Networking innovation in the European car industry: does the open innovation model fit?

The demands of transportation have driven the automobile industry into an innovation race. Uncertain technological trends, long development cycles, highly capital-intensive product development, saturated markets, and environmental and safety regulations have subjected the sector to major transformations. The technological and organisational innovations related to these transformations necessitate research that can enhance our understanding of the characteristics of the new systems. The study investigates the applicability of the Open Innovation concept to a mature capital-intensive asset-based industry - the European automobile industry, which is preparing for a radical technological discontinuity. Purposely selected knowledgeable respondents were interviewed across seven European countries. The findings contribute to the understanding of the OI concept by identifying key obstacles to the wider adoption of the OI model in the European car industry, and signalling the importance of intermediaries and large incumbents for driving network development and OI practices as well as the need of new competencies to be developed by all players

The die is cast: Brexit's influence on student career intentions

Brexit, Britain’s referendum to leave the European Union (EU), provided the backdrop for this study, although how or even if it will be implemented is uncertain. Most UK voters supported leaving the EU, yet an overwhelming majority of young people voted to remain. In an environment of economic and labour market ambiguity, we sampled 304 UK university students to examine Brexit’s perceived impact on their career plans. Using Theory of Planned Behaviour, we found that students with higher internal locus of control intended to adapt career plans, although students who identified themselves as British were less proactive. Whilst most students aspired to follow a career path as an employee of a large company, nearly one third intended to become entrepreneurs, a path preferred by twice the number of males as females. Our results provide important insights for post-Brexit planning of educational policy and for businesses and labour markets throughout Europe

Ambidexterity in MNC knowledge sourcing in emerging economies: a microfoundational perspective

Innovation performance of multinational corporations (MNCs) derives from access to and utilization of a combination of explorative and exploitative knowledge across heterogeneous settings. These settings increasingly encompass flagship industries in emerging economies. There is limited research, however, that scrutinizes the processes of knowledge sourcing within such dynamic host environments, taking into account MNCs’ differing location capabilities. We draw on the concept of ambidexterity – the combination of exploration and exploitation – and the microfoundations approach to study eleven MNCs in the Bulgarian software development industry by focusing on their local R&D projects. We extend the explanatory capacity of ambidexterity at the micro level and clarify the relationship between exploration and exploitation by identifying four types of ambidexterity: global knowledge differentiator, global-local knowledge integrator, emerging local-global integrator, and local knowledge integrator. Our typology is underpinned by three specific dimensions of R&D capabilities: technical know-how, scope of expertise, and market potential

Research on effectiveness of technology transfer in technology alliances: Evidence from Turkish SMEs

Many SMEs homed in newly industrialised countries are successful international players despite limited technological infrastructure and R&D resources. This study bridges a gap in the extant literature by examining the relationships between characteristics of partnership relationships, knowledge sharing and the effectiveness of technology transfer in partnerships between SMEs in developing countries and firms from developed countries. By studying data from Turkish SMEs and using partial least squares structural equation modelling, we find that explicit knowledge sharing forms the basis of technology transfer. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that explicit knowledge sharing is strongly contingent upon formalised technical support while trust and technical support seemed to be important antecedents of tacit knowledge sharing

Alliances as strategic tools: a cross-industry study of partnership planning, formation and success

Despite the fact that most studies have been pointing to high failure rates, collaboration remains increasingly popular as an organisational form of economic activity, particularly in technology-intensive industries. This paper presents a cross-industry qualitative study of the motives and drivers, the decision-making process, and the success/failure factors of partnership formation. The results of interview data collected in the computer, telecommunications and media industries (CTMI) indicate that the need to utilize the full value-creation potential of the firm’s resources has greatly contributed to the increasing popularity of partnerships in these industries. Behavioural characteristics, e.g. commitment, coordination and communication among others, are found to play more significant role in explaining overall partnership success compared to organisational characteristics such as structure and control mechanisms. This work highlights the necessity to deal with contradictory interests across the firm’s partnerships. Balancing numerous relationships is a thorny managerial act, which must be further investigated in the literature on collaboration

A sustainable ecosystem? Sourcing innovative IT talent in Bulgaria

This study addresses the problem of achieving exemplary innovative capability whilst gaining cost effectiveness in the highly competitive markets of the international software industry. The study focuses on the Bulgarian software sector as an 'ecosystem' for IT sourcing activity and builds on the concept of Global Value Chains (GVCs) as highly dispersed global structures, exposed to a mosaic of institutional and socio-economic influences. The study addresses the neglected reality of GVCs' internal anatomy which frequently comprises an array of cellular and politically contested social spaces involving interplays of major actors in dispersed home and host contexts. The study adopts a longitudinal qualitative research design, the first phase of which produced four patterns of interaction between the Bulgarian offshored facilities and their MNC parents or partners. Following these findings, four follow-up case studies will be developed as exemplifiers of the configurations delineated during the first phase of the fieldwork