shape innovation behavior.
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Public procurement of innovations, diffusion and endogenous institutions
Public procurement is an important innovation policy tool, but diffusion of procured innovations within organizations is often overlooked. This case study identifies internal institutional barriers that prevent innovations from spreading throughout public agencies after procurement. The authors show that redesigning these internal institutions is critical for successful diffusion, and argue that understanding public procurement requires attention to informal institutional coordination, not just formal procurement processes.
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Knowledge management in offshoring innovation by SMEs: role of internal knowledge creation capability, absorptive capacity and formal knowledge-sharing routines
This study examines how small and medium-sized enterprises manage knowledge when innovating through offshore supplier relationships. The research finds that internal knowledge creation strengthens a firm's ability to absorb external knowledge, which then improves innovation performance. Surprisingly, formal knowledge-sharing routines actually weaken this relationship, suggesting that SMEs benefit more from flexible, informal knowledge exchange with offshore partners than rigid procedures.
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Systematic literature review paper: the regional innovation system-university-science park nexus
Universities play nine distinct dynamic roles within regional innovation systems and science parks, operating across three relationship types: resource sharing with the RIS, brokerage between RIS and science parks, and commercialization with science parks. These roles span knowledge co-creation, acting as conduits, and relationship building, encompassing activities from networking and research collaboration to startup creation and technology transfer. University engagement directly affects science park innovation performance.
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Experimental networks for business model innovation: A way for incumbents to navigate sustainability transitions?
Incumbent firms struggle to innovate business models during sustainability transitions due to unclear pathways forward. This paper examines three case studies of emerging technology projects and shows how cross-industry networks operating on limited timescales help organizations collaboratively explore new business models for major socio-technical changes. The research introduces the concept of experimental networks as a mechanism enabling incumbents to actively shape sustainability transitions through interorganizational collaboration.
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Challenges and Opportunities for Technology Transfer Networks in the Context of Open Innovation: Russian Experience
This paper examines Russia's technology transfer networks through the lens of open innovation and ecosystem approaches. Universities serve as knowledge integrators connecting innovation actors across sectors. The authors synthesize concepts of open innovation, networks, and ecosystems to propose a prospective national technology transfer model for Russia that supports cross-sectoral collaboration and interdisciplinary innovation.
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Developing the Transformative Capacity of Social Innovation through Learning: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda for the Roles of Network Leadership
This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding how learning processes and network leadership build transformative capacity in social innovation. The authors extend Transformative Social Innovation theory by defining transformative change across three institutional dimensions—depth, width, and length—and explain how different types of learning support this change. They outline network leadership roles in facilitating learning across multiple levels and propose a research agenda for empirically testing these relationships in sustainability contexts.
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On the geography of emerging industry technological networks: the breadth and depth of patented innovations
This study maps the global wind turbine industry's patent network to show how geographic locations contribute to technological innovation. The research reveals that locations cluster around core technologies like electricity and aerodynamics, with their patent activities determining their importance to the industry. The analysis demonstrates how existing knowledge at a location influences its position in the global network and how new entrants gain central roles in the industry's innovation ecosystem.
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Oops, I did it again! Knowledge leaks in open innovation networks with start-ups
Start-ups in open innovation networks experience unintended knowledge leaks when collaborating with larger, unequal partners. Using social network analysis and case studies in an Italian aerospace cluster, the authors demonstrate that knowledge flows—both intentional and accidental—occur across different knowledge types. The research warns managers and policymakers that start-ups' eagerness to participate may expose them to knowledge loss, while also showing how open innovation benefits from diverse collaborations.
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Managing Sustainable Innovation with a User Community Toolkit: The Case of the Video Game<i><scp>T</scp>rackmania</i>
A video game company used a toolkit connected to its user community to sustain innovation over time. The toolkit enabled users to create content and participate in value creation, acting as a boundary management tool between the firm and community. The study identifies four approaches for managing sustainable innovation through user toolkits, showing that structured community participation drives long-term innovation capacity beyond short-term collaboration benefits.
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Competing pressures of risk and absorptive capacity potential on commitment and information sharing in global supply chains
Organizations participating in global supply chains face competing pressures when deciding whether to commit to and share information with partners. This study surveyed 207 organizations about their offshore outsourcing relationships and found that perceived business risk from supply chain partners strongly reduces commitment and information sharing, while partners' absorptive capacity strongly increases both. Commitment acts as a partial mediator between these factors and information sharing. Geographic and cultural location had no significant effect on these relationships.
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The diffusion of electronic service delivery innovations in dutch E-policing: The case of digital warning systems
Dutch police forces adopted SMS-alert digital warning systems at different rates based on how they interpreted the innovation's value. The study reveals that police organizations attached functional meanings (operational efficiency), political meanings (strategic advantage), and institutional meanings (organizational fit) to the technology. Diffusion policies and strategies significantly influenced adoption patterns, a factor often overlooked in innovation research.
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Exploring the Antecedents of Potential Absorptive Capacity and Its Impact on Innovation Performance
This study examines what builds a firm's potential absorptive capacity—the ability to identify and assimilate external knowledge. Using data from 2,464 Spanish innovative firms, the authors find that R&D cooperation, external knowledge acquisition, and experience with knowledge search are key drivers. Firms invest more in building this capacity during major internal changes. The research shows that potential absorptive capacity creates competitive advantage in innovation when firms have strong internal knowledge flows.
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The Internationalization of SMES in Emerging Economies: Institional Embeddedness and Absorptive Capacities
Small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging economies pursue internationalization through different strategies based on their type. Incumbent SMEs leverage embedded networks with local governments and business groups to expand internationally. Entrepreneurial startups develop capabilities by learning from foreign firms and continuously identifying new opportunities in foreign markets. Both approaches enable SMEs to build knowledge and compete successfully in international markets.
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Improving Green Market Orientation, Green Supply Chain Relationship Quality, and Green Absorptive Capacity to Enhance Green Competitive Advantage in the Green Supply Chain
This study examines how green market orientation, supply chain relationship quality, and absorptive capacity drive competitive advantage in green supply chains. The research finds that green market orientation significantly influences competitive advantage, but this effect operates entirely through supply chain relationship quality and absorptive capacity as mediators. Employee culture emphasizing environmental responsibility emerges as a critical driver of competitive success in green supply chains.
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Universities in the National Innovation Systems: Emerging Innovation Landscapes in Asia-Pacific
Universities across Asia-Pacific play increasingly central roles in national innovation systems, though their contributions vary significantly by country. While Southeast Asian universities and India focus primarily on teaching and workforce development, countries like Singapore, China, Taiwan, and Japan have transformed universities into entrepreneurial institutions through innovation policies, technology transfer offices, and science parks. Australia and New Zealand have successfully commercialized research alongside exporting higher education services regionally.
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Knowledge processing and ecosystem co-creation for process innovation: Managing joint knowledge processing in process innovation projects
Firms pursuing process innovation must manage knowledge sharing across ecosystems of suppliers and customers. This study of nine industrial firms identifies three technological challenges—complexity, novelty, and customization—that create knowledge-processing demands. The research shows that joint problem-solving, open communication, and end-user involvement enable ecosystem partners to navigate these demands successfully. Procurement strategies that emphasize contracting and relationship development facilitate effective knowledge processing across partners.
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Orchestration Roles to Facilitate Networked Innovation in a Healthcare Ecosystem
Healthcare systems need innovation to address rising costs and digitalization demands. This paper identifies orchestration roles that facilitate networked innovation within healthcare ecosystems. The authors examine how different actors coordinate to develop more effective, cost-efficient care models and personalized healthcare solutions through connected health technologies.
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Subsistence over symbolism: the role of transnational municipal networks on cities’ climate policy innovation and adoption
City governments that join transnational municipal networks adopt significantly more climate mitigation policies than those outside such networks. The study analyzed global data on urban environmental policy adoption and found network membership matters, with differences between networks suggesting that tailored services drive results. Networks enable cities to adopt climate policies independently when international commitments lack local enforcement, while considering co-benefits optimizes global climate strategies.
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Redefining the Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Innovation: The Mediating Role of Absorptive Capacity
This case study of a Brazilian paper and cardboard company demonstrates that absorptive capacity—the ability to assimilate new technologies, leverage internal knowledge, benchmark practices, and register patents—mediates the relationship between intellectual capital and innovation. The research shows that absorptive capacity strengthens how intellectual capital drives innovation, making it a critical mechanism for firms developing new products and processes.
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Construction innovation diffusion in the Russian Federation
The Russian construction industry lags in innovation adoption due to financial constraints and poor legislation. A survey of 52 industry experts identified economic difficulties and regulatory barriers as the primary obstacles to innovation diffusion. The study recommends financial incentives, legislative reform, and alternative procurement methods as key strategies to accelerate innovation adoption across building and infrastructure sectors.
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Managing BYOD: how do organizations incorporate user-driven IT innovations?
Organizations respond to employees bringing personal devices to work through three distinct strategies: induction, normalization, and regulation. These responses shape how companies incorporate employee-driven IT innovations into their operations. The study reveals that reversed adoption patterns—where employees drive technology use rather than organizations—create significant organizational change opportunities if managed strategically.
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Living Labs as Open Innovation Networks - Networks, Roles and Innovation Outcomes
Living labs organize innovation by bringing together users and stakeholders in real-life environments to address socio-economic and technological challenges. This study identifies seven stakeholder roles and four role patterns in living labs, showing that successful collaboration and innovation outcomes occur without strict management objectives. Network structures—centralized, decentralized, and distributed—support different innovation types. The research provides frameworks for managers to understand and develop open innovation networks.
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The Global Research-and-Development Network and Its Effect on Innovation
This study examines how pharmaceutical firms' position in global research-and-development networks affects innovation impact. The research finds that a firm's scientific knowledge intensity enhances innovation when combined with strong network resources. International gatekeepers bridging U.S., Japanese, and European firms strengthen this relationship. The study demonstrates that innovation succeeds when internal research capability and external network connections work together.
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Understanding the Multi-Dimensional Nature of Absorptive Capacity
This paper clarifies absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge—by establishing it consists of four distinct capabilities: acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation. The authors demonstrate these capabilities work sequentially, each building on the previous one, and that this four-factor model directly improves firm performance. The findings resolve conflicting definitions in prior research and give managers a clearer framework for leveraging knowledge to gain competitive advantage.
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Making Decisions on Innovation: Meetings or Networks?
This paper challenges the traditional view that innovation decisions happen in formal gate and portfolio meetings. Through two case studies, the authors show that actual decision-making occurs through informal networks of negotiations and micro-decisions among project managers, team members, and other actors. Official meetings function as checkpoints where approvals are sought rather than decisions made. Mandatory templates and documents serve as boundary objects that create new control points in the innovation process.
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Cooperation, Networks and Institutions in Regional Innovation Systems
This book examines how cooperation, networks, and institutions shape regional innovation systems. Using examples of clusters at various development stages, the authors demonstrate that these factors are critical to how local innovation systems emerge and develop over time.
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The dynamic contribution of innovation ecosystems to schumpeterian firms: A multi-level analysis
This study examines how proximity to innovation ecosystem agents affects Schumpeterian firms' innovation performance. Using firm-level data from 2002–2014 covering 3,074 observations, the authors apply knowledge spillover theory to show that geographical closeness to ecosystem agents drives innovation outcomes. The research clarifies how firm size moderates these effects and identifies specific mechanisms through which knowledge spillovers enhance firm performance.
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The Risk of Dissolution of Sustainable Innovation Ecosystems in Times of Crisis: The Electric Vehicle during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The paper examines how the electric vehicle ecosystem evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies factors that enable ecosystem growth despite crises. The authors argue that disruptions like pandemics can create opportunities for sustainable innovations to break through by shifting established behavioral patterns. They assess whether the EV sector capitalized on pandemic-driven changes to accelerate the transition from internal combustion engines to green mobility.
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The effect of enterprise social networks use on exploitative and exploratory innovations
Enterprise social networks boost both exploitative and exploratory innovation in Tunisian ICT firms, but through different mechanisms. Human capital mediates the link to exploitative innovation, while human and social capital together mediate the link to exploratory innovation. The study reveals how internal social networks strengthen intellectual capital dimensions that drive different innovation types.
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Higher education institutions, private sector and government collaboration for innovation within the framework of the Triple Helix Model
This research examines collaboration between universities, industry, and government under the Triple Helix Model for innovation. The study identifies weaknesses in existing partnerships and proposes a new framework to strengthen these relationships. Key recommendations include clarifying government's role, improving research commercialization, and ensuring network actors possess adequate knowledge to adapt the model to changing needs.
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Managerial Social Networks and Innovation: A Meta‐Analysis of Bonding and Bridging Effects across Institutional Environments
This meta-analysis of 88 studies across 26 countries examines how managerial social networks drive innovation. The research finds that institutional context determines which network type works best: cohesive networks boost innovation in weak institutions and collectivistic cultures, while diverse networks are more effective in strong institutions and individualistic cultures. Managers should align their network strategy to their institutional environment.
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Measuring the diffusion of an innovation: A citation analysis
This paper develops a method for tracking how innovations spread across research fields using citation analysis and topic modeling. The authors identify five stages of innovation diffusion: testing, implementation, improvement, extending, and fading. They demonstrate that when innovations like Latent Dirichlet Allocation move between research areas, adoption patterns cluster among fields with similar interests, revealing how interdisciplinary knowledge transfer actually occurs.
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Managing Innovation Ecosystems to Create and Capture Value in ICT Industries
Organizations seeking growth through innovation must understand innovation dynamics, develop clear strategies, and design effective processes. Success requires managing innovation ecosystems and collaborating with external partners. The paper examines how companies—both large and small—can create and capture value by orchestrating their innovation environments strategically.
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Links between Successful Innovation Diffusion and Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder engagement significantly affects whether innovations succeed and spread. The authors studied 19 construction innovation projects and found that structured, planned engagement with key stakeholders before implementation is essential for successful innovation diffusion. Without systematic stakeholder involvement and clear communication strategies, innovation efforts face unpredictable obstacles and higher failure rates.
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No‐tillage farming: co‐creation of innovation through network building
No-tillage farming development in Switzerland involves complex networks of farmers, experts, scientists, and equipment working together to create innovation. Despite economic and environmental benefits, no-tillage spreads slowly because it requires radical transformations in farm equipment, work practices, institutional arrangements, and farmers' professional identities. Policy works best as a mediator facilitating these reciprocal translations rather than imposing top-down directives.
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The role of universities in the evolution of the Triple Helix culture of innovation network: The case of Malaysia
Malaysian universities operate primarily within statist and laissez-faire variants of the Triple Helix model, with government as the dominant actor. Universities have attempted to strengthen relationships with industry and government, but face obstacles in commercialization and internal procedures needed to transition toward a hybrid Triple Helix culture that balances all three sectors.
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Global buyer–supplier networks and innovation: The role of technological distance and technological breadth
Firms that source from global suppliers with diverse technological capabilities innovate more effectively, but only when technological distance between buyer and supplier remains manageable. The study analyzes 246 firms and their supplier networks, finding that broad supplier knowledge boosts innovation while excessive technological gaps hinder it. Global sourcing itself improves innovation, though this benefit diminishes when suppliers operate in distant technological domains.
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Indirect innovation management by platform ecosystem governance and positioning: Toward collective ambidexterity in the ecosystems
This study examines how platform ecosystem governance and positioning strategies indirectly influence complementary product innovation. Using data from 9,780 Japanese video game software titles, the research finds that increased openness and distinctiveness both encourage radical innovation. However, sales performance peaks when openness is moderate and distinctiveness is appropriately calibrated. The findings show that balanced governance strategies enable platforms to achieve ambidexterity—supporting both incremental and radical innovation simultaneously while maximizing commercial success.
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A Nexus among Strategic Orientation, Social Network, Knowledge Sharing, Organizational Innovation, and MSMEs Performance
This study examines how resource orientation, market orientation, social networks, and knowledge sharing drive organizational innovation in small and medium enterprises, which in turn improves business performance. Research with batik MSMEs in Central Java, Indonesia shows that strategic practices, social connections, and knowledge exchange significantly boost innovation. The findings provide a comprehensive model for understanding what factors enable organizational innovation and enhance MSME performance.
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The impact of social networks on SMEs’ innovation potential
Social networks change how businesses operate, but their role in innovation remains understudied. This exploratory study examines whether Romanian SMEs recognize that social media interactions with customers, suppliers, and academics boost innovation potential. The research finds that Romanian businesses primarily use social networks for marketing rather than deliberately engaging external parties in innovation processes.
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Diffusion of Innovations in Dynamic Networks
This paper develops a statistical model that simultaneously tracks how social networks evolve and how innovations spread through them. The model treats network changes and adoption decisions as interdependent processes, using a proportional hazards framework. The authors test their approach on adolescent cannabis use patterns and validate it through simulations.
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Social Capital and Effective Innovation in Industrial Districts: Dual Effect of Absorptive Capacity
This study examines how firms in Spanish footwear industrial districts convert social capital into effective innovation. The research finds that absorptive capacity—specifically the ability to identify and combine external knowledge—moderates this relationship. Firms with strong identification capabilities better acquire novel knowledge from external networks, while combinative capabilities strengthen that knowledge into successful innovations.
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Organizing Inter- and Intra-Firm Networks: What is the Impact on Innovation Performance?
This paper examines how firms organize their internal and external networks to improve innovation performance. The authors analyze the structural arrangements of inter-firm collaborations and intra-firm knowledge flows, demonstrating that network organization significantly affects a firm's ability to innovate. The findings show that deliberate network structuring enhances innovation outcomes by facilitating knowledge exchange and reducing coordination costs.
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With or Without Clusters: Facilitating Innovation through a Differentiated and Combined Network Approach
European regions need not rely on cluster policies to drive innovation. Instead, a differentiated network approach combining global pipelines, local buzz, and standalone firm strategies proves more efficient, especially in non-cluster regions. Private and semi-public brokers mediate between these strategies, requiring region-specific knowledge of sectors, institutions, and culture. Public policy should recruit brokers, fund startups, and monitor performance within decentralized, multi-level innovation systems tailored to local conditions.
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Emergence of global manufacturing virtual networks and establishment of new manufacturing infrastructure for faster innovation and firm growth
Global manufacturing virtual networks (GMVN) represent a new manufacturing architecture that integrates developing countries' firms into global supply chains through collaborative infrastructure and ICT support. Case studies across electronics, biotechnology, appliances, and apparel sectors show how GMVN enables faster innovation and firm growth by allowing complementary roles in fragmented markets and supporting new manufacturing configurations.
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Social Dynamics Shaping the Diffusion of Sustainable Aquaculture Innovations in the Solomon Islands
Small-scale tilapia farming spread unevenly across rural Solomon Islands. Wealthier, older farmers with diverse income sources adopted it first. Opinion leaders promoted adoption but couldn't teach the technical knowledge needed for success. The research shows that sustainable aquaculture innovations require attention to poor households and the social institutions that shape farming decisions, not just technology transfer.
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Regional Horizontal Networks within the SME Agri-Food Sector: An Innovation and Social Network Perspective
Regional horizontal networks of small and medium-sized agri-food businesses develop innovative capability through distinct life cycle stages, each requiring different strategies for knowledge exchange. The study of 11 regional networks within the Slow Food Network reveals that successful innovation depends on balancing exploratory and exploitative learning approaches as network dynamics shift over time.
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Absorptive capacity and network orchestration in innovation communities – promoting service innovation
Service innovation increasingly happens in loosely coupled networks called innovation communities. This paper shows that orchestrating these communities requires discrete guidance tailored to services' unique characteristics. The research identifies how orchestration mechanisms and contingency factors together build absorptive capacity—the network's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply new knowledge—enabling service innovation. Managing networks demands rethinking traditional innovation management approaches.
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TRANSFORMING ECOSYSTEM RELATIONSHIPS IN DIGITAL INNOVATION
This paper examines how firms transform their innovation ecosystem relationships to adopt open innovation models. Using Sony Ericsson's eight-year effort to increase external contributions in mobile device development, the authors identify five value competitions where the company's ambitions clashed with platform owners, operators, and competitors. The research shows that ecosystem transformation involves inherent tensions between competing values, and these tensions actually drive the formation of new ecosystem relationships.
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Horizontal and Vertical Networks for Innovation in the Traditional Food Sector
Innovation in traditional food sectors occurs through networks rather than individual firms. This study examined vertical networks (same supply chain) and horizontal networks (competing firms) across Belgium, Hungary, and Italy in beer, cheese, ham, sausage, and paprika production. Both network types exist but face challenges: vertical networks struggle with trust issues despite quality schemes, while horizontal networks work better with producer consortiums but suffer from competition. Firms innovate mainly in packaging and form, not core products. Successful small firms use networks to share knowledge, information, and resources, overcoming barriers like lack of trust, skills, and financial resources.
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Innovation in chains and networks
This editorial outlines a theoretical framework for studying innovation within supply chains and networks. The author proposes building an international collaborative research center at Wageningen to advance understanding of how innovation occurs across interconnected organizations and systems, inviting research groups worldwide to participate in cooperative investigations.
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The effects of entrepreneurial ecosystems, knowledge management capabilities, and knowledge spillovers on international open innovation
This study analyzes how entrepreneurial ecosystems, knowledge management capabilities, and knowledge spillovers influence international open innovation collaborations. Using data from nearly 99,000 firms across 15 EU countries, the research finds that knowledge spillovers directly boost open innovation engagement. Knowledge management capabilities mediate this relationship, while entrepreneurial ecosystems strengthen the link between firm capabilities and innovation outcomes. Strong ecosystems enhance firms' knowledge management and foster spillovers within their networks.
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Collaborative Innovation for Sustainable Construction: The Case of an Industrial Construction Project Network
This paper examines how multiple organizations collaborate to drive innovation in sustainable construction. Using social network analysis of a Chinese industrial construction project, the researchers identified key actors and structural patterns that enable inter-organizational collaboration. The study reveals which factors influence successful collaboration and how network structures replace traditional hierarchies to improve innovation performance and construction efficiency.
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Evolution and structure of technological systems - An innovation output network
This study maps how innovations spread across Swedish industries from 1970 to 2013, revealing that supply-and-use networks predict 30% of innovation patterns. The innovation network forms hierarchical structures with industry hubs creating tightly connected communities. Historical technological linkages and proximity strongly shape which industries innovate together, more so than skill or knowledge similarities alone. Innovations emerge from synergistic communities driven by technological requirements and imbalances rather than simple economic interdependencies.
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Managing Strategic Partnerships with Universities in Innovation Ecosystems: A Research Agenda
This paper proposes a research framework for university-company partnerships in innovation ecosystems. It identifies four key dimensions: entrepreneurial learning network dynamics, university organizational structures supporting innovation, company capacity for successful partnerships, and tools for designing and assessing collaborative initiatives. The framework helps explain how strategic partnerships develop entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities in both academic and business organizations.
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Evaluating the Collaborative Ecosystem for an Innovation-Driven Economy: A Systems Analysis and Case Study of Science Parks
This paper analyzes Taiwan's science parks as drivers of innovation-driven economic growth. Using systems thinking and causal loop analysis, the authors examine how government-academia-industry collaboration shapes innovation ecosystems. They evaluate the economic impact and employment effects of science parks over time, assess R&D performance, and identify policy lessons. The study demonstrates that strategic science park policies significantly contribute to sustainable development and high-technology industrial growth.
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Knowledge Processes, Absorptive Capacity and Innovation: A Mediation Analysis
Knowledge creation and absorptive capacity mediate how companies convert external knowledge into innovation. The study of 111 industrial organizations found that internal knowledge sharing drives innovation primarily through knowledge creation, while external knowledge acquisition strengthens absorptive capacity and internal sharing. Absorptive capacity itself does not directly boost innovation. Companies should prioritize creating environments where employees share ideas and develop solutions together.
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The Mediating Effect of Absorptive Capacity and Relational Capital in Alliance Learning of SMEs
Small businesses need partnerships with complementary resources to grow. This study examines how learning intent, absorptive capacity, and relational capital work together to shape what innovative SMEs learn through business alliances. The research shows how these factors interact to influence both technological and non-technological learning outcomes in collaborative relationships.
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Responsible research and innovation: a productive model for the future of medical innovation
This paper examines how responsible research and innovation (RRI) applies to healthcare by conducting focus groups in Montreal with patients, clinicians, engineers, designers, and innovation managers. The researchers use these discussions about technological solutions to healthcare challenges to develop a more detailed understanding of RRI's four dimensions: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness. The work shows how responsibility in medical innovation requires balancing perspectives across different stakeholder groups.
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If It Takes a Village to Foster Innovation, Success Depends on the Neighbors: The Effects of Global and Ego Networks on New Product Launches
This study examines how a firm's position within industry networks affects new product launches. Using alliance data from consumer packaged goods companies between 1990 and 2010, the researchers found that central network positions boost incremental product launches but harm breakthrough innovations. However, firms with dense, diverse direct partnerships and strong R&D capabilities can overcome this trade-off, using their network position to improve incremental products while protecting breakthrough innovations.
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How internal users contribute to corporate product innovation: the case of embedded users
Embedded users—employees who also use their company's products—contribute significantly to corporate innovation by bridging internal and external knowledge. Drawing on interviews across 23 firms, the study shows these employees deploy use knowledge, solution knowledge, and organizational knowledge alongside social capital throughout ideation, development, and marketing phases. Embedded users generate ideas, absorb external information, set specifications, conduct testing, and act as opinion leaders, effectively spanning organizational boundaries to bring customer needs into product development.
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Co-innovation in networks of resources — A case study in the Chinese exhibition industry
Partners in a Chinese exhibition industry joint venture achieved market success through co-innovation, strategically combining their resources to develop a growing trade show. This collaborative innovation process enabled the partners to exploit opportunities in a rapidly changing industry, building evolving capabilities that sustained competitive advantage. The study demonstrates how resource co-mingling creates value that motivates continued cooperation and business expansion.
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Open innovation, networking, and business model dynamics: the two sides
Business models must be dynamic and network-focused to survive in competitive markets. Small innovative companies face distinct challenges because their business models are embedded within those of larger partners. This study examines how large pharmaceutical companies and venture capital firms structure networked business models that shape the opportunities and constraints facing small biotech companies in open innovation partnerships.
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The diffusion of innovations theory as a theoretical framework in Library and Information Science research
Kenyan agricultural research and extension organizations adopted diverse ICT tools—both digital and traditional—to improve information sharing among researchers, extension workers, and farmers. While these technologies addressed various communication needs, their expansion faced significant constraints requiring coordinated intervention from agricultural and ICT stakeholders and government support.
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Network resources and the innovation performance
Network resources significantly drive innovation performance in firms participating in global production networks. The study distinguishes between accessed resources (external) and embedded resources (internal), showing both directly improve innovation performance. Technological capability and bargaining power mediate these effects. Chinese firms that strategically form and utilize network resources gain competitive advantage.
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The Growth of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Innovation, Markets and Networks
Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are growing as firms increasingly outsource specialized expertise to maintain competitiveness. Interview data from London and Helsinki shows KIBS firms create new channels for global knowledge flow, yet regions remain central to innovation systems. Regional knowledge bases continue to anchor KIBS networks despite globalization trends.
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Anchor tenants and regional innovation systems: the aircraft industry
Large innovative firms, universities, and research institutions act as anchor tenants that generate knowledge spillovers in their regions, spurring new company formation and attracting additional businesses. These anchor tenants drive regional innovation system development, but their emergence depends on pre-existing favorable conditions specific to each industry. The paper uses the aircraft industry to demonstrate how anchor dynamics shape regional economic evolution.
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USER-INVOLVEMENT AND OPEN INNOVATION: THE CASE OF DECISION-MAKER OPENNESS
Decision-maker openness determines whether companies can truly implement open innovation through user involvement in product development. The cognitive distance between decision-makers and users creates barriers to adopting novel user inputs. The research shows that when decision-makers remain closed-minded, open innovation fails to materialize, even when users are available as external resources. Successful innovation requires decision-makers to act as boundary spanners who embrace cognitively distant user perspectives.
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KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURE, INNOVATION DYNAMICS, AND KNOWLEDGE CREATION/DIFFUSION/ACCUMULATION PROCESSES
This paper examines how knowledge infrastructure and institutional arrangements shape innovation and knowledge creation across Europe's knowledge-based economy. The authors analyze the roles of various agents, their interactions, and how institutional and spatial configurations influence innovation dynamics. They develop an analytical framework showing how institutions, strategies, and spatial scales interact to structure and deploy knowledge infrastructure for economic and social value creation.
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A diffusion of innovations model of physician order entry.
This study applies diffusion of innovations theory to understand physician order entry (POE) adoption in hospitals. Researchers conducted qualitative analysis across multiple hospital sites, identifying four key theme areas: organizational issues, clinical and professional concerns, technology implementation challenges, and information organization problems. The findings show POE is a complex innovation requiring customizable, integrated systems with strong user involvement, organizational support, and collaborative trust to succeed.
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Impact of innovation strategy, absorptive capacity, and open innovation on SME performance: A Chilean case study
Absorptive capacity significantly influences how Chilean manufacturing SMEs adopt open innovation practices and develop innovation strategies. Innovation strategy fully mediates the relationship between absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation, while partially mediating the relationship with outbound open innovation. Open innovation practices directly improve SME performance. The findings offer guidance for policymakers and managers seeking to enhance competitiveness through strategic innovation.
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Innovation adoption in inter-organizational healthcare networks – the role of artificial intelligence
This paper examines how artificial intelligence adoption improves buyer-supplier relationships in healthcare networks. AI reduces information asymmetry by providing real-time access to supplier data, pricing, inventory, and delivery status. The authors position AI as both a technology tool and an innovation strategy that strengthens vertical alliances and cooperation across the healthcare supply chain, enabling better operational transparency and performance outcomes.
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Open innovation ecosystems of restaurants: geographical economics of successful restaurants from three cities
Small restaurants succeed by adopting open innovation strategies across ingredients, recipes, and service delivery. The study of successful restaurants in Naples and South Korea shows that restaurants cannot rely on closed innovation alone. Instead, they must strategically open at least some aspects of their operations—whether sourcing ingredients, sharing recipes, or collaborating on service—to maintain competitive advantage and generate additional revenue streams.
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What Fosters Individual-Level Absorptive Capacity in MNCs? An Extended Motivation–Ability–Opportunity Framework
This study examines what drives individual employees in multinational corporations to absorb new knowledge. Using data from 648 workers, the researchers found that intrinsic motivation and overall ability are the strongest predictors of absorptive capacity, while extrinsic motivation has no significant effect. International assignments to distant countries can harm knowledge absorption unless employees are open to new experiences, in which case such assignments become beneficial for capability development.
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Necessitated absorptive capacity and metaroutines in international technology transfer: A new model
International technology transfer to developing nations requires firms to absorb advanced knowledge effectively. This paper identifies organizational routines as key drivers of absorptive capacity—the ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. The authors propose the Necessitated Absorptive Capacity model, which treats absorptive capacity as a dynamic organizational capability shaped by metaroutines, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical application of how firms in developing countries successfully adopt foreign technology.
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Diffusion in the Face of Failure: The Evolution of a Management Innovation
This paper examines how management innovations spread globally despite widespread implementation failures. Comparing resource planning (RP) and total quality management, the authors show that RP succeeded through continuous evolution into variants like ERP, while total quality management experienced boom-and-bust cycles. RP's success stemmed from how field-level actors framed it discursively, the innovation's technical properties, and organizational adaptation. Embedding RP in software enabled differentiation between field-level success and organizational failures, sustaining global diffusion.
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Knowledge sharing and firm performance: the role of social networking site and innovation capability
Social networking sites enable firms to share knowledge and improve performance when combined with strong innovation capabilities. Product development capability paired with SNS use enhances knowledge sharing, while operational capability paired with SNS use drives incremental innovation and firm performance. The study shows how firms leverage digital platforms strategically to navigate market turbulence and compete effectively.
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The role of organizational and social capital in the firm’s absorptive capacity
This study examines how firms absorb and use new knowledge differently depending on their innovation goals. Researchers interviewed 23 people across three French industrial firms and found that companies pursuing incremental innovations rely more on social capital and informal networks, while those pursuing radical innovations depend more on formal organizational structures. The type of innovation a firm pursues fundamentally shapes how it acquires and processes external knowledge.
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Regional innovation policy and public-private partnership: The case of Triple Helix Arenas in Western Sweden
Two Swedish regional innovation organizations called 'Arenas' were designed to bring together industry, universities, and government based on Triple Helix theory. The study found that these partnerships struggled to maintain stable collaboration because the different actors had conflicting interests, creating unresolved tensions that undermined the intended cooperation model.
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Understanding organisational development, sustainability, and diffusion of innovations within hospitals participating in a multilevel quality collaborative
Dutch hospitals participating in a multilevel quality collaborative developed systematic approaches to sustain and spread quality improvements. The program combined leadership training, quality-improvement teams, and internal coordination to build quality-management systems focused on patient safety and logistics. Hospitals used plan-do-study-act cycles, performance agreements, and monitoring to embed changes across organizational units and maintain improvements over time.
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Developing new products in a network with efficiency and innovation
Firms developing new products must cooperate with strategic partners in networks, but differences in leadership, management, and culture create communication barriers and slow responses. This paper develops a supermatrix analytic network process model with sensitivity analysis to select the most appropriate product development mix, then applies a balanced scorecard using ANP to demonstrate effectiveness in executing the development process.
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Canadian Science, Technology and Innovation Policy: The Product of Regional Networking?
Canadian science, technology, and innovation policy operates through regional networks despite federal funding and policy formulation. The federal government deliberately structures STI programmes to promote network creation across provinces and regions, emphasizing economic development and industrial cluster formation. This networked approach effectively regionalizes policy implementation across Canada's federal system.
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The Upgrading of Multinational Regional Innovation Networks in China
Multinational corporations have increasingly moved advanced innovation activities to China since 1995, contradicting theories that predict developing economies only handle routine work. By studying Motorola and Microsoft's regional innovation networks in China, this paper shows that innovation upgrading happens through interaction between MNC subsidiary research centers and local institutions, not through hierarchical global structures.
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Inter-Organizational Trust on Financial Performance: Proposing Innovation as a Mediating Variable to Sustain in a Disruptive Era
Hungarian ICT companies that build trust with business partners innovate more effectively and achieve better financial performance. The study of 100 micro, small, and medium-sized ICT firms shows that innovation acts as the mechanism linking inter-organizational trust to improved financial outcomes. Trust drives innovation, which then drives profitability in the disruptive technology sector.
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How to save the world during a pandemic event. A case study of frugal innovation
Digital makers applied frugal innovation principles to develop rapid COVID-19 solutions during the pandemic. The study examines how these makers combined resource-efficient innovation, agile methods, and open innovation strategies to address urgent local health problems. Results show this approach effectively produced practical solutions with potential for global scaling, demonstrating frugal innovation's value in responding to unexpected crises.
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The effect of process tailoring on software project performance: The role of team absorptive capacity and its knowledge‐based enablers
This study examines how software teams tailor development processes to fit specific project needs and how this affects project success. The research finds that team experience, communication quality, and trust build absorptive capacity—the ability to learn and apply new knowledge—which then improves how teams conduct process tailoring and ultimately enhances project performance. The findings provide guidance for managing software development teams.
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Open innovation and knowledge for fostering business ecosystems
This special issue examines how open innovation and knowledge sharing drive business ecosystem development. Ten papers use different theoretical approaches and methods to explore how organizations collaborate and exchange knowledge to build stronger, more interconnected business environments that foster growth and competitiveness.
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Networking towards sustainable tourism: innovations between green growth and degrowth strategies
This study examines a rural Irish tourism network using network analysis, categorizing businesses by their sustainability ideology from green growth to degrowth approaches. The research shows that sustainability networks help rural areas pursue change, but achieving genuine shifts away from conventional business practices requires degrowth strategists to play central roles in communication and collaborative activities.
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New Concepts for New Dynamics: Generating Theory for the Study of Religious Innovation and Social Change
The Emerging Church movement demonstrates how religious innovation occurs through institutional entrepreneurship. Emerging Christians deconstruct and reframe mainstream Christian beliefs and practices while creating new organizational forms to legitimize their alternative approaches. This collective innovation operates through diffuse networks across geographic spaces and social groups, showing how religious change emerges not from isolated individuals but through coordinated action responding to broader societal conditions.
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User innovation in public service broadcasts: creating public value by media entrepreneurship
Public service broadcasters can indirectly foster media entrepreneurship by creating demand for external creative sources, though they hesitate to outsource directly to small media entrepreneurs due to quality concerns. Instead, large media companies act as intermediaries, connecting broadcaster demand with independent media entrepreneurs and their user-generated innovations, turning audience creativity into professional content.
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Resource-based co-innovation through platform ecosystem: experiences of mobile payment innovation in China
Chinese mobile payment providers—Alipay, Bestpay, and UnionPay—successfully innovated through inter-organizational co-innovation within platform ecosystems. Companies leveraged their superior resources and capabilities to achieve competitive advantage in a coopetitive environment where firms both cooperate and compete. The RISE model shows how strategic resource matching and ecosystem architecture enable win-win service innovation outcomes.
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The effect of human capital and networks on knowledge and innovation in SMEs
Human capital and internal networks significantly boost innovation in small and medium manufacturing firms. A survey of 462 firms in Southern Italy found that entrepreneur and worker education, plus firm-internal networks, increase both the likelihood and intensity of innovation. External production chain networks also matter, but internal human capital drives innovation most strongly in traditional manufacturing sectors.
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Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) Use and User Innovation: High-Order Services, Geographic Hierarchies and Internet Use in Quebec's Manufacturing Sector
Geographic proximity to knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) does not improve innovation performance in Quebec's manufacturing sector. Firms seeking innovation-related services travel farther to access specialized KIBS suppliers located in central urban areas, regardless of distance. Innovators actively seek out the best service providers rather than relying on nearby options, creating a geographic hierarchy where innovation-focused KIBS concentrate in major centers.
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Multi-parameter models of innovation diffusion on complex networks
This paper develops a mathematical model to understand how innovations spread through populations via peer influence. Using household energy efficiency adoption as a case study, the model represents people as network nodes whose decision to adopt depends on personal preference, neighbors' choices, and broader social trends. The researchers test the model on different network structures and provide analytical methods to predict adoption rates, showing how network topology affects innovation diffusion patterns.
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Giving up Linearity : Absorptive Capacity and Performance
This paper challenges the assumption that absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to identify, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge—has a linear relationship with performance. The authors argue that previous research has overlooked curvilinear relationships, where absorptive capacity may initially improve performance but then decline after reaching an optimal point. They contend that assuming linearity has led firms to misallocate resources and miss opportunities for better performance outcomes.
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Innovation ecosystem strategies of industrial firms: A multilayered approach to alignment and strategic positioning
Industrial firms in Germany and the Netherlands use two-layer innovation ecosystem strategies to manage innovation processes. Companies operate an open explorative layer to identify opportunities and a semi-closed exploitative layer to develop them into customer value. The study reveals how firms align partners and activities across these layers, create synergies between them, manage resulting tensions, and develop strategic positioning within ecosystems.
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Open innovation, network embeddedness and incremental innovation capability
This study examines how a firm's position within innovation networks affects its ability to make incremental improvements. Using patent data from 54 smartphone companies, the researchers found that being deeply embedded in a tightly-knit network actually reduces incremental innovation, while having strong personal relationships within networks boosts it. Open innovation practices amplify both effects. The findings suggest firms should strategically position themselves in networks and adopt open innovation to enhance their innovation capabilities.
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Open Innovation Ecosystem - Makerspaces within an Agile Innovation Process
Open Innovation Ecosystems and makerspaces enable large enterprises to accelerate idea development by breaking down rigid organizational structures and hierarchies. The paper proposes integrating agile frameworks into innovation processes, with makerspaces facilitating cross-functional networking and rapid prototyping. The authors argue this approach helps companies implement new ideas faster and more flexibly than traditional methods.
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Entrepreneurs’ Assessments of Early International Entry: The Role of Foreign Social Ties, Venture Absorptive Capacity, and Generalized Trust in Others
Entrepreneurs' decisions to enter foreign markets depend on their social ties abroad, their venture's ability to absorb new knowledge, and their trust in others. The study analyzed 4,352 international entry assessments from 136 entrepreneurs and found that these three factors interact significantly to shape how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities for early international expansion.
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Farmer innovation diffusion via network building: a case of winter greenhouse diffusion in China
Winter greenhouse technology diffused successfully across China through collaborative networks between farmers, government, and other stakeholders. The study identifies three network levels—informal farmer networks, farmer-led networks, and government-facilitated networks—as essential to innovation diffusion. Building mutual trust and enabling farmer leadership within these networks proved crucial for successful technology adoption and spread.
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A study of innovation diffusion through link sharing on stack overflow
This study examines how software developers discover and adopt innovations like tools and frameworks by analyzing link sharing on Stack Overflow. The researchers find that link sharing occurs frequently on the platform, making Stack Overflow a significant channel for spreading software development innovations. They show Stack Overflow functions as part of a larger network of interconnected online resources that developers use to find and evaluate new tools.
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The structural, relational and cognitive configuration of innovation networks between SMEs and public research organisations
This study examines how small firms and public research organizations collaborate in innovation networks. The researchers analyzed twelve case studies to understand network structure, relationships, and shared knowledge. They found that successful partnerships evolve together through different governance stages, face risks when trust becomes stagnant, and require overlapping knowledge bases and common language to function effectively.
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The Role of Organizational Affiliations and Research Networks in the Diffusion of Breast Cancer Treatment Innovation
Patients treated at hospitals affiliated with cancer research networks received innovative breast cancer treatment (sentinel lymph node biopsy) at significantly higher rates than those at unaffiliated hospitals. Hospital teaching status and surgical volume did not affect adoption rates. The findings support using research networks to accelerate translation of medical innovations into community practice.
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Innovations in a relational context: Mechanisms to connect learning processes of absorptive capacity
Companies build competitive advantage through relationships with other firms. This study examines how learning mechanisms within customer-supplier relationships create absorptive capacity and drive innovation. The research identifies that structural mechanisms alone are insufficient; cultural, psychological, and policy mechanisms also shape how firms learn and absorb knowledge across relationships. The findings provide propositions for understanding absorptive capacity development in relational contexts.
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Collaborative innovation, strategic agility, & absorptive capacity adoption in SMEs: the moderating effects of customer knowledge management capability
Collaborative innovation significantly improves financial performance in Portuguese IT firms. Strategic agility and absorptive capacity both mediate this relationship. Customer knowledge management capability strengthens the link between collaborative innovation and strategic agility, but does not moderate the absorptive capacity pathway. The study shows that combining customer-oriented strategies with innovation helps firms navigate complex, unpredictable situations.
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An open innovation approach to co-produce scientific knowledge: an examination of citizen science in the healthcare ecosystem
Citizen science—where lay people participate in research—can drive innovation in healthcare by enabling large-scale data collection, educating the public, and co-creating value with scientists. The authors examined citizen science projects tackling COVID-19 and found that engaging non-experts as data collectors and analysts strengthens healthcare ecosystems. They argue policymakers must support lay participation in scientific research to address major health challenges.
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Emerging issues on business innovation ecosystems: the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for knowledge management (KM) and innovation within and among enterprises
Information and communication technologies function as digital platforms enabling businesses to exchange information and knowledge within innovation ecosystems. ICTs support knowledge management and foster innovation across and within enterprises by creating networked infrastructure systems where distinct business agents collaborate and share resources.
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KNOWLEDGE INFLOWS FROM MARKET- AND SCIENCE-BASED ACTORS, ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY, INNOVATION AND PERFORMANCE — A STUDY OF SMEs
This study examines how small and medium-sized enterprises absorb external knowledge and convert it into innovation and business performance. Using data from 838 Australian SMEs, the researchers found that knowledge from market-based sources (like customers and competitors) directly boosts innovation, while knowledge from science-based sources (like universities) works indirectly by first building the firm's absorptive capacity. Both pathways ultimately improve firm performance through innovation.
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Unravelling the link between technological M&A and innovation performance using the concept of relative absorptive capacity
This study examines how acquiring firms create innovation through technological mergers and acquisitions by analyzing 212 biopharmaceutical M&A cases from 1993 to 2007. The research finds that acquiring smaller firms with moderately similar technology produces better innovation outcomes. The study emphasizes that the relationship between the acquiring and acquired firm—including technological similarity and digestibility—determines how well knowledge gets absorbed and converted into new innovations.
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Diffusion of innovations theory applied to global tobacco control treaty ratification
This study examines how countries decide to ratify the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control by analyzing network effects among tobacco control advocates on an online forum. The researchers found that communication between countries on GLOBALink predicted when nations ratified the treaty, with influential countries playing a key role. Network effects changed over time, with external pressure mattering less as more countries adopted the treaty.
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University–industry linkages and absorptive capacity: an empirical analysis of China's manufacturing industry
Universities contribute to innovation in China's manufacturing sector, but their impact depends on the type of research performed and whether companies invest in absorptive capacity—the ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit external knowledge. The study of 20,000 firms across 31 provinces from 1998 to 2004 confirms that companies benefit most from university knowledge when they develop complementary internal capabilities.
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Dynamic capabilities for transitioning from product platform ecosystem to innovation platform ecosystem
Incumbent firms face disruption from platform-native competitors and must transition from product platforms to innovation platforms. This study identifies four dynamic capabilities required for this transition: resource curation, ecosystem preservation, resource reconfiguration, and ecosystem diversification. The findings emerge from analyzing perspectives of platform owners, partners, and end-users in enterprise software ecosystems.
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How Responsible Innovation Builds Business Network Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Performance During Global Outbreaks: An Extended Resource-Based View
Responsible innovation strengthens business network resilience, which in turn improves firms' sustainable performance during crises like COVID-19. A study of 422 Chinese manufacturing firms found that absorptive capacity and social media adoption enhance these relationships. The research demonstrates that firms adopting responsible innovation practices become more resilient and better positioned to maintain sustainable operations when facing global disruptions.
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Practising innovation in the healthcare ecosystem: the agency of third-party actors
Third-party actors in digital healthcare ecosystems drive innovation by brokering connections between multiple stakeholders, mediating between different practices, and coalescing resources across networks. These intermediaries challenge established healthcare practices and enable new service co-creation opportunities by connecting diverse actors, institutions, and resources in ways that reshape how healthcare services are delivered.
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International networking in dynamic internationalization capability: the moderating role of absorptive capacity
Small and medium-sized manufacturing firms that build international networks strengthen their dynamic internationalization capability and improve international performance. Absorptive capacity—a firm's ability to acquire and apply knowledge—enhances this relationship. The study of 211 firms shows that combining international exploration and exploitation strategies creates competitive advantage in global markets.
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Innovating via building absorptive capacity: Interactive effects of top management support of learning, employee learning orientation and decentralization structure
Manufacturing firms build absorptive capacity and improve innovation through top management support for learning and employee learning orientation. Decentralized decision-making structures strengthen how management support translates into absorptive capacity and innovation, but organizational structure does not similarly affect the relationship between employee learning orientation and innovation outcomes.
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Frugal Innovation and Knowledge Transferability
Western firms typically partner with emerging market companies to develop frugal innovations, assuming local partners better understand local needs. This paper argues for an alternative: high-tech firms can conduct breakthrough R&D at home while focusing on emerging market requirements. Three case studies from a Swedish medical device manufacturer demonstrate how home-based R&D successfully reconceptualizes core products for emerging markets and identifies conditions that make this approach effective.
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Managing systemic and disruptive innovation: lessons from the Renault Zero Emission Initiative
Managing systemic and disruptive innovations requires specific strategies. This study of Renault's electric vehicle development program identifies three effective management approaches: creating autonomous units that bridge organizational silos, building a portfolio of locally viable systems rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, and managing multiple technology platforms concurrently. These levers help companies deploy innovations that fundamentally challenge existing technologies and customer expectations.
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Teams’ innovation: getting there through knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity
Knowledge sharing among team members drives innovation, but only when teams have strong absorptive capacity to process and apply that knowledge. The study tested this relationship across multiple Portuguese industries using 141 employees in organizational teams. Team tenure matters: longer-established teams share more knowledge than newer ones. Organizational size, geographic concentration, and gender had no significant effect on innovation outcomes.
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Designing the Organization for User Innovation
Organizations are shifting from internal, producer-driven innovation toward user-centered and open innovation models. This paper identifies major user innovation strategies and explains how each one requires different organizational design choices. The authors propose that successful innovation increasingly depends on building symbiotic ecosystems where producers and users collaborate, fundamentally reshaping how companies structure themselves.
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Absorptive and desorptive capacity‐related practices at the network level – the case of<scp>SEMATECH</scp>
This paper examines how interorganizational networks absorb and use external knowledge, moving beyond traditional firm-level analysis. Using SEMATECH, a global semiconductor manufacturing consortium, the author identifies three key practices—congregating, roadmapping, and offering access—that enable networks to collectively acquire, integrate, and leverage knowledge from outside sources while coordinating internal knowledge activities.
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The adoption and diffusion of interorganizational system standards and process innovations
This paper examines how interorganizational system standards and process innovations spread across industries. The authors surveyed 102 firms across 10 industrial groups to identify what drives adoption of modern IOS technologies like XML and SOAP. They found that technological, organizational, and environmental factors—plus the role of standards development organizations—significantly influence whether companies implement these systems. The research bridges older EDI-focused studies with current web-based interorganizational solutions.
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Radical innovations as supply chain disruptions? A paradox between change and stability
Radical innovations in products and processes create paradoxical tensions in supply chains, particularly between the need for change and the need for stability. The paper uses case illustrations to examine how these tensions emerge upstream after radical innovation and proposes paradox theory as a framework for understanding and managing them. It identifies supply chain management as an underexplored area for paradox research and calls for future studies on post-innovation tensions.
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Managing innovation ecosystems around Big Science Organizations
Big Science Organizations are massive research institutions addressing complex scientific challenges through large networks of suppliers, collaborators, and partners. These organizations function as influential innovation ecosystems with permeable boundaries enabling technology transfer, knowledge sharing, and business creation. The paper introduces a special issue examining innovation and entrepreneurship around BSOs, providing a comprehensive overview of how these institutions drive innovation across science, government, and business sectors.
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Gaming innovation ecosystem: actors, roles and co-innovation processes
This study examines Poland's gaming innovation ecosystem to understand how different actors contribute to co-innovation. Researchers conducted interviews and observations over three years and identified 21 types of actors playing four distinct roles: direct value creation, supporting value creation, encouraging entrepreneurship, and leadership. The co-innovation process unfolds across five stages from discovery through dissemination, with actors varying their engagement intensity at each phase.
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Board interlocks, absorptive capacity, and environmental performance
Firms with diverse board interlocks—connections to multiple companies, across industries, and to top performers—achieve better environmental performance. However, this benefit depends on absorptive capacity: companies must invest in research and development to actually use the knowledge gained through these board connections. The study shows that R&D intensity moderates how effectively board interlocks translate into environmental improvements.
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From ‘Publish or Perish’ to Societal Impact: Organizational Repurposing Towards Responsible Innovation through Creating a Medical Platform
An academic research project studying user innovation shifted its core purpose to become Patient Innovation, a nonprofit medical platform providing global access to solutions for rare and chronic diseases. The transformation occurred through moral emotions, serendipitous inspiration, and socially conscious participants who reframed their mission from publishing research to creating societal impact. The authors develop a model showing how organizational purpose can drift spontaneously when actors feel morally motivated to serve collective goals over self-interest.
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National innovation systems in developing countries: Barriers to university–industry collaboration in Egypt
This study examines Egypt's national innovation system and identifies barriers and drivers to university-industry collaboration. Researchers surveyed 162 companies in industrial areas and free zones around Cairo and Alexandria, testing four hypotheses about what prevents or enables partnerships between universities and businesses. The analysis confirmed all four hypotheses, revealing specific obstacles and facilitators to collaboration in Egypt's innovation ecosystem.
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Relational capital for shared vision in innovation ecosystems
This paper examines relationship networks in three metropolitan innovation ecosystems—Austin, Minneapolis, and Paris—using Triple Helix framework and network analysis. The authors measure relational capital through network metrics and visualizations, revealing distinct patterns that structure business activity at startup, growth, and enterprise levels. They demonstrate that data-driven indicators of relational capital can guide network orchestration, inform policy decisions, and build shared vision across spatially defined business ecosystems.
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The Role of a Local Industry Association as a Catalyst for Building an Innovation Ecosystem: An Experiment in the State of Ceara in Brazil
An industrial association in Brazil's Ceara state successfully catalyzed innovation ecosystem development where government alone failed. The federation of industries' UNIEMPRE program increased actor awareness, shared knowledge, strengthened firm capabilities, built regional innovation capacity, and created sustainable long-term change through five key mechanisms.
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Professional Learning Communities and the Diffusion of Pedagogical Innovation in the Chinese Education System
Pedagogical innovations spread unevenly across China's education system following curriculum reforms. This study finds that teacher professional learning communities—where educators frequently interact and observe each other—successfully diffuse innovative teaching ideas despite teachers' doubts about reform viability. External networks connecting designated teacher opinion leaders further accelerate innovation spread through schools.
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OPERATIONALIZING AN INNOVATION PLATFORM APPROACH FOR COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH ON CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE IN BURKINA FASO
Innovation platforms in three Burkina Faso villages successfully engaged farmers in developing and testing conservation agriculture practices. The platforms enabled active farmer participation in identifying cropping systems, improved their knowledge of conservation agriculture, strengthened producer networks, and established new rules for managing crop residues. The study shows innovation platforms effectively address complex agricultural innovations requiring technical, organizational, and institutional changes.
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What Does an Inventory of Recent Innovation Experiences Tell Us About Agricultural Innovation in Africa?
An inventory of 57 agricultural innovation cases across Benin, Kenya, and South Africa reveals that African smallholder farmers actively drive innovation through diverse stakeholders and market forces. Innovation processes typically unfold over long timeframes, often bundle multiple changes together, and frequently connect to external funding. The research demonstrates African agriculture's dynamic response to challenges, countering negative perceptions and highlighting the continent's innovation capacity.
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Anticipating gender impacts in scaling innovations for agriculture: Insights from the literature
Small farms produce most of the world's food, but innovations often fail to address gender inequalities and may cause harm. This review identifies six critical areas where gender considerations matter when scaling agricultural innovations: team composition, innovation design, communication, business models, technology adaptation, and political economy. The authors recommend practical methods for collecting gender-disaggregated data and call for scaling tools that explicitly address gender and social marginalization.
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Leveraging innovation knowledge management to create positional advantage in agricultural value chains
This study examines how beef cattle value chain actors in an emerging country leverage their resources to gain competitive advantage and improve financial performance. Researchers interviewed 190 value chain participants and found that actors' resources directly enable market positioning advantage, which in turn drives superior financial outcomes. The findings demonstrate a clear pathway from resource management to competitive advantage to profitability.
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ICTs for Agricultural Extension. Global Experiments, Innovations and Experiences
This book examines global experiments and innovations in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agricultural extension services. It compiles case studies and experiences from various countries showing how ICTs are being deployed to improve agricultural knowledge transfer, farmer education, and extension service delivery in rural areas worldwide.
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Capacity, scale and place: pragmatic lessons for doing community‐based research in the rural setting
Community-based research offers a flexible, context-sensitive approach suited to rural areas experiencing rapid economic and social change. Drawing on experience in northern British Columbia, the authors identify practical lessons for conducting community-based research effectively, organizing insights around three key stages: preparing for community engagement, conducting fieldwork, and post-fieldwork activities. They address gaps in methodological guidance and advocate for better training in community-based research methods for rural contexts.
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Farmers’ organizations and agricultural innovation: case studies from Benin, Rwanda and Tanzania
Farmers' organizations in Benin, Rwanda, and Tanzania play a central role in agricultural innovation, but face significant constraints. The research shows that successful innovation requires farmers' organizations to access diverse knowledge sources, develop specific skills, and partner with other actors who recognize them as equals. Appropriate institutional settings and multi-stakeholder collaboration are essential for agricultural innovation to succeed.
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Multi-actor co-innovation partnerships in agriculture, forestry and related sectors in Europe: Contrasting approaches to implementation
This paper analyzes 200 multi-actor co-innovation partnerships across Europe involving farmers and foresters. The authors develop a typology identifying eight ideal types of co-innovation partnerships based on organizational structure and interaction attitudes. They find that successful partnerships take different forms depending on context—actor capacities, networks, topic, and enabling environment—rather than one approach being universally superior. The framework helps policymakers design targeted interventions suited to local circumstances.
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Do translocal networks matter for agricultural innovation? A case study on advice sharing in small-scale farming communities in Northeast Thailand
Social networks drive agricultural innovation in Northeast Thailand's farming communities. The study maps advice-sharing patterns for sugarcane and rice farming over five years, finding that translocal networks—connections across migrant communities—carry substantial innovation knowledge. Extension agencies and elite farmers dominate formal advice channels, but migration experience itself enables bottom-up innovations that reach less-connected farmers. Translocal networks boost adaptive capacity when innovations fit small-scale farming practices and limited resources.
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Best Practices of Agricultural Information System in the Context of Knowledge and Innovation
Indonesia's agriculture sector employs 40 million farmers but faces declining participation and productivity. This paper proposes an agricultural knowledge and information system model designed to collect, manage, and disseminate farming knowledge and best practices. The system enables farmers to access information anytime and anywhere, helping them increase productivity and sell higher-value commodities through efficient resource management.
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The Effect of Innovation on Agricultural and Agri-food Exports in OECD Countries
This paper examines how research and development investment affects agricultural and food product exports across 21 OECD countries from 1990 to 2003. R&D spending boosts primary agricultural exports but reduces processed food exports because increased market power outweighs market expansion benefits. The research also finds that R&D in primary agriculture indirectly increases processed food exports through supply chain effects.
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Multi-stakeholder process strengthens agricultural innovations and sustainable livelihoods of farmers in Southern Nigeria
Multi-stakeholder platforms in Southern Nigeria significantly boost farmers' livelihood assets compared to non-participants, with human and social capital increasing substantially. The study shows that institutionalizing these platforms within agricultural research programs, combined with extension services, strengthens cassava production efficiency and enables effective technology adoption. Knowledge dynamics and power relationships within platforms drive innovation outcomes.
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Seeking unconventional alliances and bridging innovations in spaces for transformative change: the seed sector and agricultural sustainability in Argentina
Argentina's seed sector demonstrates how unconventional alliances between diverse actors—including farmers, researchers, and civil society—drive transformative agricultural innovations toward sustainability. The paper identifies bridging innovations that connect conventional and alternative farming systems, showing how collaborative networks create spaces for systemic change in food production practices.
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An institutional diagnostics of agricultural innovation; public-private partnerships and smallholder production in Uganda
This paper develops a diagnostic framework for analyzing public-private partnerships in agricultural innovation, using institutions as performative processes rather than fixed rules, and technology as affordance rather than input. The authors test this framework on a Uganda sorghum production partnership between the National Agricultural Research Organisation and Nile Breweries Limited, revealing institutional dynamics critical for understanding smallholder farming innovation in Africa.
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Do agricultural innovation platforms and soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools improve the production and livelihood of smallholder irrigators in Mozambique?
A four-year project in Mozambique introduced agricultural innovation platforms and soil monitoring tools to smallholder irrigators. Farmers used these tools to improve irrigation and fertilizer management, increasing crop production. The innovation platforms strengthened market links and information access, boosting farmer incomes and well-being while addressing supply chain and infrastructure barriers.
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Eco-Innovations in Rural Territories: Organizational Dynamics and Resource Mobilization in Low Density Areas
Rural areas develop eco-innovation projects despite limited agglomeration. This study examines how organizational factors and environmental conditions influence eco-innovation in low-density areas. Using interviews across five French rural cases, researchers found that personal and local professional networks, combined with strong leadership, enable projects to absorb local resources effectively. While local resources remain essential, successful projects increasingly mobilize distant resources as they develop.
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Synergies at the interface of farmer–scientist partnerships: agricultural innovation through participatory research and plant breeding in Honduras
Participatory plant breeding in Honduras, involving farmer researchers, plant breeders, and NGOs, successfully developed new bean varieties with very high adoption rates among poor farmers. This farmer-scientist collaboration produced synergies that improved food security and addressed agricultural diversity better than conventional breeding alone. Long-term donor support and seed regulatory systems enabling small seed enterprises proved essential for sustaining farmer engagement in research.
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e-Agriculture Prototype for Knowledge Facilitation among Tribal Farmers of North-East India: Innovations, Impact and Lessons
An ICT-based agricultural extension project in North-East India reduced costs per farmer by 73% and cut service delivery time by two-thirds compared to conventional extension systems. However, the study finds that information technology alone cannot drive rural development. Successful e-agriculture requires combining digital advisory services with field demonstrations, supply chain linkages, and public-private partnerships to support tribal farming communities.
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Knowledge management for agricultural innovation: lessons from networking efforts in the Bolivian Agricultural Technology System
Farmers in Bolivia who participated in agricultural innovation projects using multi-agent knowledge management networks adopted innovations more successfully than those in traditional technology transfer programs. Farmer adoption rates depended on both the project's knowledge management approach and how embedded farmers were in local learning networks. The study confirms that farmers need intensive relationships with multiple agents—not just one extension agency—to access sufficient knowledge, build confidence, and jointly learn to apply innovations.
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Markets, institutions and policies: A perspective on the adoption of agricultural innovations
Agricultural innovation adoption succeeds when technology combines with supportive markets, institutions, and policies. Case studies show hybrid pearl millet in India and dual-purpose cowpea in Nigeria achieved high adoption through strong market demand and effective seed delivery institutions. Conversely, pigeon pea varieties in Malawi and conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe saw low adoption due to weak market conditions, misunderstood demand, and inadequate input delivery systems. Enabling conditions fundamentally determine innovation success.
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The challenges of innovation for sustainable agriculture and rural development: Integrating local actions into European policies with the Reflective Learning Methodology
European agricultural policy treats farmers as passive technology adopters rather than active innovators. This paper describes a participatory action research method called Reflective Learning Methodology that bridges local farming innovation networks with European policy frameworks. The method helps translate grassroots sustainable agriculture initiatives into regional support structures, addressing the gap between how innovation actually happens on farms and how policy currently supports it.
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Trust and Other Historical Proxies of Social Capital: Do They Matter in Promoting Social Entrepreneurship in Greek Rural Areas?
This study examines how trust and social capital foster social entrepreneurship in a mountainous Greek rural area. The researchers argue that trustworthy relationships generate social capital, which in turn supports social entrepreneurship development. By analyzing these dynamics, the paper develops policy recommendations for promoting the social economy in rural regions.
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IMPORTÂNCIA RELATIVA DE CANAIS DE COMUNICAÇÃO NO PROCESSO DE DECISÃO SOBRE INOVAÇÕES AGRÍCOLAS. ZONA DO TRIÂNGULO DE MINAS GERAIS RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS IN THE DECISION PROCESS OF AGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONS. TRIANGLE OF MINAS GERAIS ZONE
This study examined how cotton farmers in Brazil's Minas Gerais region make decisions about adopting agricultural innovations. Researchers surveyed 155 producers and found that technical advisors were the most influential communication channel across all decision stages, followed by peers and neighbors. Farmers were heavily exposed to radio and television but not print media, and change agents rarely used mass media to promote innovations.
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Living Labs as an Approach to Strengthen Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems
Living Labs bring together farmers, businesses, and public agencies to co-create and test agricultural innovations. This study evaluated six Living Labs across Europe from 2018 to 2021 and identified four critical conditions for success: the challenge must be appropriately complex, the enabling environment must support collaboration, facilitation must be skilled, and participants must maintain momentum. These findings help policymakers and practitioners design more effective Living Labs for sustainable farming.
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An Analytical Framework to Study Multi-Actor Partnerships Engaged in Interactive Innovation Processes in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development Sector
This paper develops a framework for understanding multi-actor co-innovation partnerships in agriculture, forestry, and rural development across Europe. Analysis of 30 partnerships reveals that funding mechanisms often push partnerships to adapt their goals and overpromise outputs. Successful partnerships recruit experienced members with established networks who facilitate internal collaboration and navigate external political and market conditions. Aligning funding body goals with societal needs could better support partnerships pursuing socio-economic and environmental benefits.
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Rural entrepreneurship and the context: navigating contextual barriers through women's groups
Rural women in Tanzania face significant barriers to entrepreneurship including limited land access, poor market connections, weak business networks, time poverty, and insufficient capital. Women's groups overcome these obstacles by collectively accessing business services, training, grants, and networks. The study demonstrates that women with limited education can successfully pursue rural entrepreneurship when supported through group membership and targeted interventions.
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Discovering innovation opportunities based on SECI model: reconfiguring knowledge dynamics of the agricultural artisan production of agave-mezcal, using emerging technologies
This study examined 44 mezcal producers in Oaxaca, Mexico to identify innovation opportunities in agave-mezcal production using the SECI knowledge model. Researchers found that producers need digital tools to improve their work and external connections. The study recommends developing a user-friendly mobile application for mezcal producers and creating a collaborative mezcal-tech-hub to strengthen producer networks and knowledge sharing.
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Gender and agricultural innovation in Oromia region, Ethiopia: from innovator to tempered radical
Women and men farmer innovators in Ethiopia's Oromia region actively challenge restrictive gender norms and top-down extension systems while pursuing agricultural innovation. Women innovators face particular constraints, operating as precarious outsiders who carefully negotiate between social expectations and sanctions. The study uses the concept of 'tempered radicals' to explain how innovators contest dominant narratives while advancing their own farming practices, revealing significant gender differences in how they navigate competing pressures.
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Which Advisory System to Support Innovation in Conservation Agriculture? The Case of Madagascar's Lake Alaotra
In Madagascar's Lake Alaotra region, a project-funded advisory system promoting conservation agriculture relies heavily on technical recommendations from agricultural research. Despite advisors' stated willingness to address farm complexity, the system fails to engage farmers meaningfully in decision-making or build joint learning processes. External funding undermines sustainability, and farmers lack influence over project choices. The study reveals tensions between top-down technical advice and participatory approaches needed for lasting agricultural change.
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Information and Communication for Rural Innovation and Development: Context, Quality and Priorities in Southeast Uganda
Rural communities in southeast Uganda access agricultural information from multiple sources, but reliability and applicability vary significantly based on trust relationships. Farmers lack capacity to hold information providers accountable for quality. Weak linkages exist among farmers, extension services, private sector, and local leaders. The study recommends establishing feedback loops and partnerships among actors to improve information generation and dissemination for agricultural innovation and rural development.
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Functions of the Intermediary Organizations for Agricultural Innovation in<scp>M</scp>exico: The<scp>C</scp>hiapas Produce Foundation
Intermediary organizations bridge knowledge gaps between agricultural innovators and farmers. This study examines the Chiapas Produce Foundation in Mexico, analyzing how it connects small farmers with technology suppliers and researchers. The foundation manages public resources to promote agricultural innovation among farmers with varying economic conditions and innovation capacity, revealing critical functions these intermediaries perform in developing country agricultural sectors.
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Conservation Tillage and Cropping Innovation: Constructing the New Culture of Agriculture
This book examines how no-tillage farming technology spread among farmers through social networks and action-learning groups. The authors show that successful conservation tillage systems depend on farmer management and personal motivation to change. They analyze how deeply entrenched plowing culture was in both farming communities and broader U.S. and Australian societies, and how farmers overcame this cultural resistance through innovation networks.
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Actor roles and linkages in the agricultural innovation system: options for establishing a cocoa innovation platform in Ghana
Ghana's cocoa sector needs an innovation platform to boost performance. Researchers analyzed actor roles and relationships in the cocoa innovation system using social network analysis. They found that farmer groups, researchers, extension agents, policymakers, and private sector actors are critical to establishing and sustaining a cocoa innovation platform. These actors attract participation and hold the network together.
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Farmers’ Participation in Operational Groups to Foster Innovation in the Agricultural Sector: An Italian Case Study
Italian farmers participate actively in EU-supported Operational Groups that bring together multiple stakeholders to solve agricultural problems collaboratively. The study finds farmers contribute meaningfully during design and implementation phases, but their involvement fluctuates throughout the process. Sustaining farmer participation requires motivation, commitment, trust, and open communication among diverse actors working together.
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Exploring how to sustain ‘place-based’ rural health academic research for informing rural health systems: a qualitative investigation
Rural health researchers in Australia face seven major sustainability challenges: poor recognition, excessive workloads, weak networks, inadequate funding mechanisms, unsupportive organizational culture, job insecurity, and limited career advancement. The study of 17 early-career rural researchers reveals that strategic grants ignore generalist research, fixed-term contracts undermine retention, and isolation from main campuses limits opportunities. The authors recommend establishing research hubs, collaborative networks, targeted funding, and career development pathways to sustain this critical field.
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Guidance on farmer participation in the design, testing and scaling of agricultural innovations
Smallholder farmers in the Global South adopt agricultural innovations at low rates because technologies are often unsuitable and poorly designed for local contexts. This paper develops practical guidance for choosing appropriate levels of farmer participation in innovation design, testing, and scaling. The authors reviewed participatory research literature and analyzed vegetable innovation projects across Asia and Africa, creating a framework that matches farmer participation levels to innovation readiness. They find that participation should increase as innovations mature, and early farmer consultation strengthens locally relevant design.
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Application of innovation platforms to catalyse adoption of conservation agriculture practices in South Asia
Innovation Platforms—structured forums bringing together farmers, suppliers, and extension workers—successfully increased adoption of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers across Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. The platforms built trust, created micro-enterprise opportunities, and empowered rural youth and women. Results varied by location and platform design, but strong community ownership proved essential for effectiveness.
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Learning as Issue Framing in Agricultural Innovation Networks
Learning in agricultural innovation networks happens through how members frame and reframe issues together. The study tracked two networks over two years and found that sustainable agricultural practices emerge when network members gradually adjust their understanding of problems and their relationships with each other. Complex contexts affect how well members align on issues, but identifying key actor roles and facilitation methods helps networks collaborate effectively on shared concerns.
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The multi-actor approach in thematic networks for agriculture and forestry innovation
Horizon2020 Thematic Networks use multi-actor approaches to share agricultural and forestry knowledge across different expertise types. The study finds that participation remains unequal across actor types, limiting demand-driven outcomes. Facilitators strengthen relationships between actors, while digital platforms combined with demonstration activities and peer exchange significantly improve knowledge sharing and innovation impact.
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Triggering system innovation in agricultural innovation systems: Initial insights from a community for change in New Zealand
This paper describes a process in New Zealand that brings together agricultural innovation system actors to identify systemic problems and challenge institutional barriers. Through collaborative problem-solving, reflexivity, and practical experimentation, the process helped change agents develop shared understanding of how relationships and boundaries reinforce current practices. The approach stimulated project-level actions and revealed wider system barriers, though integrating individual innovation projects with broader system-level changes remains difficult.
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Word of Mouth, Digital Media, and Open Innovation at the Agricultural SMEs
Agricultural SMEs in Hungary's local markets rely on two main information channels: word-of-mouth and digital media. Research with 156 consumers at Budapest's Central Market Hall found that older consumers prefer word-of-mouth, while educated, foreign, or socially isolated consumers choose digital platforms. The study recommends SMEs strengthen product quality and develop two-way digital communication strategies to reach diverse customer segments.
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Agricultural research organisations’ role in the emergence of agricultural innovation systems
Agricultural research organizations often serve as network brokers in innovation systems, but their effectiveness depends on objectives. In Mexico's MasAgro initiative, research organizations proved suitable for developing and scaling specific technologies. However, when innovation goals include extension and education alongside technology development, other actors are better positioned to coordinate the network and achieve broader outcomes.
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Rural innovation chains. Two examples for the diffusion of rural innovations
Rural innovation spreads through social networks where prestigious community members serve as economic models. Peasant societies adopt innovations through imitation rather than independent innovation, following respected figures within their networks. Two case studies—one from the Peruvian Andes and one from Hungary—demonstrate that economic changes and new technologies can be adopted while local social networks remain stable and intact, reinforcing rather than destroying existing community bonds.
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Cultivating sustainability: Harnessing open innovation and circular economy practices for eco-innovation in agricultural SMEs
This study examines how open innovation and circular economy practices drive eco-innovation in agricultural SMEs in Thailand. Surveying 211 SMEs, the research finds that eco-processes most strongly influence SME sustainability initiatives, which in turn generate sustainable products including waste-derived and eco-friendly items. However, eco-products and eco-managerial practices show limited impact on SME initiatives, suggesting these areas need stronger frameworks to support environmental performance.
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Do Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems Have the Dynamic Capabilities to Guide the Digital Transition of Short Food Supply Chains?
Agricultural knowledge and innovation systems in Greece and Italy struggle to capitalize on digital opportunities in short food supply chains, despite sensing external changes. Knowledge emerges as critical for building transformative capacity, but systems lack functional connections between stakeholders. Strengthening engagement from public advisory organizations, universities, and technology providers is essential for developing the collective knowledge base needed for successful digital transition.
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Role of the interaction space in shaping innovation for sustainable agriculture: Empirical insights from African case studies
Agricultural development projects in Malawi and Tanzania use farm trials and farmer field schools to promote sustainable agriculture innovation. The study reveals that knowledge exchange succeeds through knowledge brokers who facilitate social learning, yet simultaneously create social exclusions. The design of interaction spaces between researchers and farmers directly shapes both technical and social knowledge construction. Effective scaling requires opening these spaces for genuine co-creation and collaborative knowledge building.
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Household welfare impacts of an agricultural innovation platform in Uganda
An agricultural innovation platform in Uganda that brought together researchers and farmers to develop improved cassava varieties and establish a seed entrepreneurship system increased household consumption expenditure by 47.4% among participating farmers. The platform's impact varied by household characteristics like gender, suggesting that targeted interventions for specific farm groups could improve rural livelihoods further.
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Supporting Innovation in Organic Agriculture: A European Perspective Using Experience from the SOLID Project
Organic farming drives agricultural innovation through stakeholder collaboration rather than just new technologies. The SOLID project used farmer-led participatory research across Europe to identify and solve problems in organic dairy farming. Farmers lacked confidence in forage production reliability despite recognizing its importance. The study shows that combining scientific expertise with farmers' practical knowledge through systems-based approaches effectively develops sustainable innovations.
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Patterns and Collaborators of Innovation in the Primary Sector: A Study of the Danish Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industry
Danish agricultural, forestry, and fishery firms show substantial innovation despite being classified as low-tech. Nearly half of 640 surveyed firms reported some innovation activity, with product/process innovation at 23 percent. Firms selling directly to consumers innovated more than those in processing or wholesale. Most innovative firms worked independently, citing internal drivers. The industry's strong extended knowledge base—universities, research institutions, advisory services—provides critical innovation support that traditional surveys often miss.
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Endogenous learning and innovation in African smallholder agriculture: lessons from Guinea-Bissau
Smallholder rice farmers in Guinea-Bissau continuously reinvent and share farming knowledge across generations, creating a dynamic agricultural system. External development actors must understand how endogenous knowledge is produced and spreads among farmers to design effective interventions. Co-producing innovations that respect local conditions and allow farmers to adapt technologies to their needs strengthens the entire knowledge system.
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Can an innovation platform support a local process of climate-smart agriculture implementation? A case study in Cauca, Colombia
An innovation platform in Cauca, Colombia brought together farmers, NGOs, local authorities, and associations to implement climate-smart agriculture. The platform improved stakeholder interactions, increased farmer knowledge about climate change, and led to adoption of practices like crop diversification and reduced fertilizer use. Innovation platforms can effectively enable farmers to understand and adopt climate-smart agriculture suited to their local conditions.
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Efficiency of small enterprises of protected agriculture in the adoption of innovations in Mexico
Small protected agriculture enterprises in Mexico adopt innovations more efficiently when producers have higher education levels, greater farming experience, and access to extension services. The study identifies three distinct producer groups with different adoption behaviors. The research recommends strengthening connections among producers and improving extension services to support collective territorial development.
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Agricultural business model innovation in Swedish food production : The influence of self-leadership and lean innovation
Swedish agricultural producers need stronger leadership and organizational practices to innovate their business models across the food value chain. The paper proposes that self-leadership and lean innovation methods can drive business model innovation in farming. It presents a framework combining these approaches and recommends action research through learning networks as a method for agricultural sectors to develop and improve operations from farm to consumer.
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REAL-WORLD INNOVATION IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA
Living Labs, a European model for community-driven innovation, can accelerate rural development in South Africa. The authors examine whether this regional innovation approach—which embeds user communities in real-world environments—transfers effectively to South African rural contexts. They assess how European best practices and lessons learned from Living Lab networks can speed innovation adoption in South African communities.
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Fostering Farmer First Methodological Innovation: Organizational Learning and Change in International Agricultural Research
Participatory plant breeding programs at international agricultural research institutes failed to truly empower farmers because they focused on reforming supply-side science bureaucracies without addressing accountability to poor farmers' actual needs. The farmer-first approach became cosmetic rather than transformative because change champions lacked political power and connection to broader sociopolitical actors. Future progress requires addressing the political dimensions of farmer-driven innovation demand in agriculture.
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Robot innovation brings to agriculture efficiency, safety, labor savings and accuracy by plowing, milking, harvesting, crop tending/picking and monitoring
Robots are transforming agriculture globally by automating traditional farming tasks including plowing, milking, harvesting, and crop monitoring. These robotic systems deliver significant labor savings, improve performance accuracy, and accelerate field coverage. The paper reviews diverse robotic applications across agricultural operations worldwide, demonstrating how automation creates practical benefits for farming operations.
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The role of social capital in developing sustainable micro-entrepreneurship among rural women in India: a theoretical framework
Social capital—built through self-help groups, SHG federations, and NGOs—drives sustainable micro-entrepreneurship among rural women in India. Self-help groups and federations enable financial inclusion and social support, while NGOs provide training and business networks. This combination generates employment, stable income, and improved livelihoods while addressing broader social and economic challenges.
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Beyond the Transfer of Capital? Second-Home Owners as Competence Brokers for Rural Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Second-home owners in Norwegian rural municipalities possess significant untapped potential as competence brokers for local entrepreneurship and innovation. A survey of 2,200 second-home owners in Telemark found they demonstrate genuine interest in their communities, willingness to contribute, and extensive higher education and business experience. These characteristics position them as valuable resources for stimulating rural economic development beyond simple capital transfer.
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Rural-urban migration, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship
Rural-urban migrants with higher financial literacy are more likely to become entrepreneurs, according to analysis of Chinese household survey data from 2013 and 2015. Financial literacy strengthens migration's already positive effect on entrepreneurship. Social capital acts as the primary mechanism through which financial literacy helps disadvantaged migrants transition into business ownership.
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Strategy and Innovation of Mushroom Business in Rural Area Indonesia: Case Study of a Developed Mushroom Enterprise from Cianjur district, West Java, Indonesia
Mushroom farming in Indonesia's Cianjur district succeeds through dual strategies: technological innovations that boost yields and attract markets, and organizational innovations using contract farming agreements with local producers. These approaches reduce market failures and production risks while building community capacity. Success depends on cooperation with external sources and adaptation to local conditions.
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How Knowledge-Based Local and Global Networks Foster Innovations in Rural Areas
Rural micro-businesses in peripheral areas innovate by combining local and global knowledge networks. Analysis of three German case studies shows that extra-local knowledge sources spark initial ideas and support product marketing, while local ties prove essential for production. The findings challenge rural development policies that focus solely on local networks, demonstrating that global knowledge flows significantly enable innovation even in institutionally thin regions.
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How can agricultural extension and rural advisory services support agricultural innovation to adapt to climate change in the agriculture sector?
Agricultural extension and advisory services must expand their roles to support farm innovation for climate adaptation. The paper finds that these services should connect diverse actors across sectors, facilitate learning and collaboration, and help farmers develop collective approaches to climate change. This broader, more networked approach to extension work is essential for agricultural sustainability under changing climate conditions.
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Fablabs as Drivers for Open Innovation and Co-creation to Foster Rural Development
Fablabs function as collaborative spaces where policymakers, businesses, and citizens jointly develop innovative products and services. The paper demonstrates how these makerspaces drive rural development by examining two case studies from rural Slovenian municipalities, showing how open innovation and co-creation platforms can generate economic opportunities in rural regions.
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Rural Health Networks and Care Coordination: Health Care Innovation in Frontier Communities to Improve Patient Outcomes and Reduce Health Care Costs
A frontier community implemented a community care team and care coordination program to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. The program increased collaboration among 17 organizations serving 165 adults. Patients showed decreased emergency department use and similar physical health outcomes to national averages, though emotional health remained lower. Successful urban care coordination models applied effectively to rural settings, particularly through dedicated team facilitators, intensive coordination for complex cases, and technology-enabled specialty care access.
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The North Dakota Experience: Achieving High-Performance Health Care Through Rural Innovation and Cooperation
North Dakota addresses rural healthcare challenges through primary care support and medical home models, coordinated care networks, and technology innovation. The state demonstrates how cooperation between providers and strategic technology deployment can improve healthcare delivery in sparsely populated areas.
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Sustainable innovations for rural Africa: Case studies from Nigeria and Tanzania
Two African startups in Nigeria and Tanzania developed sustainable business models for rural communities by engaging early adopters, leveraging existing networks, and providing education through community associations. The research found that this approach effectively increases innovation adoption rates. However, entrepreneurs must navigate political and cultural dynamics and build community trust to successfully diffuse innovations in rural African settings.
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Dynamics in rural entrepreneurship – the role of knowledge acquisition, entrepreneurial orientation, and emotional intelligence in network reliance and performance relationship
Rural farmer entrepreneurs in China who rely on business networks improve their performance primarily through acquiring knowledge. Emotional intelligence directly boosts knowledge acquisition, while entrepreneurial orientation strengthens the link between knowledge and performance. The study recommends that extension education prioritize knowledge-building programs and that policymakers focus on developing rural farmers' social capital and entrepreneurial capabilities to enhance business outcomes.
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Innovations in Practice: Dissemination and implementation of child–parent psychotherapy in rural public health agencies
Researchers trained clinicians at four rural public health agencies to deliver Child-Parent Psychotherapy, an evidence-based trauma treatment for young children. Half of the 112 client-caregiver pairs who started treatment remained enrolled or completed it. The study identifies specific barriers and facilitators to implementing this intervention in rural settings and confirms that evidence-based trauma treatment is feasible to deliver through rural community mental health agencies.
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Innovation Network for Entrepreneurship Development in Rural Indian Context: Exploratory Factor Analysis
Rural entrepreneurs in Gujarat, India identify three critical types of innovation networks: connections with private organizations, NGOs, and public organizations. These networks help rural entrepreneurs access scarce resources and create development opportunities. The study finds that rural entrepreneurs value innovation networks primarily for production enhancement, information accessibility, skill development, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
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Institutional barriers to successful innovations: Perceptions of rural farmers and key stakeholders in southwest Nigeria
Rural farmers and stakeholders in southwest Nigeria identify institutional barriers as critical to agricultural innovation success. Government policies, market conditions, financial institutions, and infrastructure significantly affect whether farmers adopt new technologies. The study recommends pairing institutional reforms with innovative inputs and strengthening farmers' cooperatives to enable successful agricultural innovation.
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Decolonizing design innovation: design anthropology and indigenous knowledge
Design anthropology integrates anthropological research with design thinking to create collaborative, user-centered solutions. Practitioners work in multidisciplinary teams to address real-world problems through observation, interpretation, and co-creation. The field examines how design drives cultural production and change globally, while questioning design's impact on anthropology itself. This approach emphasizes indigenous knowledge and decolonizing design practices.
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Alleviating poverty: entrepreneurship and social capital in rural Denmark 1800-1900
Social capital—built through formal cooperative associations with written rules—motivated rural entrepreneurs to organize collective action in 19th-century Denmark. Peasants formed cooperative groups that provided public goods and drove economic growth in poor agricultural areas, solving the puzzle of why individuals voluntarily contribute to collective efforts despite negative personal economic incentives.
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Enabling community-powered co-innovation by connecting rural stakeholders with global knowledge brokers
The paper demonstrates how community-powered co-innovation improves conditions for small-scale farmers in developing countries. By connecting rural stakeholders with global knowledge brokers, the approach addresses economic, social, and ecological sustainability simultaneously. The authors show this model can be successfully implemented to support farming communities.
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The Impact of FDI on the Independent Innovation Capability of Chinese Indigenous Industries——From the Perspective of Industrial Linkages
Foreign direct investment's forward linkages stimulate Chinese firms' independent innovation through R&D spillovers from multinational corporations, while backward linkages reduce innovation by substituting imported technology for domestic spillovers. Stronger intellectual property protection enhances positive forward linkage effects, and higher absorption expenditure reduces negative backward linkage effects.
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Sustainability and Rural Empowerment: Developing Women’s Entrepreneurial Skills Through Innovation
Rural women entrepreneurs in artisanal sectors face success factors and barriers shaped by individual, social, structural, and innovation elements. Digital technologies and social innovation drive entrepreneurial success, while gender roles, poor infrastructure, and discrimination remain significant obstacles. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified these challenges, spurring innovative resilience strategies. Holistic approaches addressing skills development, resource access, and innovation promotion are essential to empower rural women and advance sustainable community development.
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Exploring the impact of participative place-based community archaeology in rural Europe: Community archaeology in rural environments meeting societal challenges
A participative archaeology project in rural Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Poland demonstrates that community-led excavations within villages are popular and effective. Residents conducted test pit excavations in their own communities, generating both archaeological knowledge and social benefits. The approach successfully attracted and sustained local interest in heritage participation across all three countries, proving the feasibility of this participatory method in rural European contexts.
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The impact of external knowledge sourcing on innovation outcomes in rural and urban businesses in the U.S.
External knowledge sourcing drives innovation in U.S. rural and urban businesses, but with different patterns. Rural firms benefit significantly from knowledge sources outside their own industry and from non-local organizations, while urban firms rely more on within-industry sources. The study uses survey data covering product, process, and green innovations across multiple industries, revealing that rural businesses depend more heavily on distant external knowledge networks to innovate successfully.
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Creative Commons: Non-Proprietary Innovation Triangles in International Agricultural and Rural Development Partnerships
Agricultural development in low-income countries is shifting from traditional technology transfer models toward innovation systems that involve public-private partnerships and open science practices. The paper argues that creative commons approaches generate innovation more effectively than proprietary intellectual property regimes, which often undermine indigenous and local community rights. Pluralistic innovation triangles now connect research, extension, and farming communities while promoting open science at the local level.
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INNOVATION TRANSFER AND RURAL SMES
Rural small and medium enterprises struggle to access innovation due to financial, technical, and organizational barriers. This paper examines innovation transfer to agro-industrial SMEs in Central Italy, identifying cultural and communication gaps between researchers and entrepreneurs. The authors propose methodological guidelines for analyzing and meeting innovation demands in rural enterprises, based on their experience deploying research personnel into SMEs.
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Prototyping technology adoption among entrepreneurship and innovation libraries for rural health innovations
Entrepreneurship and innovation libraries across Europe, Asia, and the USA adopt Figma prototyping technology to support rural health startups. Previous experience, social impact, brand image, and system quality drive perceived usefulness, while usability, training, and self-efficacy influence ease of use. Both factors shape behavioral intention and actual adoption. Strategic partnerships between libraries, policymakers, and technology providers accelerate technology adoption and foster rural health innovation ecosystems.
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THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BACKYARD AS A LOCAL LEVEL INNOVATION INTERMEDIARY IN RURAL CHINA
Science and Technology Backyards (STBs) in rural China function as innovation intermediaries that support agricultural change by facilitating technological, social, and institutional innovation together. STBs evolved from simple knowledge brokers into systemic intermediaries that help farmers adopt improved practices. Villages with STBs showed higher adoption rates of improved tillage methods and better learning environments than villages without them. However, individual STBs have limited impact beyond their communities, requiring collaboration networks to scale innovation across regions.
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Strength of cross‐sector collaborations in co‐designing an extended rural and remote nursing placement innovation: Focusing on student learning in preference to student churning
A cross-sector collaboration between Australian universities and rural health services co-designed an extended nursing placement program to improve student learning in remote areas. The program addresses short placements that limit students' exposure to rural practice and their ability to consider rural careers. By involving stakeholders in program design and implementation, the collaboration created a rural-ready nursing workforce while reducing student attrition from rural regions.
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Making innovations work: local government–NGO partnership and collaborative governance in rural Bangladesh
A local government–NGO partnership in rural Bangladesh improved service delivery and governance at the Union Parishad level through capacity building and community mobilization. The initiative strengthened officials' mindsets, streamlined processes, reduced corruption, and increased accountability and transparency in local government operations.
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Service innovation: a virtual informal network of care to support a ‘lean’ therapeutic community in a new rural personality disorder service
A rural personality disorder service in England created a virtual informal care network using internet messaging and chat rooms to support therapeutic community principles across a large mixed urban-rural catchment area. The system is inexpensive, easily transferable, and allows therapeutic work to continue with reduced in-person programming. This innovation demonstrates how virtual networks can expand access to community-based therapeutic services in rural areas.
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The spread of innovations within formal and informal farmers groups: Evidence from rural communi- ties of semi-arid Eastern Africa
Cohesive and active farmers groups accelerate the spread of agroforestry innovations in semi-arid Eastern Africa. The study surveyed 200 households each in Kenya and Ethiopia, finding that group cohesiveness, activity level, and member motivation all strengthen technology adoption among farmers. Social networks within groups drive knowledge diffusion more effectively than top-down extension approaches alone.
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Strategic experimentation and innovation in rural Australia
A small family farm in rural Australia successfully introduced a new crop and farming methods through strategic partnerships with an international company and government organizations. The case demonstrates that rural innovation depends on entrepreneurial qualities—opportunity recognition, network leverage, risk-taking, and adaptive learning—combined with a supportive national culture that enables farmers to overcome barriers and sustain ventures.
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Community at a Distance: Employing a Community of Practice Framework in Online Learning for Rural Students
Online library and information science education can use a community of practice framework to help rural students build professional networks and develop digital identities. This approach reduces the geographic and professional isolation that rural librarians face by fostering meaningful interactions and collaborative work in virtual environments, preparing graduates for careers requiring online collaboration.
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The CENTRAL Hub Model: Strategies and Innovations Used by Rural Women’s Shelters in Canada to Strengthen Service Delivery and Support Women
Rural women's shelters in Canada adopted a Hub Model combining community education, networking, technology, and resourceful leadership to improve service delivery for women experiencing intimate partner violence. The model successfully addressed challenges unique to rural areas where services differ significantly from urban shelters. Five innovative shelters demonstrated how this integrated approach strengthens support for the 25-30% of Canadian women affected by intimate partner violence.
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Globalisation, indigenous innovation and national strategy: comparing China and India's wireless standardisation
China and India adopted opposite strategies for 3G wireless standards despite similar market conditions. China developed its own domestic standard (TD-SCDMA) while India allowed operators to use any international standard. The divergence stems from different industrial policies each country pursued for their electronics sectors in the 1990s, showing how historical policy choices shaped later innovation strategies.
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The MicroConsignment Model: Bridging the “Last Mile” of Access to Products and Services for the Rural Poor (<i>Innovations Case Narrative</i>: The MicroConsignment Model)
The MicroConsignment Model addresses rural poverty in Guatemala by delivering essential products and services to remote communities. The paper documents how this distribution approach solved real problems: providing clean water to reduce illness in schools, enabling artisans to access vision correction for work, reducing indoor air pollution through improved cooking stoves, and bringing electricity access to families. The model bridges the final distribution gap that prevents rural poor from accessing basic goods.
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Revelatory Case Study for the Emergence of Powerships: The Floating Power Plant Innovation for Rural Electrification
Powerships are floating power plants designed to provide electricity to energy-deficient countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia where building traditional land-based power plants is difficult. This case study examines how Powerships emerged as an innovation, where they operate, their operational challenges and benefits, and the company's successful market launch strategy through interviews with company officials and literature review.
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A Network-Based Approach for Emerging Rural Social Entrepreneurship
Rural social entrepreneurship drives rural development, but remains understudied. This paper applies network theory to rural social enterprises, examining how network structure, social innovation, social learning, and value creation shape strategy and performance. The authors argue that network approaches help rural social enterprises build competitive advantages and strengthen rural economies.
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Diverse interpretations enabling the continuity of community renewable energy projects: A case study of a woody biomass project in rural area of Japan
A Japanese woody biomass project sustained itself for over a decade by allowing members with different motivations to interpret project goals flexibly. Rather than enforcing strict quantitative targets, the project succeeded through diverse social interactions and collaborative practices. This flexibility enabled each member to define success according to their own values and contributions, creating multiple interpretations that ultimately strengthened the project's resilience and long-term viability.
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Strategic orientations and cooperation of external agents in the innovation process of rural enterprises
Market orientation drives incremental innovation in rural enterprises, while entrepreneurial orientation supports both incremental and radical innovation. Specific external partners like suppliers and consultants help with incremental improvements, whereas universities and public research organizations primarily support radical innovation. The study of 208 rural firms reveals that strategic orientations and external collaboration patterns differ from urban business models due to rural market structures and product characteristics.
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Application of artistic design innovation in promoting rural cultural brand construction
This study uses AI and text mining to analyze how users in 15 countries respond emotionally to rural cultural brand designs. The researchers built a virtual simulator and recommendation system to match design elements with regional preferences. Brazilian users preferred vibrant, festive folk art styles, while Russian, Japanese, German, South Korean, and Thai users showed strong emotional responses to rural architecture, handicrafts, and performing arts designs. The findings help tailor rural cultural brand promotion to different international markets.
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Layering of a health, nutrition and sanitation programme onto microfinance-oriented self-help groups in rural India: results from a process evaluation
A health and nutrition program integrated into rural microfinance self-help groups in Bihar, India improved maternal and child health outcomes. Community mobilizers trained on health, nutrition, and sanitation topics shared knowledge in monthly group meetings and home visits. Trained mobilizers demonstrated significantly higher knowledge levels and were more likely to conduct related activities, collect health data, and seek guidance from block-level coordinators. The study shows that non-health programs can effectively deliver health services through dedicated local staff.
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Global Networks and Innovation in China—International Linkages and Indigenous Efforts
Chinese firms leverage both international partnerships and domestic capabilities to drive product and process innovation. This special issue examines how companies balance external global networks with internal resources to enhance innovation performance. Five empirical studies using case analysis, surveys, and data analysis reveal strategies Chinese firms use to manipulate and coordinate international and domestic networks for competitive advantage.
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Actor networks and innovation activities among rural enterprises in a South African locality
Rural enterprises in South Africa benefit significantly from actor networks that facilitate access to innovation knowledge and practices. The study finds that both private and non-profit rural businesses rely on face-to-face interactions and informal knowledge-sharing arrangements rather than formal contracts. These networks enable rural enterprises to access internal and external innovation know-how, supporting local development despite geographic isolation and resource constraints.
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La Innovación y la transferencia de tecnologías en la Estación Experimental "Indio Hatuey": 50 años propiciando el desarrollo del sector rural cubano (Parte I) Innovation and technology transference at the Experimental Station "Indio Hatuey": 50 years propitiating development in the Cuban rural sector (Part I)
Cuba's Indio Hatuey Experimental Station spent 50 years developing and transferring agricultural technologies to rural farmers. The station initially focused on forage conservation to address seasonal feed shortages, then shifted to silvopastoral systems in the 1990s during economic crisis. Despite technological innovation, adoption rates remained low. The station redesigned its approach, treating technology transfer as part of rural territorial development rather than isolated innovation, conducting research in six municipalities with locally relevant results.
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Increasing the Effectiveness of Rural, Regional and Remote Food Security Initiatives Through Place‐Based Partnerships—A Qualitative Study
Rural and remote organizations in Western Australia collaborate on food security through coordinated action, community consultation, and resource sharing. The study of 101 initiative leaders found 378 partnering organizations working together. Formal partnership agreements improve sustainability while maintaining flexibility for addressing complex food security challenges. Clear partnership purposes and defined roles enhance effectiveness across rural food security initiatives.
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Using I-Hubs for Bridging The Gap of Digital Divide in Rural Kenya
Innovation hubs in Kenya bridge the digital divide by providing rural residents with internet access, mentorship, and resources to develop ideas and innovations. The research shows these hubs successfully connect previously excluded communities to digital economy opportunities. However, the government must establish more hubs in underserved rural areas to expand digital business development and increase ICT-driven GDP growth.
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Innovation through indigenous knowledge sharing, organisational memory, and indigenous knowledge erosion on indigenous batik enterprise (a structural equation model in action)
Indigenous batik enterprises preserve traditional knowledge through generational sharing, but face erosion pressures. This study finds that innovation and knowledge-sharing practices strengthen organizational memory in these enterprises. Critically, innovation also accelerates knowledge erosion, while erosion simultaneously reduces knowledge-sharing capacity. The findings reveal tensions between modernization and cultural preservation in indigenous craft businesses.
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Animal Health Management perspectives of rural livestock farmers in Southwest Nigeria: The place of community based Animal Health Workers
Rural livestock farmers in southwest Nigeria rely on community-based animal health workers, indigenous healers, and Fulani pastoralist healers because modern veterinarians are expensive, unreliable, and inaccessible. Farmers rate modern practitioners as more effective but prefer local healers for availability and affordability. The study confirms that community-based animal health workers can effectively address the major livestock health problems farmers face, including disease and production losses.
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43 nd European Regional Science Association Congress "Peripheries, Centres, and Spatial Development in the New Europe" University of Jyväskylä, Finland, August 27 th -30 th 2003 Innovation and Business Performance in Rural and Peripheral Areas of Greece
This study examines innovation patterns in two mountainous Greek regions and their effect on business performance. Surveying 100 manufacturing and service enterprises, the researchers found that product and market innovation varies between the more accessible and remote areas. Business networks, entrepreneurial characteristics, and firm-specific factors drive innovation, which in turn improves business performance. The findings support territorially tailored innovation policies for peripheral rural areas.
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Quadruple Helix Model in Building Communalism and Social Resilience in Handling Poverty in Rural Communities
This study examines how the quadruple helix model—involving government, business, academia, and civil society—reduces rural poverty through social resources and community solidarity. The research finds that social institutions and collective action strengthen communalism and social resilience, enabling rural communities to address poverty more effectively than structural government approaches alone.
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Co-creating a festival with and for rural commoning initiatives: a transdisciplinary place-based process
This paper describes a transdisciplinary collaboration that co-created a rural festival to showcase commoning initiatives and strengthen community care during COVID-19. Artists, designers, farmers, educators, and other stakeholders worked together using place-based methods. The festival engaged the public in collective care for social-ecological systems and challenged dominant narratives about rural life. The research shows how arts-based approaches and festivals can serve as boundary objects that facilitate dialogue across disciplines and create actionable knowledge reflecting local needs.
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Exploring recruitment strategies for place-based research in rural areas of Australia: a comparative case study analysis
This study examined recruitment strategies across four rural Australian research projects conducted between 2016-2024. Face-to-face recruitment by researchers achieved better outcomes than using general practitioners as intermediaries, particularly in smaller geographic areas. Staff turnover significantly hampered recruitment success, especially in intermediary-based approaches. The research demonstrates that sustained staffing, strong local partnerships, and strategies closely aligned with rural practice needs are essential for effective participant recruitment in rural settings.
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Spatial embeddedness in indigenous rural entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review
Indigenous entrepreneurs succeed by building strong internal ties within their close social networks while simultaneously creating external connections across different networks. The paper reviews 14 years of research and finds that spatial embeddedness—how location shapes entrepreneurial networks—remains largely unexplored in indigenous entrepreneurship literature. The authors argue that understanding entrepreneurs as spatially embedded agents offers new insights for indigenous rural business development.
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Innovation in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Education: A Summer Institute on Indigenous and Critical Methodologies
The University of New Mexico developed a summer institute teaching community-based participatory research (CBPR) using indigenous and critical methodologies grounded in Freirean pedagogy. The curriculum organizes CBPR around four domains: context, partnering processes, intervention/research, and outcomes. Since 2010, over 620 participants including students, faculty, community members, and practitioners completed the institute, gaining practical skills to apply CBPR principles in academic and community settings.
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Indigenous Innovators: Creating Collaborative Student-Engineer Innovation Teams between Tribal Colleges and Research Institutions
A tribal college and research university in North Dakota collaborated on a biomedical engineering project to design a running prosthetic limb. The tribal college provided advanced manufacturing capabilities and indigenous problem-solving approaches, while the university contributed innovation-based learning and computational resources. The partnership successfully combined indigenous ways of knowing with modern engineering tools, demonstrating how cross-institutional collaboration between tribal and research institutions strengthens student innovation teams and produces practical solutions.
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An investigation of Agriculture Knowledge Sharing through Indigenous Communication Systems: Insights from Ethnic Communities
Indigenous communication systems—including folk songs, rituals, proverbs, and riddles—effectively transmit agricultural knowledge among four ethnic communities in Assam, India. These traditional methods preserve seasonal farming practices and ecological wisdom better than modern communication alone. Integrating indigenous practices with modern extension systems strengthens rural agricultural communication and supports sustainable livelihoods.
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Agricultural Chambers in the Process of Transfer of Knowledge and Innovations for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas in Poland
Agricultural chambers in Poland function as part of the EU's Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System, facilitating technology and knowledge transfer to farms. Research across Polish regions shows these chambers significantly influenced EU Rural Development Program fund absorption. However, Polish chambers prove less effective at driving agricultural development than counterparts in other EU countries. The study recommends chambers strengthen their roles in policy formation, income stabilization, information dissemination, and farmer advocacy.
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Reimagining community health nursing: a qualitative participatory action research study of nurse-led primary healthcare innovation in rural Saudi Arabia
Nurses in rural Saudi Arabia drive primary healthcare innovation through locally grounded, relationship-centered changes. Using participatory action research with 12 rural nurses, the study identified four themes: frontline leadership, co-creating solutions with communities, adapting to rural constraints, and organizational support. Nurses implemented ten practice innovations targeting care continuity and efficiency. Sustainability succeeded when innovations were simple and embedded into routine workflows. The findings show nurses as key agents for equitable rural healthcare transformation.
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Roots and reach: Place-Based processes for polycentric governance in rural South Africa
Civil society organisations in rural South Africa's former homelands enable polycentric governance and systemic change through nine interconnected place-based processes. Research with seven established organisations reveals a core trajectory from focused effort to credibility-building to learning, amplified by feedback loops and shaped by tensions between autonomy and embeddedness. The study demonstrates these organisations function as crucial nodes for rural agency and innovation, requiring sustained investment.
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Designing and Explaining the Development Model of Palm Conversion and Complementary Industries with an Innovation Approach in Creating Rural Women's Entrepreneurship in Kerman Province
Rural women in Kerman Province, Iran can become entrepreneurs through date processing and complementary industries using innovation approaches. The study identifies key factors driving this entrepreneurship: system efficiency and innovation, marketing ability, and economic incentives. These elements significantly influence women's capacity to create employment, increase family income, and access global markets. Supporting rural women entrepreneurs requires financial backing, education, and business team formation to reduce urban migration and achieve sustainable rural development.
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Primary Care Rural and Frontier Clinical Trials Innovation Center (PRaCTICe): Co-designing research with communities
PRaCTICe is a research initiative that engages rural primary care clinics and communities in co-designing studies aligned with local health priorities. The program uses regional engagement specialists, community needs assessments, listening sessions, and an advisory board to build lasting research infrastructure across rural networks in the Pacific Northwest. Year 1 results show successful clinic-specialist relationships, identified research needs, and community-prioritized health topics.
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Participatory health innovation for stunting prevention: A multi-strategy community engagement model in rural Indonesia
In rural East Java, Indonesia, researchers implemented participatory health innovation activities to prevent stunting through community engagement. Three strategies—a herbal garden food competition, a gamified board game for mothers and children, and anemia education for adolescent girls—generated creative local solutions and increased health awareness. Participants demonstrated ownership and sustained engagement, showing that culturally-rooted, community-led approaches outperform top-down nutrition interventions.
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Design for rural innovation through university community services
Universities can sustain rural innovation through community service projects by building expanded networks of human and non-human actors rather than simply transferring knowledge. The paper analyzes rural market design projects using Actor-Network Theory, showing that innovation adoption happens through dynamic interactions among multiple stakeholders, and that long-term success requires ongoing network expansion and learning spaces beyond initial project implementation.
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Additional file 3 of Exploring recruitment strategies for place-based research in rural areas of Australia: a comparative case study analysis
This supplementary material supports a comparative case study examining recruitment strategies for place-based research in rural Australian communities. The document provides detailed methodological information and comparative analysis of approaches used to engage rural participants in research studies, offering practical insights for researchers conducting fieldwork in geographically dispersed populations.
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Additional file 1 of Exploring recruitment strategies for place-based research in rural areas of Australia: a comparative case study analysis
This paper examines recruitment strategies for conducting place-based research in rural Australian communities. The authors compare different approaches across case studies to identify effective methods for engaging rural participants in research projects. The findings provide practical guidance for researchers working in remote and regional areas where recruitment presents unique challenges.
Media stories — 21
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Reimagining Rural Innovation, Part 2
AscendRural operates a startup accelerator designed specifically for rural communities, matching early-stage companies with local pilot partners like schools and health systems. Unlike urban accelerators, the program emphasizes sector specialization, community-centered design, and pilot partnerships as primary validation. The model prioritizes relationships and trust over capital alone, enabling startups to test solutions in underserved markets while communities receive tools addressing their actual needs.
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Innovation is part of rural America's DNA
Rural entrepreneurs across the United States are driving innovation in digital technology, affordable housing, and childcare. The Brookings podcast features founders building ventures to bring economic opportunity to small towns, including a digital development organization in Missouri, a bilingual childcare center in Maine, and housing initiatives in Colorado. Rural innovation remains underrecognized despite its significance to American economic strength.
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Africa Prize 2026 Shortlist Signals Strong Growth for African Innovation and Local Solutions
The Royal Academy of Engineering announced 16 African innovators from 11 countries selected for the 2026 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. The shortlist includes solutions addressing healthcare, education, clean energy, and transport across the continent. Winners receive mentoring, training, and access to networks; the programme has supported 165 businesses over 12 years, creating over 40,000 jobs.
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Local Roots, Global Reach
Canadian Innovation Week 2026 will celebrate how local innovation across Canada scales to global impact. The theme highlights that powerful ideas emerge from community knowledge and lived experience, grow through collaboration between researchers and entrepreneurs, and reflect Canada's geographic and cultural diversity. Events run May 11–15, 2026.
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Agricultural Technology Ecosystems in East Africa: Taking Stock – Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda
This report examines agricultural technology ecosystems across Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, assessing the current state of agtech adoption and innovation in East Africa. It provides a regional overview of how farmers and agribusinesses access and implement new technologies to improve productivity and sustainability in the region.
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Rural Transformation: Global Health Lessons for Rural America
The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs draws lessons from decades of rural health work in Nigeria, Guatemala, and Guyana to address similar challenges in rural America. Community-centered approaches—listening to local people, building trust with peers, and adapting services to fit daily life—have improved family planning, nutrition, and disease prevention outcomes globally. These proven methods can guide the $50 billion U.S. Rural Health Transformation Program.
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Nordic countries join forces to map and strengthen their innovation ecosystems
Six Nordic and Baltic innovation organizations are collaborating to map and benchmark startup ecosystems across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Estonia. Using an updated analytical framework, they will analyze policy, finance, research, support services, industry engagement, and startup activity across the region. Results will be presented at TechBBQ in August 2026 to mobilize cross-border innovation collaboration.
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The most recent Nordic innovations and innovation campaigns kicking off 2026
Forum Nordic surveys 18 recent innovations across Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland announced in the past six weeks. Highlights include Norway's subsea fibre sensing for ocean monitoring, Finland's quantum computing breakthroughs, Denmark's AI pregnancy screening spinout, Sweden's tech strategy roadmap, and Iceland's responsible AI policy. The roundup showcases university-industry collaborations, deep-tech spinouts, and national innovation ecosystem developments across the Nordic region.
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MSU-IIT Research Team Presents Smart Village Readiness Study at International Conference in Tokyo
Researchers from MSU-IIT presented findings on smart village readiness in Iligan City barangays at an international sustainability conference in Tokyo. The study examined how digital innovations can improve local government operations and public service delivery. Researchers identified gaps in digital infrastructure, governance mechanisms, and community participation that must be addressed to advance smart village initiatives.
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Drones and Artificial Intelligence Leading Agricultural Innovation
USDA and Auburn University researchers are developing drone and AI technologies to transform agricultural operations across row crops, pastures, and specialty crops. The collaborative research focuses on improving material delivery systems, sensor capabilities, and autonomous navigation while testing practical applications like cover crop seeding, pest monitoring, and harvest timing to help Alabama farmers make better management decisions.
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Spray drones expand beyond pesticide application on U.S. farms
Drone use on U.S. farms is expanding beyond spraying to include crop-health scouting, infrastructure inspections, and parts delivery. Falling equipment costs and improving sensor technology make multispectral imaging affordable for more producers. Regulatory compliance and operator training remain key barriers, but advancing autonomy and connectivity enable new income streams and multi-drone coordination.
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EAVISION to Showcase Autonomous Drone Solutions for Complex Farming at Agrishow 2026
EAVISION will demonstrate its J150 autonomous drone system at Agrishow 2026 in Brazil, addressing farming challenges in complex terrain. The drone adjusts to uneven landscapes in real time, maintaining consistent pesticide application across dense crop canopies while reducing drift and waste. The system also handles seed and fertilizer spreading, supporting more efficient operations in regions where terrain restricts traditional machinery.
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ZeroBionic, a Kenyan startup, has been selected among 10 other innovators for the Qualcomm's 2026 Make in Africa Mentorship Cohort
ZeroBionic, a Kenyan startup developing assistive robotics for people with disabilities, was selected for Qualcomm's 2026 Make in Africa Mentorship Cohort from over 1,200 applications across 45 African countries. The program provides mentorship, engineering support, intellectual property assistance, and funding opportunities to help startups commercialize innovations addressing healthcare, agriculture, and infrastructure challenges.
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Robotics build path from rural Kenya to world stage
A Kenyan educator runs robotics clubs in rural Laikipia county, training 200 students in engineering and problem-solving. One team competed at the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore, designing robots for space missions and agricultural applications. The program, funded by a US nonprofit, aims to develop critical thinking skills and encourage Kenyan youth to create rather than consume technology.
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High tech in the fields
German companies and research institutions are deploying driverless machinery, artificial intelligence, sensors, and drones to transform agriculture. Technologies include precision farming software, autonomous robots for weeding, genome editing for crop resilience, and smart livestock monitoring systems. These innovations aim to increase efficiency, reduce chemical inputs, and improve sustainability across farming operations.
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From Smart Villages to Systemic Uptake: Shaping Policy Pathways for Rural Innovation
AEIDL is hosting the second EU Rural Innovation Forum on 9 June 2026 to help rural innovation pilots achieve lasting system-level change across Europe. The online event brings together EU institutions, policymakers, and rural innovation actors to discuss governance and ecosystem conditions enabling Smart Villages and other approaches to scale and embed across diverse territories, informing post-2027 EU programming.
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Spain celebrates a decade of rural and agricultural innovation thanks to the work of Operational Groups
Spain honored ten years of agricultural innovation through Operational Groups—collaborative networks tackling rural challenges. Five groups showcased projects spanning digital tomato cultivation, sustainable olive farming, wine bottle recycling, and carbon sequestration in livestock. Spain leads the EU with 20% of community-funded innovation projects. The government announced €46 million in new grants for 2025.
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The Digital Transformation of Agriculture in Indonesia
Indonesia's agriculture sector, the least digitized in the country, faces food security challenges that digital technologies can address. AgriTech startups are adopting mobile connectivity, AI, IoT, and blockchain to improve smallholder farmer productivity and incomes through advisory services, digital marketplaces, and supply chain traceability. Establishing innovation hubs with public-private partnerships can scale these solutions and strengthen resilience.
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Smart Agriculture in 2026: Soil Sensors, Robotics and the Economics of Connectivity
By 2026, soil sensors, robotics, and precision data platforms will become standard farm operations rather than pilot projects. Continuous soil monitoring now measures nutrients and carbon sequestration, while autonomous robots handle labour-intensive tasks. Success depends on affordable, reliable connectivity—combining LPWAN, private 5G, and satellite IoT—bundled as integrated services rather than standalone products.
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Women's entrepreneurship in rural areas: moving from activity to stability
Women entrepreneurs in rural areas need more than business activity—they need stability through management skills, market access, and mentorship. The article identifies horticulture, processing, and local distribution as promising sectors, while highlighting lack of stable markets and practical management tools as the primary barrier to success.
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Finternet, Ava Labs partner to test blockchain lending for farm assets
Finternet Labs and Ava Labs are collaborating to develop blockchain-based lending systems for Indian farmers and agricultural businesses. The pilot will enable farmers to digitally represent farm assets like grain and use them as collateral for loans, reducing paperwork and speeding up credit access. The companies plan to work with regulators to adapt the technology to India's legal environment.
Organizations — 6
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AscendRural
AscendRural brings together local leaders and the innovation community to fund and facilitate technology pilots in rural communities. The organization runs an accelerator program that supports startups developing solutions for rural challenges, with a focus on areas like senior care and healthcare access. It convenes rural changemakers and works to scale innovations that improve rural well-being.
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Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group
The Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group partners with rural community development practitioners and funders to strengthen rural development systems across the United States. For 40 years, the organization has worked to build regional collaboration and center equity in rural communities historically overlooked by philanthropy and policy investments. Aspen CSG emphasizes community-led development that focuses on protecting and developing the people in rural regions rather than extracting resources, and convenes diverse leaders across sectors to address shared challenges like workforce development, broadband access, and climate resilience.
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OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities
The OECD Centre provides comparative statistics, analysis, and policy advice on regional development, including a dedicated working party on rural policy. It convenes national governments, local leaders, and development practitioners through multiple initiatives and networks focused on inclusive growth and local economic development.
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AEIDL (European Association for Innovation in Local Development)
AEIDL is a Brussels-based association that fosters community-led innovation to revitalize local communities across Europe, with particular focus on rural development and smart rural futures. The organization learns from and supports local initiatives while providing policy analysis and evaluation of EU policies affecting rural and territorial development. AEIDL coordinates networks and projects addressing sustainable local development, territorial development, employment, and support to territorial authorities and businesses.
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CGIAR
CGIAR is the world's largest publicly funded agricultural research network working to advance food and nutrition security globally. The organization conducts research and innovation across agrifood systems, partnering with institutions like IITA and AfricaRice to develop agricultural solutions. CGIAR's work emphasizes transforming food systems through science and strategic research collaborations, with particular focus on African agriculture and smallholder farmer productivity.
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World Economic Forum
International organization for public-private cooperation, headquartered near Geneva. Through its Centre for Nature and Climate and food systems work, the WEF convenes leaders on rural innovation themes — climate adaptation in agriculture, smallholder digitization, and inclusive value chains. Publishes case studies and impact reports that frequently feature rural communities in the Global South.
Events — 3
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NRHA's 49th Annual Rural Health Conference and 11th Rural Hospital Innovation Summit
NRHA's largest annual gathering of rural health professionals convenes in San Diego with over 80 innovative sessions addressing cost-saving solutions and best practices in rural healthcare delivery. The conference includes the 11th Rural Hospital Innovation Summit and associated events focused on raising standards for rural health across the country. Attendees engage with rural health leaders, thought leaders, and exhibitors to strengthen connections and explore solutions for rural healthcare challenges.
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National Forum to Advance Rural Education
NREA's annual conference convenes K–12 and higher education leaders, administrators, researchers, policymakers, and community partners to address challenges and opportunities facing rural schools and communities. The forum brings together a national network united by a commitment to strengthening outcomes for rural learners through cutting-edge sessions, hands-on exhibits, and valuable professional connections. This premier gathering celebrates innovation and resilience across rural America's education sector.
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AGRITECHNICA 2027
AGRITECHNICA is the world's leading trade fair for agricultural machinery, bringing together nearly 3,000 exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the globe. The 2027 edition will showcase innovative, networked agricultural systems that use digital technologies to increase efficiency, sustainability, and productivity in farming. The event features the AGRITECHNICA Innovation Award, recognizing breakthrough products that significantly improve agricultural processes, and serves as a critical platform for agtech innovation and rural entrepreneurship.