Multi-Business Firms, Knowledge Flows and Intra-Network Open Innovations

Manuel Villasalero ()
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Manuel Villasalero: University of Castilla-La Mancha

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, No 8, 162-179

Abstract: Abstract The increasing competition in the marketplace has led firms to change their innovation patterns to a more open system according to which they rely on networks to manage knowledge resources and innovate. The so-called open innovation paradigm has been developed by taking single-business firms and external networks as cornerstones of the standard model. However, in the case of multi-business firms, the role of internal networks has been neglected. Business units within multi-business corporations have the potential advantage of relying on both external partners and internal peers in order to support their product innovation process. The corporate network thus enables business units to provide knowledge (source knowledge from) to peers in their quest to bring new products onto the market. This study analyses the impact of four types of open innovation activities on business units’ product innovation performance, which are classified according to the directionality (outside-in and inside-out) and locus (cross-business and across-boundaries) of the innovation flows. The results from a sample of 227 business units show that business units should look outside firm boundaries for inbound innovation and throughout business units for outbound innovation if they are to improve their innovation performance.

Keywords: Knowledge networks; Diversification; Business unit; Innovation performance; Product innovation; Knowledge flows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s13132-015-0330-z

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