The bumpy road of technology partnerships: Understanding causes and consequences of partnership mal-functioning

Research on technological partnerships has traditionally sought explanation of their high failure rates in partner characteristics and relationship features. This study introduces the notion of a ‘bumpy road’ in technology partnerships which refers to undesired outcomes such as ‘partnership mal-functioning’ and ‘instability’ to the degree to which innovation activities are hampered. We explain how firm-level strategies can reduce the probability of a ‘bumpy road’ in partnerships. We also assess the impact of this ‘bumpy road’ on innovative performance. We find that firms that excel in diversification of external activities (in terms of different types of partners) perform best. Moreover, a persistent product oriented innovation strategy geared at developing new products, new markets, or higher product quality will yield more stable partnership outcomes. Our results confirm that engagement in partnerships is beneficial for innovative performance. However, firms that experienced a ‘bumpy road’ in their technological partnerships have to pay a price in terms of a negative effect on their innovative performance.     

Entrepreneurship: Exploring the knowledge base

Entrepreneurship research has a long tradition and since the 1980s the field has grown significantly. In this study we identify the ‘knowledge producers’ who have shaped the field over time and their core entrepreneurship research works. A unique database consisting of all references in twelve entrepreneurship ‘handbooks’ (or state-of-the-art books) has been developed. The chapters in these handbooks were written by experts within the field, and it can be assumed that the most frequently cited references represent ‘core knowledge’ with relevance to entrepreneurship research.From our analysis, it appears that entrepreneurship is a rather changeable field of research, closely linked to disciplines such as ‘management studies’ and ‘economics’. Over time, the field has become more formalized with its own core knowledge, research specialities and an increasing number of ‘insider works’. However, it is still based on some fairly old theoretical frameworks imported from mainstream disciplines, although during the last decade we have seen the emergence of a number of new field-specific concepts and theories. We argue that to successfully develop entrepreneurship research in the future, we need to relate new research opportunities to earlier knowledge within the field, which calls for a stronger ‘knowledge-based’ focus. We would also like to see greater integration between the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation studies in the future.     

Taiwanese IT firms’ offshore R&D in China and the connection with the global innovation network

Although it is evident that technology is becoming increasingly globalized, resulting in the expansion of R&D internationalization by firms, despite this discernible trend, the substantial body of literature in this area is based mainly on the experience of the developed country. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of this issue by examining the R&D internationalization of a newly-industrializing country, Taiwan being a prime example, and its connection with the global production network. We begin with an examination of the literature on R&D internationalization and globalization, based upon which we propose a conceptual framework adapted from Dunning’s eclectic paradigm. In doing so, we set out to develop arguments based not only on the reasons why cross-strait R&D internationalization may be undertaken by Taiwanese information technology (IT) firms, but also the likely patterns of their R&D portfolios across the strait. Drawing on an original questionnaire survey and firm-level interviews, the paper presents and discusses empirical data on the cross-strait R&D deployment of Taiwanese IT firms. It then goes a stage further, using the ‘smiling curve’, to put forward a ‘holistic’ view of the cross-border innovation network in the IT hardware industry, in order to determine what cross-strait R&D internationalization means to the global production network.     

Exploring the emerging knowledge base of ‘the knowledge society’

Science, technology and innovation have grown in importance over the last 50 years as we have moved towards a more knowledge-intensive society (the ‘knowledge society’). A number of new research fields have emerged in an effort to understand these developments and to offer advice to decision-makers in government, industry and elsewhere. This special issue focuses on studies of three relatively distinct though thematically related research fields (innovation studies, entrepreneurship studies, and science and technology studies). The first three articles use a particular methodology based on analysis of the references cited in the chapters to authoritative ‘handbooks’ to identify the core contributions in the three fields. A fourth article examines the relationship between the core literatures in three fields and how this has evolved over time. Other articles look at the evolution of innovation studies as reflected in highly cited papers, at the development of entrepreneurship as seen by a key ‘insider’, and at the creation of new centres in these fields and the difficulties they face. The last article in this special issue shows how interdisciplinary centres in innovation studies suffer from research assessment systems that are intrinsically biased against interdisciplinary research. This introduction presents a synthesis of the articles in this special issue, discusses similarities and differences between the three fields and their development over time, and considers challenges for policy and governance arising from the research presented here.     

Approaching the innovation frontier in Korea: the transition phase to leadership

As leading East Asian latecomer firms begin to compete on the basis of new product development and in-house research and development (R&D), they appear to confront a difficult strategic dilemma. Should they compete as R&D and brand leaders on the international stage or should they continue with their tried and tested formula of low cost catch up competitiveness? Most studies of East Asian firms focus on catch up innovation processes. By contrast, this paper focuses on the challenges facing latecomer firms in the transition phase from catch up to leadership status, in order to assess the ‘strategic dilemma’ argument and examine the nature of transition innovation. Based on in-depth interviews with leading Korean firms, the paper contends that the strategic dilemma argument is a misleading oversimplification of the main innovation challenges facing most Korean firms as they become more technologically advanced. Most of the major exporters (or chaebol) offer a portfolio of products, some of which are technologically advanced and others less advanced. Corporate innovation strategies tend to be executed in relation to the needs of specific products (or closely related product families) rather than ‘the firm’ in its entirety. In addition, many firms in many product areas have yet to reach the innovation frontier stage and even the leading chaebol continue to produce large volumes of products under sub-contracting and licensing agreements. Firm strategies tend to embody a mix of leadership, ‘followership’ and latecomer positions according to the product portfolio of the company in question. The study identifies various strategic options and difficulties facing Korean firms during the transition process and points to promising future research on latecomer transition.     

Innovation and firm growth in high-tech sectors: A quantile regression approach

We relate innovation to sales growth for incumbent firms in high-tech sectors. A firm, on average, experiences only modest growth and may grow for a number of reasons that may or may not be related to innovative activity. However, given that the returns to innovation are highly skewed and that growth rates distributions are heavy-tailed, it may be misleading to use regression techniques that focus on the ‘average effect for the average firm’. Using a quantile regression approach, we observe that innovation is of crucial importance for a handful of ‘superstar’ fast-growth firms.     

On the innovativeness of foreign affiliates: Evidence from companies in The Netherlands

In examining the distinctive contributions of foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms to innovative performance in Dutch manufacturing, the paper shows that foreign ownership is an important factor in explaining inter-firm differences affecting innovativeness. It characterizes innovativeness by distinguishing between products that are new to the firm (‘imitative’ innovations), and those products that are new to the market (‘real’ innovations). It uses firm-level data for 4780 firms which took part in the Community Innovation Survey (CIS-2) for 1996 in The Netherlands. It concludes that foreign subsidiaries are more innovative, they are more likely to introduce ‘imitative’ as well as ‘real’ innovations compared to domestic firms. In comparison with the population of innovative companies, however, there is greater heterogeneity among foreign subsidiaries, i.e. they are not more likely to introduce ‘real’ innovations if they cannot utilize knowledge transfer from an associated company.     

Ownership and firm innovation in a transition economy: Evidence from China

We examine innovation performance of firms in a transition economy from an ownership perspective. We focus specifically on the relationship between ownership structures and firm innovation performance. Drawing on data from 548 Chinese firms we find volume of patent registration to be most strongly influenced by foreign ownership in the firm along with firm affiliation within a business group. The influence of state and institutional ownership on innovation performance is positive but lagged. Contrary to expectations, insider ownership leads to lower innovation performance and concentrated ownership has no significant impact. Our study has two principal contributions. Firstly, we utilize a comprehensive treatment of ownership characteristics, overcoming weakness in previous studies that have used a more narrow focus on ownership type. Secondly, we contribute to understanding of how firms in transition economies build ‘indigenous’ capabilities for innovation by drawing attention to the interplay of foreign and domestic control of agents’ innovation.     

First- and second-order additionality and learning outcomes in collaborative R&D programs

In this paper, we distinguish between firm-level learning effects that result from ‘first-order’ and ‘second-order’ additionalities in innovation policy interventions. ‘First-order’ additionalities represent direct firm-level R&D subsidies, whereas ‘second-order’ additionalities result from knowledge spill-overs, horizontal knowledge exchanges between firms, and from other meso- or community-level effects. Analyzing data from collaborative R&D programs in Finland, we show that enhancing identification with a community of practice among R&D program participants (proxy for second-order additionality) enhances firm-level learning outcomes beyond those resulting from direct R&D subsidy (proxy for first-order additionality). Learning effects facilitated by second-order additionality are not confined to technological learning alone, encompassing also business and market learning. We also show that aspects of program implementation enhance identification with a community of practice, which then mediate the relationship between program implementation and firm-level learning outcomes.     

Shared inventions and the evolution of capabilities: Examining the biotechnology industry

Do capabilities evolve differently as a function of the firm's unique ties or through the cumulative exposure to specific types of knowledge? We view capability evolution with respect to a firm's accumulation of knowledge-derived assets—patents. This study proposes that capabilities evolve by way of a firm's solo and joint invention experiences, and contends that these capabilities are uniquely shaped by the firm's history of patenting with two specific types of ties, upstream and downstream partners. Using a sample of 11,593 patents produced by 256 biotechnology firms from 1985 to 2006, we find that prior joint invention experience diversifies the capabilities of the firm and broadens its strategic options. In uncovering an inverted ‘U’ relationship, we also find that capabilities evolve differently according to the firm's unique joint invention experiences. Moreover, firms that continue to engage in more joint invention experiences develop broader capabilities than firms that retreat from this strategy and pursue solo inventions, whereby more specialized capabilities develop. Focusing on how R&D strategies impact capability development, our findings extend research on capabilities by accounting for how the path dependent role of shared property rights influences the technological trajectory of the firm.     

When ‘national innovation system’ meet ‘varieties of capitalism’ arguments on labour qualifications: On the skill types and scientific knowledge needed for radical and incremental product innovations

The literatures on ‘varieties of capitalism’ (VoC) and ‘national innovation systems’ (NIS) propose very similar arguments about how firms require different types of labour qualifications to pursue strategies of radical product innovation (RPI), incremental product innovation (IPI), and product imitation (PI) respectively. Despite their similar lines of reasoning, however, the VoC scholars are concerned with the skill profiles of a firm's entire workforce, whereas the NIS proponents focus on the knowledge base of scientists. Given that both literatures have developed without explicitly taking the arguments of the neighbouring discipline into account, it is thus unclear whether they explain the same, or different, phenomena. Furthermore, both literatures propose firm level arguments but test them on the basis of macro- rather than micro-level indicators. This paper therefore asks: first, does micro-level evidence support the VoC and NIS arguments that particular types of employee skills and knowledge backgrounds of scientists are needed for different competitive strategies? And, if so, do RPI, IPI, and PI firms need to employ scientists in combination with a workforce having the respective qualifications, or is it sufficient if scientists or employees alone are adequately qualified. Quantitative analyses indicate that a particular mix of scientific knowledge combined with employee skills facilitate RPI, IPI, and PI strategies. The article thus concludes that - despite their similar reasoning - the VoC and the NIS literatures indeed describe different phenomena, without being aware of the synergies created whenever adequate employee and scientific qualifications are hired together.     

The structuration of socio-technical regimes—Conceptual foundations from institutional theory

In recent years, socio-technical transitions literature has gained importance in addressing long-term, transformative change in various industries. In order to account for the inertia and path-dependency experienced in these sectors, the concept of the socio-technical regime has been formulated. Socio-technical regimes denote the paradigmatic core of a sector, which results from the co-evolution of institutions and technologies over time. Despite its widespread acceptance, the regime concept has repeatedly been criticized for lacking a clear operationalization. As a consequence, empirical applications tend to depict regimes as too ‘monolithic’ and ‘homogenous’, not adequately considering persistent institutional tensions and contradictions. These are however crucial for assessing transition dynamics. In this paper, we revisit two concepts from institutional theory that enable an explicit identification of socio-technical regimes and more generally a specification of the ‘semi-coherence’ of socio-technical systems. First, we will show that ‘levels of structuration’ can be conceptualized as degrees of institutionalization, thereby treating institutionalization as a variable with different effects on actors, the stability of the system and thus the potential for change. Secondly, we draw on the institutional logics approach to characterize the content of various structural elements present in a system and to trace conflicts and contradictions between them. We illustrate this approach with an empirical in-depth analysis of the transformation of the Australian urban water sector since the 1970ies.     

The French defence industry in the knowledge management era: A historical overview and evidence from empirical data

In the defence industry the recent development of a ‘market for technology’, the creation of new European high-technology companies as well as transformations in government agencies have driven firms to reposition their technological and organizational skills. Our objective is to show that the transformations that have occurred in the past 10 years have not only redefined skills and the organization of production, but also have given a more strategic place to knowledge management (KM) practices. We provide a contextual and historical overview based on qualitative interviews, in order to better understand the relation between KM and innovative behaviour in this industry. We build an original industrial and technological database comprising various samples that provides quantitative information concerning KM and innovative practices. The results of the statistical analysis reveal the specificity of firms in this industry. Taking account of the size of these firms and their technological intensity, we show that the behaviour of defence industry firms in terms of KM practices, differs from that of other firms. This is evident from their technological performance, and innovation and patenting intensity. This structural tendency is explained as an innovative behaviour in the French national innovation system rather than merely a ‘trend’.     

Impact of the length of relationships upon the use of research institutes by SMEs

Recent studies of US industrial modernisation programmes argue that difficulties of establishing long-term relationships with users prevent them from facilitating development of innovation capabilities. The paper supports this argument through a survey of Japanese research institutes the US programmes were modelled on. In view of information asymmetries in their use, it tests the hypothesis that small and medium-sized firms start using the research institutes with ‘low information gap’ services and gradually move on to ‘high information gap’ services that often require more absorptive capacity. This is demonstrated both under one-to-one relationships and between groups of firms and a research institute.     

Marketing/R&D integration in the pharmaceutical industry

Integrating marketing and R&D inputs is one of the fundamental challenges in managing innovation. In the pharmaceutical industry, considering its reputed ‘technology push’ model of innovation, the challenge of integrating marketing and R&D could hardly be greater. Thus, the recent trend among pharmaceutical firms of implementing Marketing/R&D integrating mechanisms calls for upgrading our conceptualization of the innovation process in this industry. It also raises important questions regarding Marketing's contribution in new product development, and how to organize to assure that contribution is leveraged. We use the case of a pharmaceutical firm which recently implemented Marketing/R&D integrating mechanisms to examine Marketing's new roles. We find that the extreme conditions surrounding innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, notably the need to cope with Knightean uncertainty, highlight important contributions of Marketing input in R&D that deserve more attention. We suggest that Marketing's most important contribution under these conditions lies in ‘not getting it wrong’ rather than ‘getting it right,’ in setting minimum criteria in project evaluations rather than definite targets, and in refocusing the attention of R&D staff through the very process of providing this input. Given the value of these contributions, modern pharmaceutical firms would indeed be ill advised to think of drug discovery as merely a linear process. Drug development has become an interactive process where the timing, type and impact of Marketing involvement is balanced and managed via certain organizational mechanisms throughout the R&D process, which is an iterative one.     

Broadening out and opening up technology assessment: Approaches to enhance international development,co-ordination and democratisation

Technology assessment (TA) has a strong history of helping to identify priorities and improve environmental sustainability, cost-effectiveness and wider benefits in the technology policies and innovation strategies of nation-states. At international levels, TA has the potential to enhance the roles of science, technology and innovation towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, effectively implementing the UN Framework on Climate Change and fostering general global transitions to ‘green economies’. However, when effectively recommending single ostensibly ‘best’ technologies or strategies, TA practices can serve unjustifiably to ‘close down’ debate, failing adequately to address technical uncertainties and social ambiguities, reducing scope for democratic accountability and co-ordination across scales and contexts. This paper investigates ways in which contrasting processes ‘broadening out’ and ‘opening up’ TA can enhance both rigour and democratic accountability in technology policy, as well as facilitating social relevance and international cooperation. These methods allow TA to illuminate options, uncertainties and ambiguities and so inform wider political debates about how the contending questions, values and knowledges of different social interests often favour contrasting innovation pathways. In this way TA can foster both technical robustness and social legitimacy in subsequent policy-making. Drawing on three empirical case studies (at local, national and international levels), the paper discusses detailed cases and methods, where recent TA exercises have contributed to this ‘broadening out’ and ‘opening up’. It ends by exploring wider implications and challenges for national and international technology assessment processes that focus on global sustainable development challenges.     

The role of intermediation and absorptive capacity in facilitating university-industry linkages—An empirical study of TAMA in Japan

This paper analyzes two elements necessary for building an efficient regional technology-transfer system between universities and firms, namely, an intermediary organization and regional firms that have a developed ‘absorptive capacity’, touching in particular upon the tacit knowledge aspects. Based on an empirical study of the TAMA cluster project (in the western part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area), which is a model project of the ‘Industrial Cluster Plan’ in Japan, we examine the intermediation effect of the TAMA Association and the ‘absorptive capacity’ of various product-developing SMEs. These two elements are interrelated because the participation of the product-developing SMEs is a prerequisite for the effective functioning of an intermediary such as the TAMA Association. Our analysis also shows that university-industry linkages and inter-firm linkages lead to different outcomes.     

Governing the virtual academic commons

This paper investigates the way in which certain institutions governing the common resources shared by academics and others are affected by the increase in communication facilities, disciplinary transgression and the value of knowledge. By taking its point of departure from concepts such as ‘tragedy of the commons’ and social dilemmas, the paper argues that institutions which have traditionally governed the so called ‘academic commons’ are now challenged by a number of factors pertinent to the evolution of knowledge society. As a result the governance principles for the academic commons must be further explicated and revised in the light of the new situation. A case in point from a recent on-line initiative by the US National Institute of Health (NIF) is presented to illustrate how such institutions can be built. Finally, a number of governance strategies are presented for an increasingly wired “virtual academic commons”.     

‘Energy regions’: The transformative power of regional discourses on socio-technical futures

‘Guiding visions’ play an important role in the transition management approach as a central means of mobilizing social actors and the co-ordination of dispersed agency.‘Energy regions’ in Austria are an interesting example for the strategic promotion of such guiding visions in the context of regional development. We describe the case of Murau, an alpine district in which a strong actor network has been built around a vision of systematically exploiting renewable energy sources and at the same time saving the region from economic decay. The vision gained much authority and has been institutionalised at various levels of regional governance. It furthermore was supported by and played an important role for regime level attempts to influence socio-technical change.Development and social propagation of such visions are inherently political and contested processes involving much strategizing and anticipation of conflict. We describe particular discursive strategies applied in niches - such as the combination and translation of sentiments into localised visions and demonstrations of feasibility. These strategies can be understood as systematic attempts to support discursive shifts at regime level by means of local activities, and aim to modify rather durable power structures.We suggest ways to analyse such discursive practices in order to orient strategic action in the course of such processes: analysing ‘guiding visions’ and their interference with other emerging trends; extending analyses across spatial scales (e.g. translations) and across thematic fields (e.g. convergence of agendas); and focusing on processes of stabilisation, institutionalisation and mutually reinforcing developments.     

A man on the inside: Unlocking communities as complementary assets

Since Teece's seminal paper explaining who were the gainers from technological innovation, increased globalization and the information and communication technology revolution have brought new ways for firms to organize and appropriate from innovation. A new more open model of innovation suggests that firms can benefit from sources of innovation that stem from outside the firm. The central theme of this paper is how firms try to unlock communities as complementary assets. These communities exist outside firm boundaries beyond ownership or hierarchical control. Because of practices developed by communities to protect their work, firms need to assign individuals to work in these communities in order to gain access to developments and, to an extent, influence the direction of the community. Using network analysis we show that some software firms sponsor individuals to act strategically within a free and open source software (FOSS) community. Firm sponsored individuals interact with more individuals than interact with them, and also they seek to interact with central individuals in the community. However, we can see differences in how individuals interact, depending on whether their affiliation is with a dedicated FOSS firm or an incumbent in the software industry. Apparently, some firm managers believe they need ‘a man on the inside’ to be able to gain access to communities.