The Influence of Strategic Interest Alignment on External Knowledge Search

Abstract

This paper analyzes how external search is affected by strategic interest alignment among knowledge sources. I focus on misalignment arising from the heterogeneous effects of disruptive technologies by analyzing the influence of incumbents on 2,855 non-incumbents? external knowledge search efforts. The efforts most likely to solve innovation problems obtained funding from the European Commission?s 7th Framework Program (2007-2013). The results show that involving incumbents improves search in complementary technologies, while demoting it when strategic interests are misaligned in disruptive technologies. However, incumbent sources engaged in capability reconfiguration to accommodate disruption improve search efforts in disruptive technologies. The paper concludes that the value of external sources is contingent on more than their knowledge. Specifically, interdependence of sources in search gives rise to influence from individual strategic interests on the outcomes. More generally, this points to the need for understanding the two-way influence of sources, rather than viewing external search as one-way knowledge accessing