Article,
Innovation networking between stability and political dynamics
Technovation, 24 (9): 729-739 (2004/9)
Abstract
This contribution views innovation as a social activity of building
networks, using software product development in multicompany alliances
and networks as example. Innovation networks are frequently understood
as quite stable arrangements characterised by high trust among the
participants. The aim of the contribution is to challenge and transcend
these notions and develop an understanding of innovation networks
as an interplay between stable and dynamic elements, where political
processes in innovation are much more than a disruptive and even
a counterproductive feature. It reviews the growing number of studies
that highlight the political aspect of innovation. The paper reports
on a study of innovation processes conducted within the EU--TSER-programme
and a study made under the banner of management of technology. Intensive
field studies in two constellations of enterprises were carried out.
One is a segment-collaboration between a few manufacturing companies
and a software house, the other a complex and extensive innovation
network. These studies show how negotiations, shifting positions
of players, mobilising stable elements of the network, when developing
new ones, and interplays between internal and external collaboration
are integral and inevitable in the product development process. This
leads to an understanding of a networking paradox: in seeking to
reduce political uncertainties of one type, actors engage with others
and build collaborative relationships which themselves lead to other
and new political issues that have to be tackled.
