Collaboration Strategies in Innovation Ecosystems: An Empirical Study of the German Microelectronics and Photonics Industries

Abstract

“ As great ideas can be discovered in diverse and unexpected places, we need to collaborate in new ” and surprising ways. Tom Hulme Founder of OpenIDEO Effective collaboration between companies and research organizations is key to successful innovation systems. Against the background of digitalization, a shift from traditional innov- ation systems towards innovation ecosystems can be observed. In this article, we investig- ate how companies operating in innovation ecosystems address the challenge of collaboration in dynamic innovation ecosystems. We focus on microelectronics and photonics in Germany as examples of knowledge- and research-intensive industries and analyze the strategies of companies to collaborate with research organizations. We explore whether and to what extent companies develop different and new strategies for collaborat- ing with research institutions within innovation ecosystems, on the basis of which we identify two ideal types of strategies. Whereas ideal type A is aiming towards obtaining spe- cific knowledge in order to further develop a particular technology or product (i.e., towards incremental innovation), ideal type B seeks to harness the new and full potential of innova- tion ecosystems (i.e., aiming at rather radical innovation). Finally, our findings contribute to a better understanding of innovation ecosystems and give managerial implications for col- laborating in such systems.