Exploring inter-organizational collaboration between SMEs and other ecosystem stakeholders

TY - ABST

T1 - Exploring inter-organizational collaboration between SMEs and other ecosystem stakeholders

AU - Radziwon, Agnieszka

PY - 2018/6/21

Y1 - 2018/6/21

N2 - The past decade has witnessed a shift from a closed to an open innovation model, where firms complement their own resources with external resources and competencies. Communities, networks, ecosystems, alliances, and other coupled forms of open innovation have increased their prevalence and impact on an organization’s development. Nevertheless, many aspects of open innovation are not yet well explored. Relatively few studies address the challenges of open innovation from the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) perspective, especially at the level of business ecosystems. Therefore, this research aims at filling this gap by providing a study immersed in an open innovation context with a particular focus on the ways how SMEs contribute to the development of the ecosystem they are embedded in. A central point of attention of this study is inter-organizational collaboration between SMEs and other stakeholders co-evolving in the ecosystem. The research builds on prior findings on embracing mutual knowledge flows across organizational boundaries, inter-organizational collaboration as well as value creation and value capture mechanisms. The empirical work is based on a qualitative inquiry combined with grounded theory and action research elements. The study was conducted in a Danish regional business ecosystem. This research project was implemented in order to facilitate the improvement of SMEs’ innovation performance through inter-organizational collaboration. The main findings offer insights into the mutual knowledge flows across organizational boundaries, resource recombination in inter-organizational collaboration as well as value creation and capturing processes.This research both contributes to the innovation theory and practice. On the theoretical side, it offers three types of conceptual contributions: 1) broadens the current knowledge based view by inter-organizational level dimension; 2) offers a fresh view of resource co-evolution and recombination under ecosystem embeddedness based safety net; and 3) outlines a key insights into the important elements that contribute to the process of value generation and appropriation on an ecosystem, inter-organizational and organizational level. On the practical side, this study helps to understand the drivers of inter-organizational collaboration by offering insights into the influence of key elements such as: Knowledge Transfer among ecosystem members, Resource Recombination with and without financial benefits and Power Balance between large and small collaboration partners.

AB - The past decade has witnessed a shift from a closed to an open innovation model, where firms complement their own resources with external resources and competencies. Communities, networks, ecosystems, alliances, and other coupled forms of open innovation have increased their prevalence and impact on an organization’s development. Nevertheless, many aspects of open innovation are not yet well explored. Relatively few studies address the challenges of open innovation from the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) perspective, especially at the level of business ecosystems. Therefore, this research aims at filling this gap by providing a study immersed in an open innovation context with a particular focus on the ways how SMEs contribute to the development of the ecosystem they are embedded in. A central point of attention of this study is inter-organizational collaboration between SMEs and other stakeholders co-evolving in the ecosystem. The research builds on prior findings on embracing mutual knowledge flows across organizational boundaries, inter-organizational collaboration as well as value creation and value capture mechanisms. The empirical work is based on a qualitative inquiry combined with grounded theory and action research elements. The study was conducted in a Danish regional business ecosystem. This research project was implemented in order to facilitate the improvement of SMEs’ innovation performance through inter-organizational collaboration. The main findings offer insights into the mutual knowledge flows across organizational boundaries, resource recombination in inter-organizational collaboration as well as value creation and capturing processes.This research both contributes to the innovation theory and practice. On the theoretical side, it offers three types of conceptual contributions: 1) broadens the current knowledge based view by inter-organizational level dimension; 2) offers a fresh view of resource co-evolution and recombination under ecosystem embeddedness based safety net; and 3) outlines a key insights into the important elements that contribute to the process of value generation and appropriation on an ecosystem, inter-organizational and organizational level. On the practical side, this study helps to understand the drivers of inter-organizational collaboration by offering insights into the influence of key elements such as: Knowledge Transfer among ecosystem members, Resource Recombination with and without financial benefits and Power Balance between large and small collaboration partners.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - EURAM 2018

Y2 - 20 June 2018 through 23 June 2018

ER -