L.A.G. Oerlemans

Do Networks Matter for Innovation? The usefulness of the economic network approach in analysing innovation

Economic network theory emphasises the importance of external resource mobilisation. In this paper, the relations between the mobilisation and use of internal and external resources in innovation processes, and the innovative performance of firms, are explored empirically, using an adapted version of Hakanssons (1987) economic network model. The main research question was: to what extent do network variables contribute to the innovative performance of firms? To answer this question, we assessed the explanatory power of economic network theory within the empirical study of innovation. Firms were found to engage in various configurations of internal and external resource bases, enabling them to innovate with better results. The relations in the estimated models are strongly influenced by moderating variables such as sector, and type and level of innovations produced. Our main conclusion is that models that include both internal and external resources explain the innovative performance better than models in which only internal resources are used.

Firm behaviour and innovative performance: An empirical exploration of the selection-adaptation debate

Innovation is a complex trade-off between routinisation and change, between reliability and accountability of firms and timely adaptation. This innovators dilemma confronts innovation theory with the question, how to align routinisation with innovation induced organisational change and consistent performance. Obviously it is a complex issue. Dominant innovation theory neglects this subject due to its pro-innovation bias, while evolutionary organisation and innovation theory give opposite perspectives on this problem. The adaptation perspective considers pro-active behaviour as the best condition for innovative performance, whereas the selection perspective advances inert firm behaviour as the best alternative to achieve successful innovations. Our research question focuses on the explanatory value of either the selection or the adaptation perspective for the innovative performance of industrial firms. Our empirical findings confirm the adaptation perspective and reject the selection perspective. Comparatively, firm behaviour involving the highest risks and uncertainties—e.g., high environmental dynamics and high levels of adaptive activity—contributes most significant to the explanation of innovative performance. Inert, risk averse behaviour, conversely, does not improve or even impedes innovative performance compared with other types of firm behaviour.

It's Only Temporary: Time Frame and the Dynamics of Creative Project Teams

The success of many knowledge-intensive industries depends on creative projects that lie at the heart of their logic of production. The temporality of such projects, however, is an issue that is insufficiently understood. To address this, we study the perceived time frame of teams that work on creative projects and its effects on project dynamics. An experiment with 267 managers assigned to creative project teams with varying time frames demonstrates that compared to creative project teams with a relatively longer time frame, project teams with a shorter time frame focus more on the immediate present, are less immersed in their task, and utilize a more heuristic mode of information processing. Furthermore, we find that time frame moderates the negative effect of team conflict on team cohesion. These results are consistent with our theory that the temporary nature of creative projects shapes different time frames among project participants, and that it is this time frame that is an important predictor of task and team processes.

Task and relationship conflict in short‐term and long‐term groups: The critical role of emotion regulation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the triple interaction of task conflict, emotion regulation and group temporariness on the emergence of relationship conflict.Design/methodology/approach – A field study was conducted to test the interaction of emotion regulation and task conflict on the emergence of relationship conflict in 43 short‐term (temporary) groups and 44 long‐term groups.Findings – The results show that the highest chance for task conflict to evolve into relationship conflict is when groups (both short‐term and long‐term) have less effective emotion regulation processes, while task and relationship conflict are rather decoupled in long‐term groups scoring high on emotion regulation.Research limitations/implications – The paper concludes with a discussion of the obtained results in terms of their implications for conflict management in groups. Further research should explore the moderation effects in longitudinal studies in order to fully test the variables in the model.Originalit...

R&D cooperation in a transaction cost perspective

This paper investigates R&Dcooperation between buyers and suppliers, drawing bothon transaction cost theory and resource-based theoryof the firm. Results of logistic regression analyses,using a unique firm-level database containing 689manufacturing firms located in a Dutch region, supportassumptions of transaction cost theory. Frequentknowledge transfer and moderate and high levels ofasset specificity increase probabilities of R&Dcooperation. In particular, Williamsons assumptionsconcerning the moderating influences of uncertainty onbilateral governance are confirmed. Extending theoriginal transaction cost model with indicatorsderived from resource based theory of the firmincreases the performance of the model.

Knowledge exchange behaviours of science park firms : The innovation hub case

Since the 1990s there has been a rapid growth of science parks, often established to function as engines of (regional) economic growth. Knowledge exchange between on-park firms in general, and between these firms and universities in particular, is one of the key characteristics of a science park. This paper regards knowledge exchange as a type of network behaviour. The paper answers three research questions: What are the knowledge exchange behaviours of on-park firms? Can we distinguish different types of behaviour among these firms? If so, what are differences between these groups? To answer these questions, we take a relational approach in which actor and relationship features are studied in a sample of firms located at the Innovation Hub (South Africa). Preliminary results show that there are two groups of firms: on-park firms that network with other on-park firms and those that do not. Moreover, there are interesting differences between these groups: On-park networkers have in comparison more informal ties with off-park firms than the other group (non-on-park networkers); they are able to gain more useful knowledge from private knowledge sources; and they have more access to unintended knowledge that flows in the park. Despite different knowledge exchange behaviours, the innovative performance of the groups does not differ.

The Effects of Spatial Mobility on the Performance of Firms

Abstract A considerable body of research has analyzed the impact of a firm’s geographic position and levels of organizational and territorial embeddedness on its performance. Generally these studies have assumed that firms are immobile. Research that has focused on the effects of the relocation of firms has treated firms mainly as atomistic actors that can move freely in geographic space and has tended to neglect the influence of changes in a firm’s geographic position and level of organizational and territorial embeddedness. We integrated insights from both streams of literature to answer the research question, “What are the effects of relocation on a firm’s performance, and what is the influence of a firm’s geographic position and its level of organizational and territorial embeddedness on this relationship?” On the basis of our analysis of data from a survey of managers of Dutch automation services firms, we found that the degree of impact of a firm’s relocation on its performance depends on the characteristics of the relocation. For example, a move to an urbanized region hampers performance, whereas a move to a research and development-intensive region fosters a higher level of performance. Furthermore, firms with high levels of organizational embeddedness suffer in the short term from relocation, but benefit in the long run.

Regional Innovation Networks

The aim of this book is to present a much-needed conceptualization of ‘the learning region’. The editors scrutinize key concepts and issues surrounding this phenomenon, which are then discussed in the context of recent literature. This unique conceptualization of the learning region presents a state of the art exploration of theories. Leading scholars from across Europe, the USA and South Africa draw upon various disciplines to explain how regional actors perform regional learning.

The Variety of Governance Structures Beyond Market and Hierarchy

While research has identified a variety of hybrid governance structures, it has described and sought to explain this variety from different theoretical perspectives that are not readily reconcilable. This limits our ability systematically to compare different types of hybrids and on this basis to further theoretical understanding. Results of an empirical survey of transactions in buyer–supplier relations in the German construction industry provide novel insights into three distinct, widely employed types of hybrid governance structures. The study systematically compares the found hybrid governance structures and explores their rationales. As its main theoretical contribution, this study offers an empirically based typology of hybrid governance structures that complements earlier theorizing. It suggests that embeddedness and transaction cost arguments complement one another in explaining different and previously theoretically unspecified types of hybrid governance structures.

In the shadows of time: A case study of flexibility behaviors in an interorganizational project

We use a longitudinal examination of the production of a complex vessel to develop theory concerning operational flexibility behaviors within interorganizational projects. We find that operational flexibility behaviors are enabled by trust between project participants, sense of urgency, and the availability of resources. These enablers are in turn positively influenced by positive experiences in previous interactions (“shadow of the past”) and expectations of possible future collaboration (“shadow of the future”), the temporary nature of interorganizational projects and slack in project tasks, respectively. The positive effect of enablers on operational flexibility is weakened by the time pressure project participants experience. The latter is also caused by the temporariness of interorganizational projects. Based on our findings, we propose that the different time dimensions play a crucial role in explaining flexibility behaviors in interorganizational projects: the temporariness that is an essential characteristic of interorganizational projects has two potentially opposite effects on the behavior of its participants, and we argue that shadows of the past and future play a decisive role in which of the two effects will dominate. The theoretical framework based on our case study suggests that the temporariness of interorganizational projects is indeed important—as acknowledged in the literature—but that its effect is contingent on shadows of past and future.