Creating innovative opportunities through research collaboration: An evolutionary framework and empirical illustration in engineering. (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McKelvey, Maureen; Zaring, Olof; Ljungberg, Daniel
• Is Part Of: Technovation. Volume 39/40(2015)
• Page Start: 26
• Page End: 36
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: Innovative opportunity creation -- Research collaboration -- Evolutionary economics -- Firm size -- Case study; Technological innovations -- Periodicals; Industrial management -- Periodicals; Innovations -- Périodiques; Gestion d'entreprise -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 658.57
• DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2014.05.008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0166-4972

Abstract

Abstract: This paper analyses the creation of innovative opportunities through research collaborations. It contributes by (i) providing an evolutionary conceptual framework for the formation and exploitation of innovative opportunities through research collaboration; and by (ii) providing an empirical illustration of this framework by applying it to a case study of firms׳ research collaboration taking place in university–industry research centers in engineering. The evolutionary framework developed specifically focuses on the generation of novelty and variety and on selection pressures as key for the creation of opportunities. It also emphasizes the differences between small and large firms when it comes to role of research collaboration for opportunity creation. Empirically, we illustrate that firms in general focus more on the generation of variety in the form of (fundamental) knowledge, than on research collaboration leading directly to the formation and exploitation of opportunities. For large firms, the focus is rather to transfer this created variety back to the firm, to use for inputs into the in-house creation of opportunities. In contrast, small firms focus instead on using research collaboration to generate and develop knowledge about customer needs in order to create market opportunities, especially through networking with large firms participating in the collaboration. Highlights: Derives an evolutionary framework of collaborative creation of opportunities. We report on a case study of firms׳ research collaboration in engineering. Firms focus on the generation of variety (knowledge) in research collaboration. Less focus is put on the selection of opportunities. We find differences between small and large firms.