Innovation Intermediaries in Technological Alliances

Calvin S. Weng ()
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Calvin S. Weng: Department of Banking and Finance, Takming University of Science and Technology, Neihu District, Taipei 11451, Taiwan

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2017, vol. 14, issue 02, 1-17

Abstract: Technological alliances play an important role in generating innovations but face the challenge of effective matchmaking when finding suitable partners in “open innovation” among networks of innovating firms. Intermediaries refer to those external mechanisms/institutions that can appropriately support companies in their innovation-related activities. They are frequently used to build a bridge between different competency constraints among companies. The purpose of this paper was to try to understand the role of a firm’s alliances within the context of open innovation. What do innovation intermediaries of collaborative partners contribute?Using the “Strategic Alliance Database” established by the National Science Council (NSC) in Taiwan as a basis, this study empirically explored the brokerage roles in the alliance that intermediaries take on to facilitate technological innovation and an innovation process. By using the technique of two-mode network analysis for social network analysis, this research focused on the question of how a technological alliance creates a platform for firms to execute matchmaking for new and/or relevant partners. The results presented here reveal that brokerage roles can be used to develop collaborations. The strategic position of the intermediary can activate different resources from the ones embedded in an alliance network.

Keywords: Intermediaries; matchmaking; technological alliance; two-mode network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1142/S0219877017400132

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