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Research

To compete, firms need to be innovative. It is widely recognized that pursuing innovative performance outcomes has rapidly become a joint effort, which requires that organizational practices, besides those related to hierarchy and command-and-control, are developed. New organizational practices –formal and informal– include relational contracting, networked organizations, team formation, and incentive and reporting structures that account for joint innovative efforts. This holds true for both firm-internal organizational practices as well as organizational practices to accommodate and stimulate cooperation between firms. Some have indicated that, however organized, firms as prerequisites need resources and capabilities, including appropriate strategic, accounting and control, and information exchange ones, to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing environment as well. Obviously, the need to develop and leverage appropriate resources and capabilities in newly emerging organizational practices poses substantial strategic challenges.

Research conducted by members of the institute makes distinct contributions to the literature. Organization theory has not fully recognized the need to account for resources and capabilities as prerequisites for or objects of joint innovative activity. Prime among the resources and capabilities are strategic capabilities firms possess, information sharing routines and systems, as well as procedures to govern a firm and ensure proper control over sensitive knowledge and resources. These resources and capabilities, and in particular how they are orchestrated, are analyzed in depth. In addition, relatively little attention is paid in this literature to performance outcomes. The third distinct contribution is how organizational practices determine the way in which resources and capabilities translate into innovative performance outcomes.

Last modified:18 October 2018 08.57 a.m.