Coping with uncertainty - Exploration, exploitation, and collaboration in R&D

No Thumbnail Available
Identifiers
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3573
ISSN: 1751-0252
DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2013.053635
Publication date
2013-01-01
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Citations
Google Scholar
Export
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
This paper studies the formation of and the motives for research and development (R&D) activities. In it, we explore the linkages between explorative and exploitative R&D activities and the different types of governance structures firms use when organising R&D. Additionally, we analyse the relationship between different kinds of firm-external uncertainties arising from the operating environments and the organisation of R&D activities. Finally, we scrutinise the impact of the collaboration mode on a firm's innovative performance, and stress the important role of knowledge sharing as a generator of success in innovative performance. We employ survey data from our sample of 299 Finnish companies. The findings indicate that a firm's choice of R&D governance structure is partly affected by the selection of an explorative or exploitative strategy, which in turn depends on the degree of firm-internal uncertainty. External dynamism is an additional factor affecting the choice of the preferred governance structure.
Description
Keywords
Environmental dynamism , Exploitation , Exploration , Innovation performance , Knowledge sharing , R&D , R&D cooperation , Research and development , Survey , Business and International Management , Management of Technology and Innovation
Type
journal article
Citation
Kuittinen , H , Puumalainen , K , Jantunen , A , Kyläheiko , K & Pätäri , S 2013 , ' Coping with uncertainty - Exploration, exploitation, and collaboration in R &D ' , International Journal of Business Innovation and Research , vol. 7 , no. 3 , pp. 340-361 . https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBIR.2013.053635