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This paper aims to offer an integration point for newly acquired heterogeneous knowledge resources to be assessed if these resources qualify to be a part of a firm’s existing knowledge resource portfolio. Focus of this paper will be on the development of knowledge integration point (KIP), in addition to the factors helping in determination of this KIP, for example, manager’s judgment about the firms’ knowledge requirements, knowledge reserve a potential employee should have and firm’s existing knowledge resource portfolio.

This study includes a content analysis.

Firms should have only those resources which contribute to value creation for the customers and the organization. Presence of any other knowledge resource which does not have the ability to create value is a waste of value. It is the knowledge managers’ responsibility to decide whether a knowledge resource should be a part of a firm’s existing knowledge portfolio. This decision should be taken before the acquisition of that knowledge resource, i.e. at KIP, then it would be more easy for knowledge managers to handle and integrate them with the existing set of firm’s knowledge resources.

If the potential knowledge resource is evaluated at KIP to know its level of integration and configuration ability with the existing firms’ knowledge resource portfolio, then it will take less time and efforts to integrate. It will take such firms far ahead than those whose acquired resources took much time to integrate. Hence, resource’s integration and configuration ability levels affect the speed of integration, which ultimately provides opportunity to firms to perform well.

KIP may help to make speedier integration process, which eventually leads firms to perform better.

Collaborative research and development have remained a pertinent mechanism for conducting technological innovations. With the lens of knowledge-based view (KBV), this study aims to examine the role of changes in knowledge couplings and network cohesion to elevate innovation performance.

Data analysis has been performed on 53,459 patents through regression analysis with random effects. These independent and joint patents are extracted from Derwent Innovation Database.

Findings explicate that change in external existing or existing and new knowledge couplings have inverted U-shaped effects on a firm’s innovation performance. Changes in internal existing or existing and new knowledge couplings have direct positive effects on firm’s innovation performance. The moderation effect of network cohesion flattens the inverted U-shaped effect of external new and existing knowledge coupling, whereas it has no significant effect on external existing knowledge coupling. Network cohesion further elevates the effects of internal knowledge couplings – existing or existing and new.

This study theoretically contributes to KBV and innovation management literature by highlighting the scope of changes in internal and external knowledge couplings and subsequent output. Network cohesion flattens the curviness of changes in external new and existing knowledge couplings, which is a contribution to strategic management literature.

Organizations need to carefully manage changes in knowledge couplings and ensure their benefits (obtain new knowledge domain or new combination) outweigh liabilities (damages to organizational routines or increase in collaboration costs). Managers must consider four kinds of knowledge coupling changes along with developing network cohesion as an R&D strategy.

This study is one of its types to flatten the curve through network cohesion. This study divided the changes in knowledge coupling into four types and two dimensions; external existing and new and existing knowledge couplings and internal existing and new and existing knowledge couplings.

Previous studies have addressed the importance of knowledge base and its effect on innovation outputs. However, few studies have focused on the antecedents of dynamic changes of the organizational knowledge base. This study aims to shed light on the antecedents of dynamic change of the organizational knowledge base by examining how network centrality in an organization's collaboration network impacts this change and the moderating role of knowledge network cohesion.

The empirical setting of this study is the smartphone collaboration network. The authors selected patent data from the Derwent Innovation Database. A negative binomial model was used to test the hypotheses.

The results verified that network centrality has a positive effect on the change in coupling among existing knowledge domains and has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the coupling between new and existing knowledge domains. Furthermore, when local cohesion is high, network centrality has a stronger positive effect on the change in coupling among existing knowledge domains. Global cohesion moderates this process in such a way that when it is at a high level, the coupling between new and existing knowledge domains can benefit more from a moderate level of network centrality.

This study sheds light on the antecedents of dynamic change of the organizational knowledge base and links the literature on collaboration and knowledge networks by providing novel insights to match collaboration network centrality with knowledge network cohesion for successful improvement of the organizational knowledge base.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of open innovation, especially focusing on technological M&A, on subsequent innovation and changes to the firm’s core technological portfolio.

The study suggests three types of core technological areas, based on prior focus and experience in technological categories. These are 1) the existing core area, in which the acquirer firm retains its knowledge and expertise, 2) the enhanced core area, where knowledge and expertise in the acquirer firm’s insufficient areas are strengthened, and 3) the new core area, i.e. new knowledge fields in which the acquirer firm ventures into. The study then analyzes the effects of two key knowledge characteristics of the target firm, similarity and complementarity, on post-M&A innovation outcomes in each of the three core technological areas.

The results confirm that while none of the investigated knowledge characteristics of the target firm is advantageous for post-M&A innovation outcomes in existing core areas, similarity of the target firm does facilitate post-M&A innovation outcomes in enhanced core areas. Moreover, the results confirm that complementarity of the target firm is beneficial for post-M&A innovation outcomes in new core areas.

The study explains the reconfiguration mechanism of a firm’s core technological portfolio. It also suggests an extended framework to analyze innovation outcomes in more detail. Moreover, the study helps to explain why most M&As result in failure.

As a company that has continuously achieved business innovation, Apple in the United States has successfully applied strategic knowledge creation to produce a series of products that integrate various digital devices as well as diverse contents and applications, such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, based on a corporate vision of a digital hub concept. At the same time, the redefining of corporate boundaries that expanded Apple’s business in a horizontal direction from the Macintosh PC business to the delivery of music, smartphones, and tablets is also an indication of the evolution of a corporate vision involving Apple’s strategic transformation. This chapter presents the strategic and creative processes that enabled practitioners, including the late Steve Jobs, to demonstrate “strategic innovation capability” by “holistic leadership” at every level of management at Apple and successfully achieve a business ecosystem strategy through “creative collaboration” across diverse boundaries within and outside the company.

This research explores perceptions of knowledge management processes held by managers and employees in a service industry. To date, empirical research on knowledge management in the service industry is sparse. This research seeks to examine absorptive capacity and its four capabilities of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation and their impact on effective knowledge management. All of these capabilities are strategies that enable external knowledge to be recognized, imported and integrated into, and further developed within the organization effectively. The research tests the relationships between absorptive capacity and effective knowledge management through analysis of quantitative data (n = 549) drawn from managers and employees in 35 residential aged care organizations in Western Australia. Responses were analysed using Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation Modelling. Additional analysis was conducted to assess if the job role (of manager or employee) and three industry context variables of profit motive, size of business and length of time the organization has been in business, impacted on the hypothesized relationships.

Structural model analysis examines the relationships between variables as hypothesized in the research framework. Analysis found that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities correlated significantly with effective knowledge management, with absorptive capacity explaining 56% of the total variability for effective knowledge management. Findings from this research also show that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities provide a useful framework for examining knowledge management in the service industry. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the perceptions held between managers and employees, nor between respondents in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Furthermore, the size of the organization and length of time the organization has been in business did not impact on absorptive capacity, the four capabilities and effective knowledge management.

The research considers implications for business in light of these findings. The role of managers in providing leadership across the knowledge management process was confirmed, as well as the importance of guiding routines and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. Further, the results indicate that within the participating organizations there are discernible differences in the way that some organizations manage their knowledge, compared to others. To achieve effective knowledge management, managers need to provide a supportive workplace culture, facilitate strong employee relationships, encourage employees to seek out new knowledge, continually engage in two-way communication with employees and provide up-to-date policies and procedures that guide employees in doing their work. The implementation of knowledge management strategies has also been shown in this research to enhance the delivery and quality of residential aged care.

Researchers continue to seek understanding of industrialization as a state managed process. How to create and implement new industries based on advanced knowledge is on the policy agenda of many advanced nations. Measures that promote these developments include national capacity building in science and technology, the formation of technology transfer systems, and the establishment of industrial clusters. What these templates often overlook is an analysis of use. This chapter aims to increase the understanding of the processes that embed new solutions in structures from an industrial network perspective. The chapter describes an empirical study of high-technology industrialization in Taiwan that the researcher conducts to this end. The study shows that the Taiwanese industrial model is oversimplified and omits several important factors in the development of new industries. This study bases its findings on the notions that resource combination occurs in different time and space, the new always builds on existing resource structures, and the users are important as active participants in development processes.

This paper aims to explore the influence of information technology (IT) capability (i.e. IT exploration and exploitation) on service innovation and ultimately financial performance in manufacturing firms. Moreover, this paper examines the contingent role of cross-functional integration (CFI) on the IT capability–service innovation relationship.

This study employs seemingly unrelated regression to test the theoretical model based on survey data from 121 manufacturers in China.

IT exploration is positively related to radical and incremental service innovations, whereas IT exploitation is only positively related to radical service innovation. CFI positively moderates the relationship between IT exploitation and service innovation. Radical and incremental service innovations are positively related to manufacturers' financial performance.

This study contributes to existing information systems and servitization literature by uncovering the varying effects of IT exploration and exploitation on radical and incremental service innovations and by revealing the different contingent roles of CFI in moderating the above effects in the manufacturing context.

Previous research suggests new service development (NSD) is characterized by less stable offerings, less formal processes and is more emergent than new product development. In face of these issues, it seems managers must concern themselves more with the management of the underlying resources. To understand this distinctive nature of NSD, this study aims to investigate the relationship between NSD and operations resources.

Building on the resource and capabilities perspective, a multiple case study was designed to investigate how the NSD is influenced by and reconfigures operations resources and capabilities. Data were collected in three providers of bespoke B2B services.

The paper proposes a model of NSD composed of three stages: emergence, accommodation and consolidation. This model describes the process that takes place when providers redeploy their operations resources and capabilities to implement emerging service ideas. The findings also show the challenges associated with the reconfiguration of operations resources and capabilities and with the reconciliation of the requirements of the existing and new services.

The paper looked at services successfully implemented in knowledge‐intensive SMEs. Other studies could explore these NSD processes in other contexts and initiatives that failed.

The paper presents the risks and efforts involved in using existing resources to take advantage of emerging service ideas.

The model takes a fundamentally different perspective from many NSD models. It shifts the focus from managing the new service to managing the resources that underpin the evolving and emerging service ideas and offerings. This paper should interest people willing to understand the distinctive nature of NSD.

Despite the growing body of literature on both organizational learning (OL) and corporate venture development (CVD), very few attempts have been made to establish connections between these two literature streams. While existing literature provides some evidence that OL may facilitate the process of CVD, several interesting research issues remain unexamined. We know very little about (a) what type of learning processes are effective at various stages of CVD; and (b) whether and how knowledge created through various OL processes enhances venture performance. These research issues are examined in this paper by integrating the literature from OL and CVD. We develop a conceptual model that integrates organizational learning with the antecedents and outcomes of CVD. We argue that (a) organizational learning in CVD occurs through two distinct and yet complementary processes; (b) productive organizational learning occurs when organizations vary their emphases on different types of learning depending upon the stages of CVD; and (c ) different types of learning are associated with different types of venture outcomes. Propositions are developed and implications are discussed to facilitate empirical research.