Solving Environmental Problems: Knowledge and Coordination in Collaborative Search



Olsen, Anders Ording, Sofka, Wolfgang ORCID: 0000-0003-1598-6127 and Grimpe, Christoph
(2017) Solving Environmental Problems: Knowledge and Coordination in Collaborative Search. LONG RANGE PLANNING, 50 (6). pp. 726-740.

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Abstract

Recent innovation and strategy research emphasizes the importance of firm’s search for external knowledge to improve innovation performance. We focus on such search strategies within the domain of sustainable innovation in which problems are inherently complex and the relevant knowledge is widely dispersed. Hence, firms need to collaborate. We shed new light on collaborative search strategies led by firms in general and for solving environmental problems in particular. Both topics are largely absent in the extant open innovation literature. Using data from the European Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP7), our results indicate that the problem-solving potential of a search strategy increases with the diversity of existing knowledge of the partners in a consortium and with the experience of the partners involved. Moreover, we identify a substantial negative effect from involving partners in a search consortium who collaborate for the first time. Our findings have implications for both the literature on firms’ search and the creation of sustainable innovation.

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 24 Sep 2018 09:53
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 01:17
DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2016.05.003
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3026391