%0 Journal Article
%A Kuittinen, Hanna
%A Puumalainen, Kaisu
%A Jantunen, Ari
%A Kyläheiko, Kalevi
%A Pätäri, Satu
%T Coping with uncertainty - Exploration, exploitation, and collaboration in R&D
%D 2013
%@ 1751-0252
%U https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3573
%X 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.
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