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The purpose of this paper is to present a longitudinal case study of a regional innovation policy initiative, in which ideas with regard to how innovation might be facilitated were changing over time. Through the scrutiny of insights in industrial network studies (IMP), the authors seek to shed light on the challenges created by policy interventions aimed at constructing complementary networks for the facilitation of innovation. That is to say, the authors endeavour to understand the interfaces between innovation networks and industrial networks, and the way in which they may influence innovation.

This study is based on a longitudinal case study of four successive regional innovation projects in Norway. Data are drawn from relevant policy documents and project documentations, as well as from participatory observation of application processes and project activities.

This study shows that regional innovation policy concerns first and foremost the interaction within and between relatively established diverse networks, which affects both structuring and restructuring. Changes in innovation policy required the re-configuring of constellations of business networks, research networks and policy networks. All initiatives required mobilisation input by persistent actors – often boundary organisations or researchers. The construction of innovation networks served as an instrument in the production of new interfaces between businesses, researchers and policy makers. The use and usefulness of these networks as perceived by the business actors were heavily influenced by the way in which the networks were configured.

Generalisation based on in-depth qualitative case research requires further testing across similar and varying cases, and there have hitherto been relatively few studies of the interfaces between industrial and innovation networks. Despite this it can be argued that the conceptual distinction between constructed and emerging networks is a productive one in the study of networked innovation dynamics. During the research into this longitudinal case, it has been interesting to observe the way in which innovation research, and thus its influence on innovation policy, has changed over time. It would be beneficial if further studies were to be conducted on the way in which this has played out.

The administration of the public funding of innovation network activities requires great care. Where innovation policy initiatives are closely related to established industrial networks, it may be possible to strengthen innovation dynamics, challenge established practices and conceptions, and contribute to expanding, or even initiate innovation activities. In the first place, new activities need to be initiated in a way that supports the long-term development of actual business networks; and second, innovation policy bodies should be prepared to stimulate activity over longer periods of time.

This paper engages in, and combines, two parallel and rarely interacting debates on, respectively, innovation within innovation policy (innovation systems, clusters, networks) and industrial network studies (IMP and others). The authors make an “ideal type” distinction between alternative “constructed” networks and “emerging” networks, and the way in which they influence innovations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the case for studying non-interaction in networks, particularly instances of intentional avoidance of interaction.

The paper is based on the analysis of instances of interaction avoidance across four case studies in medical technology development, food product development, food distribution network change, and regional innovation in construction.

Some answers are provided to the questions of why and how actors may seek to avoid interaction. Five modes of interaction avoidance are identified and outlined. Within these modes, interaction avoidance took place in order to protect knowledge, enforce progress, economise in business networks, avoid wasting resources, and maintain opportunities respectively. This list is not seen to be exhaustive of the theme, and further studies are encouraged.

Few inter-organisational network studies have dealt explicitly with interaction avoidance or non-interaction.

Policies aimed at intensifying innovation, and how they relate to industrial activities, is the major theme of this chapter. We build on Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) studies of innovation, as well as relational approaches to policy studies, to examine the means and goals of innovation policy. From the IMP literature, we take the notion that interaction in business relationships implies continuous learning and adaptations. From this perspective, investments in innovation are marginal in relation to existing patterns of investment, including those in business relationships. From policy studies, we take the view that policymaking and implementation should be treated as sets of interactions, whose outcomes are the effects of multiple and heterogeneous relationships. Based on these principles, we pursue three arguments: (1) Innovations are not primarily effects of innovation policies; (2) Policy-initiated innovation systems, clusters and networks do not necessarily intensify innovation; and (3) Innovation policies and their instruments produce tangible effects, although often in unexpected or unintended ways. We conclude the chapter with suggestions for research and for innovation policymaking.

Current research focuses on the interaction between innovation and strategy process, but less is known about how identity influences innovation and the formation of strategy. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate the relationship between organizational identities and innovation with regards to strategy.

The paper is based on the current research stream on innovation and strategy process. The study is based on a longitudinal case study of strategy and innovation processes in a small Norwegian food producer. Through analyzing two different innovation and product development processes in a Norwegian food producer, one related to creative recombination and the other to reproduction of established practice, the paper illustrates how organizational identities influence sensemaking during strategy processes, and thus the inclusion of innovation in the strategy.

Identity can be used as an explanation for why some actions are deemed to be strategic while others are not, hence enforcing or limiting innovation. The paper finds that identity needs to be considered both as a “soft” and a “hard” concept in the process; providing stability while at the same time being up for re‐negotiation. By understanding strategizing and innovating as situated and heterogeneous processes, it identifies how identity becomes a stabilizer and an organizer during emergent strategy processes, and reveals tensions between creative recombination and conservative reproduction.

This paper provides a richer understanding of innovation and strategy formation by suggesting that construction of organizational identity is central to the strategy process.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the knowledge generation in a cross‐disciplinary group in Norway that developed a new medical device. The aim is to shed light on how knowledge was generated and how the relationships between different communities of practice were mediated. In particular, the paper seeks to examine how material objects and contextual conditions influenced the innovation process.

In this longitudinal case study an innovation process was followed for five years, and the research material was constructed through extensive observations, interviews and document analysis.

The innovation process exhibited different themes in varying degrees of blend throughout the process. First, the practices of constructing the device and ascertaining technical feasibility are described. Then the enacted nature of the work is outlined; how it was significantly dependent on circumstantial factors, but also strongly shaped by the need to ensure clinical usability of the device. Finally, the work to package the innovation and turn it into a commercial product is explored.

In contrast with many previous studies, this study follows large parts of the innovation process, and it emphasises how knowing and practice are a result of networked, and changing, relations between both human and non‐human actors. Rather than one community of practice emerging around the innovation work, what can be called an object‐centred assemblage of communities of practice was seen, which grew and changed according to the changing nature of knowledge needs for the project to continue and succeed. This has interesting implications for the understanding of cross‐disciplinary innovation processes.