Nadine Roijakkers

Inter-Firm R&D Networks: The Importance of Strategic Network Capabilities for High-Tech Partnership Formation

We examine the role of different network capabilities of companies that influence the formation of R&D partnerships in pharmaceutical biotechnology. Strategic network capabilities, specifically centrality-based capabilities and the efficiency with which companies choose their partners, are found to facilitate the formation of new partnerships. Unlike general experience with partnering, these strategic network capabilities play a crucial role in enabling companies to continue to interact with other companies through partnerships in a complex network setting.

IP Models to Orchestrate Innovation Ecosystems: IMEC, a public research institute in nano-electronics

Companies increasingly organize innovation activities within innovation ecosystems. This study illustrates the central role of the IP-model that an orchestrator develops for the innovation ecosystem partners. The governance of IP is instrumental for the success of innovation ecosystems as it determines the value appropriation potential for the ecosystem partners and positively influences the success of innovation ecosystems. The insights are based on a case study of IMEC, a public research institute in nano-electronics. IMEC has an IP-based orchestration model for innovation ecosystems through multi-party research collaborations between public and private firms.

How Chinese firms employ open innovation to strengthen their innovative performance

China became the second-largest economy behind the USA in 2010. While there is quite some macroeconomic research documenting the technological catching-up of China as a nation, there is only little research studying how individual Chinese firms are catching up. This paper draws on the open innovation perspective to explore how Chinese firms improve their innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of 91 native Chinese firms in high-tech industries. The results indicate that Chinese

Inter-firm R&D networks in the global software industry: an overview of major trends and patterns

This paper presents an analysis of some major historical trends in inter-firm R&D partnering in the international software industry during the period 1970–1999. Our research demonstrates an overall growth pattern of newly made R&D partnerships and reveals the important role played by leading firms. We also examine the emergence of various R&D networks in the software industry, indicating the change from sparse and disconnected inter-firm R&D networks to dense and well-connected networks since the second half of the 1980s.

Selection on the road to a career : evidence of personality sorting in educational choice

In this study we investigate whether the process of Attraction, Selection and Attrition as described by Schneider (1987) is already operative prior to labor market entry, i.e., in the educational phase of careers. We focused on selection with regard to the locus of control personality trait because of its firm conceptual and empirical relevance in both content and process of choice. Specific hypotheses were proposed as to the sorting of different personality types in study programs leading to different prospective professional careers. The study was carried out in a sample of 158 Austrian students. We found strong support for our hypotheses in that (1) personality predicted specific study choices and (2) personality predicted different levels of rationality in the choice process. In addition, the findings also suggest that tighter matches between personality and study programs could be observed for students making rational choices. The results indicate support for the validity of the ASA model in educational choice, provided the use of meaningful individual differences. Several promising avenues for future research are identified.

Trends and Patterns in Interfirm R&D Networks in the Global Computer Industry: An Analysis of Major Developments, 1970–1999

In the early 1970s, a few computer companies began to form partnerships with other firms in the international computer industry for the purpose of sharing research and development (R&D) resources. This trend did not take hold in a meaningful way until the beginning of the 1980s. Our study focuses on this particular sector because it represents a major industry in which interfirm R&D partnering occurs.

The formation of subsequent inter-firm R&D partnerships between large pharmaceutical companies and small, entrepreneurial biotechnology firms – how important is inter-organisational trust?

This paper analyses the role of inter-organisational trust in pharmaceutical biotechnology, an industry characterised by a strong dual market structure. Our main finding is that repeated ties in pairs of large pharmaceutical companies and small, entrepreneurial biotechnology firms, which indicate inter-organisational trust, have a negative effect on subsequent partnering. An explanation for this result is found in specific conditions for R&D partnering in this high-technology dual market structure. Partnerships between a small number of very large companies and a large group of dependent small companies are not characterised by mutual dependence and inter-organisational trust.

Linking open innovation to national systems of innovation: a coevolutionary perspective

This paper primarily intends to broaden the scope of open innovation (OI) by connecting this concept to the literature on national systems of innovation (NSI). The main assumption behind this paper is that OI entails new types of governance structures that enable companies to tap into widely distributed knowledge bases through rapidly proliferating technology markets. Given that the current state of research within NSI literature has shifted towards a functional approach, the various proposed functional portfolios within NSI are supposed to coevolve with the mechanisms that coordinate innovation activities (i.e., hierarchical, network, and technology markets). Establishing a relationship between OI and NSI enables us to extend the functional NSI portfolio to accommodate the paradigmatic shift in governance structure represented by OI.

The Importance of Connecting Open Innovation to Strategy

Companies that are experienced in open innovation integrate open innovation activities as part of their strategy. By contrast, open innovation research has not been adequately integrated into the strategy literature and vice versa. In this chapter, we discuss a number of existing strategy fields that offer inroads to connect open innovation to strategy. The need to connect open innovation to strategy is illustrated by describing how companies increasingly organize new business development projects through open innovation ecosystems where an increasing variety of partners do not only act as sources of innovative knowledge but also provide input to a joint strategizing process.

Firm Heterogeneity and Learning by Technology Licensing: Empirical Evidence from China

Firm heterogeneity lies at the heart of the resource-based view of the firm in explaining a firm’s innovation success. However, these studies focus on one or two limited perspectives of heterogeneity and more or less neglect the different learning mechanisms by which heterogeneous resources contribute to firms’ success in innovation. In this study, we extend the perspectives of firm heterogeneity into five angles and carefully examine how these different aspects contribute to a firm’s learning experiences, and consequently result in its innovation success. We set our study context under the newly identified external learning mechanism - learning through technology licensing. Using a dataset of 186 Chinese firms during the period 2002-2003 we test five hypotheses in relation to the link between a recipient firm’s heterogeneity, learning experience and its innovation output. The empirical findings indicate that various perspectives of firm heterogeneity can be jointly used to explain a firm’s learning experience and innovation output. That is, a firm with a longer history, stronger pre-existing technological strengths and integrative capabilities, larger scale, and a stronger orientation for foreign knowledge sourcing are better positioned for learning through their technology licensing-ins, and thus achieve superior innovation performance.