Collaborative ties and ambidextrous innovation: insights from internal and external knowledge acquisition

ABSTRACT

Building collaborative ties has become an increasingly important strategy for influencing firms’ ambidextrous innovation in transition economies, we examine the relationship between collaborative ties and ambidextrous innovation—with a focus on the mediating effect of knowledge acquisition using firm-level data in China. The empirical results reveal several important findings. First, collaborative ties among partners have a positive effect on firms’ ambidextrous innovation. Second, collaborative ties among partners are more beneficial to the firm’s external knowledge acquisition than internal knowledge acquisition. Lastly, the mediating effect of internal knowledge acquisition on the relationship between collaborative ties and ambidextrous innovation of firms is higher than that of external knowledge acquisition. These findings contribute to the literature on ambidexterity theory. Moreover, these findings also extend our understanding of the importance of the integration of internal and external knowledge acquisition in collaborative relationships, and enrich knowledge management literature within the collaborative ties framework.     

Local Nodes in Global Networks: The Geography of Knowledge Flows in Biotechnology Innovation

The literature on innovation and interactive learning has tended to emphasize the importance of local networks, inter-firm collaboration and knowledge flows as the principal source of technological dynamism. More recently, however, this view has come to be challenged by other perspectives that argue for the importance of non-local knowledge flows. According to this alternative approach, truly dynamic economic regions are characterized both by dense local social interaction and knowledge circulation, as well as strong inter-regional and international connections to outside knowledge sources and partners. This paper offers an empirical examination of these issues by examining the geography of knowledge flows associated with innovation in biotechnology. We begin by reviewing the growing literature on the nature and geography of innovation in biotechnology research and the commercialization process. Then, focusing on the Canadian biotech industry, we examine the determinants of innovation (measured through patenting activity), paying particular attention to internal resources and capabilities of the firm, as well as local and global flows of knowledge and capital. Our study is based on the analysis of Statistics Canada's 1999 Survey of Biotechnology Use and Development, which covers 358 core biotechnology firms. Our findings highlight the importance of in-house technological capability and absorptive capacity as determinants of successful innovation in biotechnology firms. Furthermore, our results document the precise ways in which knowledge circulates, in both embodied and disembodied forms, both locally and globally. We also highlight the role of formal intellectual property transactions (domestic and international) in promoting knowledge flows. Although we document the importance of global networks in our findings, our results also reveal the value of local networks and specific forms of embedding. Local relational linkages are especially important when raising capital—and the expertise that comes with it—to support innovation. Nevertheless, our empirical results raise some troubling questions about the alleged pre-eminence of the local in fostering innovation.     

Overcoming Undesirable Knowledge Redundancy in Territorial Clusters

This work analyzes the existence of redundant knowledge associated with geographic networks of firms. Specifically, our research focuses on how firms can avoid inefficient redundancy ties derived from territorial clusters. We propose that firms embedded in a dense and strong-tie network generate redundant knowledge flows. However, they may use structural dispersion to mediate and overcome this limitation. Our empirical study was conducted drawing on the Spanish ceramic tile industrial cluster to test the potential association between social capital and redundancy. Our findings support the idea that structural dispersion mediates the effects of strong ties and the generation of knowledge redundancy.     

(How) Do (Firms in) Clusters Create Knowledge?

The literature on clusters and cluster building has been rapidly growing both in academic and policy-making circles. Central to this interest and body of work has been the assumption that location in clusters helps firms to exchange, acquire and generate new knowledge. Since knowledge is increasingly believed to be the basis of firm competitiveness clustered firms and industries will outperform others. This paper sets out to examine the evidence for propositions regarding the knowledge-enhancing qualities of clusters by reviewing the literature with the expressed intention of examining whether such claims in fact rest upon rigorous and verifiable empirical findings. In order to do this we extract from the theoretical literature on clusters three hypothetical arguments for the knowledge creating and competitiveness generating power of clusters: knowledge in clusters is created through various forms of local inter-organizational collaborative interaction; knowledge in clusters is created through increased competition and intensified rivalry; knowledge in clusters is created through spillover following from the local mobility and sociability of individuals. The paper goes on to assess and evaluate the number and rigour of empirical cases supporting these types of argument.     

Knowledge Networks and Innovative Performance in an Industrial District: The Case of a Footwear District in the South of Italy

The traditional district literature tends to assume that: (1) the competitiveness of firms depends on external sources of knowledge; (2) all firms in a district benefit from knowledge externalities; (3) relying on external knowledge relationships necessarily means these are confined to the district area. Our case study of the Barletta footwear district in the South of Italy suggests otherwise. Based on social network analysis, we demonstrate that the local knowledge network is quite weak and unevenly distributed among the local firms. A strong local network position of a firm tended to increase their innovative performance, and so did their connectivity to extra-local firms. So, it mattered being connected either locally or non-locally: being co-located was surely not enough. Having a high absorptive capacity seemed to raise only indirectly, through non-local relationships, the innovative performance of firms.     

Local Knowledge Spillovers and Development: An Exploration of the Software Cluster in Uruguay

The paper contributes to the understanding of the nature of local knowledge spillovers and their importance for innovation in clusters in developing countries. Using detailed primary data about a cluster of software firms in Montevideo, Uruguay, the paper finds plenty of evidence of the existence of pure unintentional knowledge spillovers. In addition, it supports previous theoretical studies that have contended that there are also many knowledge flows that are to some degree produced purposively by local parties—these flows can be placed somewhere in between pure spillovers and pure market transactions. While the respondents themselves place most value on knowledge flows that are more or less purposively co-produced with customer transactions, a more objective statistical analysis shows that good product/service-innovation performance is associated with intensive use of flows with more pronounced spillover characteristics. The respondents possibly underrate the latter because of their invisibility and spontaneous nature. Heavy use of knowledge flows lying close to the market-transaction side of the spectrum is found to be associated with relatively advanced organizational capability, but not with product innovation. Overall, the findings point towards the relevance of cluster-based policies to promote innovation in a less developed country context. Various policy measures to stimulate the local circulation of knowledge are suggested.     

Linking content and technology: on the geography of innovation networks in the Bergen media cluster

Abstract

This paper deals with the geography of innovation networks and analyses combinatorial knowledge dynamics from a single cluster perspective. Addressing firms in the media cluster in Bergen, Norway, we examine how and from where companies acquire and combine different types of knowledge for their innovation activities. The empirical analysis, which is based on structured interviews with 22 media companies, identifies two main types of cluster firms: media content providers that rely heavily on symbolic knowledge and media technology providers that draw mostly on synthetic knowledge. Even though they draw on different knowledge bases, the two types of firms are strongly interlinked in their innovation activities and source knowledge from each other. Furthermore, we find that synthetic firms constitute a gateway to the regional R&D system and that the region acts as key arena for the combination of dissimilar knowledge bases.     

Entrepreneurial networks and open innovation: the role of strategic and embedded ties

This paper considers the open innovation paradigm in the context of entrepreneurial firms. Based on an analysis of survey data, it examines the relationship between network ties and innovation. These are considered as the strategic network ties associated with open innovation and the embedded ties associated with entrepreneurial networks. It is found that both strategic and embedded ties are significantly associated with rates of innovation for entrepreneurial firms, although for the former this relationship is driven by a minority of larger or highly innovative firms. Strategic ties are most strongly linked to product and organisational innovations, whilst process innovations are more related to embedded network ties. There is some evidence of complementarity between the two forms of network tie. It is concluded that in the entrepreneurial context, the open innovation concept should be broadened to encompass the role performed by embedded network ties.     

Small worlds,inheritance networks and industrial clusters

The performance of firms within industrial clusters has been the subject of a multitude of studies. The organizational attributes inherited by spinoffs from parent firms is one explanation behind performance premiums. This paper examines the relationship between a spinoff’s network and its geographic location in an industrial cluster. We hypothesize that there is a negative relationship between a spinoff’s network efficiency and its distance from the cluster’s centroid. Although recent literature infers that the transmission of knowledge in industrial clusters is accomplished via inherited network ties, this has not been directly measured. This paper aims to fill that research gap. We find that, after controlling for firm size, parent size and age, there is indeed a statistically significant and negative relationship between network efficiency and geographic distance to a cluster’s core.     

Innovative knowledge sharing,supply chain integration and firm performance of Australian manufacturing firms

A number of reports show that innovation in Australian manufacturing firms is declining. We propose that better knowledge sharing practices can assist these firms to become more innovative. In this paper, we examine this proposition by empirically testing the relationship between knowledge sharing practices within and between trading partners as a framework for integration, and testing for the effect of these practices on firm performance. Data were collected from 418 organisations in the manufacturing industry in Australia to assess the degree to which innovative knowledge sharing practices provide a competitive advantage to Australian firms. Structural equation modelling approach to data analysis was used. It was found that the three innovative knowledge sharing constructs (internal knowledge integration, knowledge integration with customers and knowledge integration with suppliers) were strongly inter-related, providing a case for knowledge-based integration of firms with their trading partners. Further, these three exogenous constructs collectively explained about a third of the variance in the endogenous construct (firm performance). The relationships identified provide support for the efficacy of knowledge-based collaboration as an innovation promoting higher firm performance levels. Managers of manufacturing firms in Australia specifically, and others more generally, can use this as a way to conceptualise how their firms can develop internal integration and collaborative relationships with their trading partners.     

Reaching Out and Reaching Within: A Study of the Relationship between Innovation Collaboration and Innovation Performance

A large body of research has thoroughly discussed and examined agglomeration advantages for innovation of geographically concentrated firms. However, there is an increasing awareness that this intellectual tradition tends to overemphasize the role of geographic proximity in the transfer of knowledge between firms and to under-theorize the contribution of nonlocal knowledge flows. With a sample of 143 manufacturing firms from Singapore, this research attempts to answer three interrelated questions: (1) Does local networking effort provide firms with added value above and beyond what is available to them by just “being there?” (2) Does local collaboration contribute more to innovation performance than nonlocal collaboration? (3) What is the joint impact of local and nonlocal collaborations on innovation performance? We find that while local and nonlocal collaborations are statistically indistinguishable from each other in terms of their relative importance, they represent complementary spurs to innovation. Despite the unique research setting of Singapore as a city state, we argue that our findings may be generalizable to geographic systems in other parts of the world.     

The Complementary Dynamic Effects of Clusters and Networks

Over the past decades, researchers and policymakers around the world have been paying attention to the concept of clusters of related firms, industries and institutions, with a view to the presumably positive effects of clustering for learning, innovation and the productivity of firms. More recently, a network approach to learning and innovation emerged, which emphasizes strategic, preferential, repeated and at the same time temporary knowledge exchange (i.e. dynamic cooperation) between firms and other organizations. This may, however, go at the expense of the attention for the important, different and complementary learning effects of the mainly spatial process of concentration and clustering of related firms, industries and institutions. This paper argues that clusters and networks are two separate concepts that both merit attention, especially—albeit not exclusively—with a view to learning, knowledge development and innovation. A first argument is that spatial clustering has quite different effects for the development of knowledge, learning and innovation in and by firms, as compared with network settings. A second point is that in some cases, clustering yields a governance advantage over networks. Taking into account the risks of cognitive, technological, organizational and institutional lock-in associated with both processes, this paper concludes that both clustering and networking have advantages and disadvantages for the firms involved. The two concepts are potential dynamic complements, as clustering and networking have different but complementary effects for learning, although they are also static substitutes, as firms may opt to switch between the two processes, for example, leaving a local or regional cluster to engage in a network endeavor at a higher spatial scale.     

Open-and-closed process innovation generation and adoption: Analyzing the effects of sources of knowledge

This research investigates the effects of internal and external sources of knowledge on process innovation generation and adoption; moderating role of radical innovative capability. We nested the data from chemical manufacturing firms, and analyzed it by using SEM technique. The findings revealed that internal sources of knowledge facilitate process innovation generation. This relationship further strengthens when there is the presence of radical innovative capability. On the other hand, external sources of knowledge extended ambidextrous effects by affecting positively on both process innovation generation and adoption. However, contrast to research hypothesis, the presence of radical innovative capability weakens the effects of external sources of knowledge on process innovation adoption. Besides its moderation, radical innovation capability also displayed positive effects on process innovation generation. Further paper discusses some useful theoretical and practical implications.     

Aerospace Clusters: Local or Global Knowledge Spillovers?

The literature about regional innovation systems, clusters and industrial districts insists on the importance of local knowledge spillovers. Nevertheless, more recently a few authors have put in question the importance of local knowledge spillovers. This paper provides an analysis of some of the most dynamic aerospace clusters in the world, located in Montreal, Seattle, Toulouse and Toronto. We start by discussing theories of clustering, then provide research questions as well as empirical evidence on the international nature of knowledge spillovers. Local knowledge spillovers are less significant, of a different nature, and they may make a scanty contribution to explain the geographical agglomeration of firms. Conversely, international spillovers help to explain the relative dispersion of industry across nations. Resilient geographical clustering is related to the anchor tenant effects as creators of labour pools and owners of very large manufacturing plants creating regional inertia. We thus reject the local knowledge spillover explanation of aerospace clusters in favour of another one based on anchor firms and their effects on the local labour pool.     

Comparing a Pharmaceutical and an Agro-food Bioregion: On the Importance of Knowledge Bases for Socio-spatial Patterns of Innovation

The aim of this paper is to compare the socio-spatial patterns of innovation and knowledge linkages of a biopharmaceutical and an agro-food biotech cluster. Dissimilarities can be expected based on differences in terms of historical technological regimes and sectoral innovation system dynamics between the agro-food and pharmaceutical industries in general and particularly the distinctive analytical (science-based) knowledge base of biopharmaceuticals in contrast with the more synthetic (engineering-based) knowledge base of agro-food biotechnology. Drawing on bibliometric data and case material the study compares two representative bioregions: a biopharmaceutical cluster in Scania, Sweden and an agro-food biotech cluster in Saskatoon, Canada. The empirical study supports the theoretical expectations and shows that knowledge dynamics in the agro-food cluster are more localized than in the biopharmaceuticals cluster. It is important, however, to acknowledge that these differences are relative. Both sectors display local and non-local patterns of collaboration following the general pattern for biotechnology.     

Sources of Inter-Firm Heterogeneity in Accessing Knowledge-Creation Benefits Within Technology Clusters

We build on recent literature to highlight the distinction between knowledge-diffusion and knowledge-creation benefits of technology clustering and argue that firms located in technology clusters will have differential access to the latter. To explain the antecedents of such differential access, we first argue that clustering gives rise to three knowledge-creation benefits: easier identification of potential knowledge partners with complementary knowledge, easier initiation of knowledge partnerships and increased effectiveness of knowledge partnerships. Subsequently, we develop a conceptual model and propositions that focus on a cluster firm's awareness of knowledge assets inside the cluster, attractiveness as a knowledge partner and ability to benefit from knowledge partnerships to explain differential access by firms to these three knowledge-creation benefits that clustering provides. This study highlights the theoretical significance of distinguishing externality-type benefits of technology clustering from benefits that firms need to actively pursue, and discusses implications for firms' location decisions.     

Sourcing Knowledge and Innovation in a Low-Technology Industry

This paper investigates the relationship between knowledge sourcing and innovation in a select low- to medium-technology industry, the forest sector. It is based on data from the Statistics Canada Survey of Innovation 2005. Econometric models are developed and tested, specifically logistic regression analyses, in order to probe the relationship between select forms of embodied and disembodied knowledge and levels of innovation intensity. Differences between single establishment Canadian firms, multi-establishment Canadian firms, Canada–USA multi-establishment firms and establishments belonging to multinational firms are studied in terms of the relationship between innovation and sources of knowledge. Findings indicate that establishment innovative performance is related to knowledge sourcing strategies and furthermore that organization ownership/structure impacts significantly upon this relationship.     

Networks of Clusters: A Governance Perspective

This paper aims to further our emerging knowledge on the external linkages of regional clusters. We adopt a network governance perspective and study connected clusters as goal-directed, multilevel whole networks that we denote as “cluster networks.” Based on an analysis of four empirical cases varying in regional scope, age and industry context, we identify two governance forms: internally governed cluster networks are formed to establish ties among cluster representative organizations to share knowledge and pool resources on selected activities; externally governed cluster networks are formed to systematically develop cross-cluster ties and competences on and across levels and are brokered by a central intercluster administrative organization as well as several decentralized lead organizations. Our findings show that cluster connectivity can go beyond organization-based pipelines and personal relationships to include clusters as governed entities, albeit with different intensities regarding the brokerage of ties on lower levels.     

Makers’ relationship network,knowledge acquisition and innovation performance: An empirical analysis from China

In makerspaces, the embeddedness in open communities helps makers to build relationship networks and gives them access to ample knowledge, which will be finally transformed into the source of innovation. Based on strong-weak ties theory and the knowledge-based view, this study divides the ties in the makers' relationship network into strong and weak ties according to the intensity and explores their effects on makers' knowledge acquisition and innovation performance, respectively. An empirical analysis of the data collected from 232 makers in China indicates that the makers' relationship network has an indirect positive effect on their innovation performance while knowledge acquisition plays a partial intermediary role between the makers’ relationship network and their innovation performance. The results can help makers focus more on building and maintaining a relationship network through open community embedding and give insights into how a makerspace helps makers build a relationship network to improve their knowledge integration and utilization efficiency.     

Knowledge context,learning and innovation: an integrating framework

Abstract

In this conceptual paper, we develop a framework which identifies those elements of firms’ knowledge context which are important for innovation, and the mechanisms through which that knowledge impacts on firms’ innovation performance. We make four main contributions to the existing literature. First, our characterisation of knowledge context provides the basis for a more specific identification of which elements of firms’ knowledge environment are important for innovation, discriminating between spatial, sectoral and network influences. Second, we reflect the role of innovation ambition in shaping firms’ knowledge search strategies. Third, we differentiate between firms’ interactive and non-interactive knowledge search activities and recognise that these may be complemented by unanticipated and serendipitous knowledge spillovers. Finally, we employ the notion of encoding capacity to reflect firms’ internal ability to assimilate and apply external knowledge, and clarify its distinctiveness from the more general concept of absorptive capacity. Our framework provides an integrating mechanism for existing empirical studies, and suggests a number of new research directions related to the determinants of innovation performance and the heterogeneity of innovation outcomes.