Open Innovation - Kooperative Innovationsprozesse in Netzwerken
Type
habilitation project
Start Date
01 October 2003
End Date
30 January 2009
URI
Status
completed
Keywords
Open Innovation
Customer Integration
External Knowledge Sources
IP Management
Lisenzing
Cross-Industry-Innovation
Innovation Networks
kooperative Innovation Processes
Description
Open Innovation is a phenomenon that has become increasingly important for both practice and theory over the last few years. The reasons are to be found in shorter innovation cycles, industrial research and development?s escalating costs as well as in the dearth of resources. Subsequently, the open source phenomenon has attracted innovation researchers and practitioners. The recent era of open innovation started when practitioners realised that companies that wished to commercialise both their own ideas as well as other firms? innovation should seek new ways to bring their in-house ideas to market. They need to deploy pathways outside their current businesses and should realise that the locus where knowledge is created does not necessarily always equal the locus of innovation - they need not both be found within the company. Experience has furthermore shown that neither the locus of innovation nor exploitation need lie within companies? own boundaries. However, emulation of the open innovation approach transforms a company?s solid boundaries into a semi-permeable membrane that enables innovation to move more easily between the external environment and the company?s internal innovation process.
Leader contributor(s)
Enkel, Ellen
Partner(s)
diverse Unternehmen
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Open und Cross Industry Innovationen
Method(s)
Qualitative and quantitative research methods
Notes
Betreut durch Prof. O. Gassmann
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Division(s)
Eprints ID
8570

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  • Publication
    Management Mechanisms of Network Layers in MNE
    ( 2005-05-12)
    Enkel, Ellen
    ;
    Gassmann, Oliver
    In recent years the internationalization of industrial R&D has been interpreted as an attempt by technology-intensive companies to exploit location-specific innovation advantages in order to compete in an increasingly globalized environment. Multinational companies are organizing their R&D in the form of integrated networks in order to transfer and adapt knowledge more effectively within their organization. These networks build an additional organizational layer which needs to be managed in order to enfold its full potential. This article illustrates two different management types found within MNE, their variation is based on the differences in corporate structure and culture which lead to different management mechanisms being used. The findings of this article are based on a study of 81 technology-based multinational companies that was undertaken between 1994 and 2002, and followed by an in-depth study of network management mechanisms conducted on 230 networks in 2002-2004.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/84795
  • Publication
    Are Intercompany Networks supporting Firm's dynamic Capability? Evidence from High Tech Industry.
    ( 2006-10-30)
    Enkel, Ellen
    Companies started building up inter-unit networks to connect knowledge owners more closely and support knowledge transfer and creation. Networks are often described a flexible organizational structure easily adapted to a company's strategy or changing market environment. In high-tech markets, the need to build up dynamic capabilities is even more crucial because of the fast changing technology. This paper investigates whether networks in high-tech markets support companies' dynamic capabilities. By comparing 210 networks within three experienced companies, all acting in high-tech markets, it is possible to examine how flexible or static networks can be in respect of factors like corporate strategy, culture and organizational structure.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/82358
  • Publication
    Driving Open Innovation in the Front End
    ( 2007-05-16)
    Enkel, Ellen
    ;
    Gassmann, Oliver
    Shorter innovation cycles, industrial research and development's escalating costs as well as in a dearth of resources force companies to use pathways outside their current businesses. They realise that the locus where knowledge is created does not necessarily always equal the locus of innovation, and they need not both be found within the company. Experience has furthermore shown that neither the locus of innovation nor exploitation need lie within companies' own boundaries. Recently, open innovation, as this approached is called, has also attracted academia's attention. The first work has been done regarding analysing single aspects like knowledge sources, user innovation and ICT support. However, the theory and practice still lack a holistic perspective by taking strategy, processes, actors and capabilities within the open innovation approach into account. With our qualitative study of 144 companies, we identified three core open innovation processes: (1) The outside-in process: Enriching a company's own knowledge base through the integration of suppliers, customers, and external knowledge sourcing can increase a company's innovativeness. (2) The inside-out process: The external exploitation of ideas in different markets, selling IP and multiplying technology by channelling ideas to the external environment. (3) The coupled process: Linking outside-in and inside-out by working within alliances with complementary companies. Additionally, we were able to identify eight principle modes of innovation and four capabilities needed to successfully use the open innovation approach. An IBM case study illustrates a holistic view of open innovation management.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/80701
  • Publication
    Creative Tension in the Innovation Process: The Influence of Controlling System's Design.
    ( 2006-05-16)
    Perez-freije, Javier
    ;
    Enkel, Ellen
    While some degree of freedom and flexibility is an essential ingredient to productive R&D teams, management is faced with the challenge of instituting control mechanisms which head projects in the right strategic direction, and monitor progress toward organizational and project goals. But too much or the wrong type of control may constrain the team's creativity which is important in high velocity markets. However, R&D performance measurement, although extensively studied, has been given little consideration in terms of the behavioral factors that influence such systems' design and mostly concentrate on the R&D department. This paper provides an in depth analysis of organizational behavior's influence on an innovation controlling system's design; innovation activities form the focus. Determinants of innovative behavior such as leadership can explain the relationship among innovation strategy, managerial control and performance measurement system but were not yet applied to examine differences in performance measurement systems. We analyzed 12 successful practice companies' innovation controlling system by means of these determinants, in order to define how supportive or counterproductive they are in respect of increasing R&D effectiveness and efficiency. We identified three archetypes of innovation controlling system designs depending on the market dynamics, companies act in. Strategic assumptions are derived to provide useful guidelines for R&D managers who confront multi-faced and complicated evaluation situations.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/82926
  • Publication
    Corporate Success Factors for Managing Knowledge Networks
    ( 2004-10-30)
    Enkel, Ellen
    Knowledge networks attempts to manage knowledge in a corporate environment abound. These intra-organizational networks of employees with valuable knowledge to share are an increasing phenomenon. Using knowledge networks to manage knowledge transfer and creation can extend from setting up single networks with very selected employees, e.g. to increase innovation in a specific area of a company's competencies, to the integration of a new organizational layer not yet included in a network, as well as to many networks focusing on the same business process or goal. Those networks are organized in concepts and build a distinct system linked to the core organization in order to enfold their competency to build actionable knowledge. However, theory hasn't as yet acknowledged this form of managing knowledge. This paper describes the networking concepts in four major companies. It illustrates the core elements of and the success factors for knowledge networking concepts as derived from a comparative case study of four companies' concepts. The results are based on a comparative case study investigating 230 networks in four companies of knowledge intensive industries. The case studies prove that knowledge networks won't work effectively without taking elements such as a strong link to corporate strategy and objectives into account. In addition, research presented in this paper shows how important it is to adapt knowledge networking concepts to a company's unique culture and organizational structure.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/67364
  • Publication
    Performance Indicators for Innovation Networks. The Case of a European innovation network for radiation dosimetry
    ( 2005-07-06)
    Enkel, Ellen
    ;
    Gassmann, Oliver
    Engagement in innovation networks can increase a company's innovation potential more than by only exploiting its own R&D resources. Theory has recognized innovation networks' increasing importance by investigating their single components and their relation to others. But in order to help the practice to decide when, and in which form of innovation networks, engagement is needed, and when it is better to cut ties to prevent resources from being wasted, performance monitoring from an individual company perspective is needed. The empirical background for this research was a six-month investigation of a well-established European innovation network for research on radiation dosimetry. This network aims to advance the scientific understanding of ionizing radiation dosimetry to promote dosimetric methods and instruments' technical development as well as their implementation in routine dosimetry, and to ensure the consistency of the dosimetric procedures used within the EU as well as compliance with international guidelines. This network consists of 47 European organizations in 31 different countries. The member organizations range from small to big laboratories (e.g., CERN in Switzerland), or research institutions (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Poland) to governmental institutions for radiation protection (National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment, Italy) to companies that produce and sell dosimetric tools (ARC Seibersdorf Research, Austria). Beside the member organizations, which have different expectations regarding the value of and need for a network, other stakeholder like the European Commission and the governments of the single countries, which fund part of the network's activities, want a certain innovation outcome. These different perspectives make monitoring and demonstrating the network outcome increasingly complex. We are going to investigate the network and measure as well as illustrate its outcome for the different stakeholders in a three-year project. In the article, we present the performance indicators' first findings, based on interviews and questionnaires as well as on site visits and document analysis conduced in the first six months of the research project.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/84608
  • Publication
    When Innovation Controlling is Counterproductive: Releasing Firms' Dynamic Capabilities.
    ( 2006-08-11)
    Enkel, Ellen
    ;
    Perez-freije, Javier
    ;
    Gassmann, Oliver
    Together, innovation's complexity, the growing importance of effective and efficient innovation activities for company success, and the increased pressure on R&D to be accountable regarding its actual contribution to company success have aroused the need for innovation control systems. This paper provides a critical discussion of contingency factors' influence on an innovation control system's design. Previously, just a mixture of studies focusing on single themes and studies exploring unconnected elements of innovation control systems existed. Contingency theory can explain the relationship among innovation strategy, managerial control and performance but was not applied to examine differences in innovation control systems yet. To evaluate the impact of one of the most important influencing variables in the contemporary dimension, namely the industry dynamics that a firm faces, we used a dynamic capabilities approach to define the variable's determinants. We analyzed 12 successful practice companies' innovation control systems according to these determinants. We found that depending upon the degree of industry dynamism, the innovation control systems' influence was indeed relevant in respect of the building of dynamic capabilities. Three different modes of innovation control systems can be distinguished according to their supportive function for developing new capabilities: opportunity driven innovation control, counterbalanced innovation control, and execution focused innovation control. Strategic assumptions are derived to provide useful guidelines for designing an innovation control system.
    Type: conference paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/82607