Paper info

Managing and profiting from innovation in strategic nets

Natasha Clennell, Judy Zolkiewski , Chris Raddats and Ilma Nur Chowdhury

The paper was published at the 35th IMP-conference in Paris, France in 2019.

This research investigates how innovation occurs in the networks found within Manchester’s creative and digital (MCD) sector. More specifically, the aim is to explore and understand the role that innovation and networks play. It is believed that networks have played a role in helping the MCD sector to become a thriving and growing industry. Previous research reveals that businesses with close customer, supplier, competitor and research institution relationships are more likely to have higher innovation success rates and they regularly outperform their competitors. Stenroos et al.’s (2017) framework guides the analysis and is used to provide an empirically refined understanding of six key management activities (resourcing, goal setting and refining, motivating and rewarding, consolidating, coordinating and controlling), hence allowing new insights to be developed. Preliminary findings from six case studies confirm the existing framework needs to be expanded to include: leveraging; shared values and beliefs; network stability and embeddedness and learning, knowledge creation and transfer. It was also noted that the atmosphere of the relationships conditions the management activities.