Knowledge network embeddedness, absorptive capacity and disruptive innovation performance: A comparative case study in open innovation arena

Abstract

Knowledge network embeddedness describes the external institutional arrangement of a firm's relationship with other firms to draw knowledge from external sources. Disruptive innovation has been a critical strategy to achieve indigenous technological innovations and catching-up in developing countries. The central tenet of our argument is that how well a disrupter performs is contingent upon the extent to which it is embedded in an inter-firm knowledge network. This present study try to unravel three dimensions of knowledge network embeddedness in order to understand in what specific ways it contributes to a firm's disruptive innovation performance. We find that the embeddedness of the knowledge networks promotes disruptive innovation performance through absorptive capacity. Specifically, centrality in a knowledge network, trust between knowledge network partners and sharing goal & culture with knowledge network members do promote disruptive innovation performance through recognizing capacity. Based on four companies' comparative case study results, some relationship hypothesis are proposed for deeper research, implications for management are discussed. © 2012 IEEE.