Collaborating for innovation: the socialised management of knowledge.

Anderson, Alistair R.; Hardwick, Jialin

Abstract

Although the importance of diverse knowledge is widely recognised for open innovation, there may be a gap in our understanding of the social processes that shape how collaborators engage in knowledge exchange. This social gap may be significant because of the powerful, but largely unexplained, role attributed to trust as a social artefact. Moreover, we see trust as a process and that different types of trust are involved in the collaborative process. Thus, this paper uses a qualitative methodology to capture the experiences of innovation collaborators. As explanation of the dynamic interplays of knowledge and trust, we offer a description of phases in the process. Our analysis finds that the relationship moves from transactional to social. The early phases are characterised by technical knowledge, but the later and mature phases are identified with knowledge of the person and by personal trust. The success of innovation is a result of relationships with augmented trust. We found that a fabric of trust is woven from the weft of professional knowledge and the warp of personal knowledge to support innovation. We propose that this developing of relationships might be conceived as becoming more open in the sense of sharing with one another. If so, we seem to have described and offered a social dimension of open innovation.

Citation

ANDERSON, A.R. and HARDWICK, J. 2017. Collaborating for innovation: the socialised management of knowledge. International entrepreneurship and management journal [online], 13(4), pages 1181-1197. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-017-0447-6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 17, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 17, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 16, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: May 18, 2018
• Journal: International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
• Print ISSN: 1554-7191
• Electronic ISSN: 1555-1938
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1181-1197
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-017-0447-6
• Keywords: Open innovation; Social processes; Knowledge exchange; Relationship development; Biotechnology
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2592