Governance and performance in co-exploitation and co-exploration projects
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 24 February 2020
Issue publication date: 23 April 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how contractual vs. informal governance influences the performance of collaborative innovation projects considering their exploitation vs. exploration character.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected from a sample of 218 companies that have developed innovative projects in collaboration with other organizations. Regression models are estimated to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that contractual governance is the most effective for co-exploitation projects compared to informal governance. Specialization in either contractual or informal governance is more effective for co-exploration projects.
Practical implications
Developing collaborative innovation projects with other organizations is an alternative for firms to innovate either by exploiting complementary assets or by exploring new opportunities. Thus, the success of the collaborative innovation project is significantly affected by the way the collaboration is governed. On the one hand, for co-exploitation projects, companies should rely on contracts to improve their performance. On the other hand, for co-exploration projects, governance may specialize in either contracts or informal mechanisms to reach higher performance.
Originality/value
Despite previous studies analyzing the effect of contractual or informal governance on the performance of collaborative innovation projects, no research has focused on comparing simultaneously these effects, by using the innovation character of the project of co-exploitation or co-exploration as a moderator. Therefore, this paper explores comparatively the most effective type of governance mechanism for co-exploitation and co-exploration projects.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the financial support from Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia) Project C.I. 8112-2014 Vicerrectoría de Investigaciones, the National Center for Technical Assistance to Industry (Centro Nacional de Asistencia Técnica a la Industria ASTIN) of the National Training Service (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje SENA) from Colombia Project 0288-2014, and this research is partly supported by Project ECO2013-47969-P (Spanish’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).
Citation
Solís-Molina, M., Hernández-Espallardo, M. and Rodríguez-Orejuela, A. (2020), "Governance and performance in co-exploitation and co-exploration projects", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 875-894. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-02-2019-0067
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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