TY - JOUR
T1 - Solving Environmental Problems
T2 - Knowledge and Coordination in Collaborative Search
AU - Ørding Olsen, Anders
AU - Sofka, Wolfgang
AU - Grimpe, Christoph
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Recent innovation and strategy research emphasizes the importance of firm’s search for external knowledge to improve innovation performance. We focus on such search strategies within the domain of sustainable innovation in which problems are inherently complex and the relevant knowledge is widely dispersed. Hence, firms need to collaborate. We shed new light on collaborative search strategies led by firms in general and for solving environmental problems in particular. Both topics are largely absent in the extant open innovation literature. Using data from the European Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP7), our results indicate that the problem-solving potential of a search strategy increases with the diversity of existing knowledge of the partners in a consortium and with the experience of the partners involved. Moreover, we identify a substantial negative effect from involving partners in a search consortium who collaborate for the first time. Our findings have implications for both the literature on firms’ search and the creation of sustainable innovation.
AB - Recent innovation and strategy research emphasizes the importance of firm’s search for external knowledge to improve innovation performance. We focus on such search strategies within the domain of sustainable innovation in which problems are inherently complex and the relevant knowledge is widely dispersed. Hence, firms need to collaborate. We shed new light on collaborative search strategies led by firms in general and for solving environmental problems in particular. Both topics are largely absent in the extant open innovation literature. Using data from the European Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP7), our results indicate that the problem-solving potential of a search strategy increases with the diversity of existing knowledge of the partners in a consortium and with the experience of the partners involved. Moreover, we identify a substantial negative effect from involving partners in a search consortium who collaborate for the first time. Our findings have implications for both the literature on firms’ search and the creation of sustainable innovation.
UR - https://sfx-45cbs.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/45cbs?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/sfxit.com:azlist&sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1&rft.object_id=954921351303&rft.object_portfolio_id=&svc.holdings=yes&svc.fulltext=yes
U2 - 10.1016/j.lrp.2016.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.lrp.2016.05.003
M3 - Journal article
VL - 50
SP - 726
EP - 740
JO - Long Range Planning
JF - Long Range Planning
SN - 0024-6301
IS - 6
ER -