Innovations have the potential to create value by generating rents (primary appropriability), or they can be used as background knowledge for further innovations and value creation (generative appropriability). Because these possibilities exist, organisations need to make strategic decisions on...

Networked R&D has faced upheaval over the last decade. However, in order to fully benefit from collaboration, firms need to embrace paradoxes that are inherent in R&D networks. We therefore investigate how orchestration (rather than traditional management) of relationships by improving...

The knowledge protection/sharing dilemma related to innovation activities is becoming known to all firms, even though it is generally more notable for SMEs: the small size of the firms inherently creates a need for inter-organizational collaboration, but it also makes dealing with the related...

In terms of innovation generation and management, creative employees are the most valuable resources in small firms. Thus, knowledge leaking and leaving are the major staff-related risks. Protecting HRM-related knowledge is one effective way of dealing with these challenges, although this is not...

Earlier research has put forward the theoretical proposition that R&D employees exhibit different patterns of allegiance — they tend to either develop a unilateral allegiance (to their own firm or to the inter-firm collaboration), a dual low allegiance or a dual high allegiance. It has also...

There is a growing stream of research unraveling individual motivations to participate in idea crowdsourcing and online user communities. While the current research has largely focused on individual user characteristics and overlooked the features of surrounding communities, our research turns...

HRM systems and practices can have a notable impact on a firm’s performance. Employees exchange and co-utilize innovation-generating knowledge, leading often to improvements in the firm’s financial performance, but they may also (unintentionally) give out valuable information. In...

This study aims to increase understanding on how relatively vague aggregations of firms can be directed in a manner that facilitates innovation. In particular, we examine promotion of knowledge mobility as a part of innovation network orchestration. Literature review and a case study of an...

Expropriability is the ability of (potential) competitors to extract information about innovation and utilize it to their advantage in a manner that decreases the competitive advantages of the original innovator. It has an effect on the profit margins and, subsequently, on the strategic behavior...

The focus of the study is on the determinants of R&D collaboration and their effects on its breadth and depth. Using a sample from an original survey of 193 Finnish firms, we examine the effects of R&D intensity, incoming spillovers, size, specific motives and selected appropriability mechanisms...