Lead firms increasingly reorganize innovation activities into global innovation networks. Such reorganization of innovation has potentially major impact on their existing home-based innovation networks. Based on four in-depth case studies of lead firms in the Danish food industry, the paper analyzes the dynamics of five key features of home-based innovation networks: 1) size of the networks, 2) type of organization, 3) content of collaboration within the network, 4) concurrent globalization of organizations in the network, and 5) degree of formalization of network interactions. The dynamics are generally differentiated according to the type of lead firm strategy, i.e. knowledge augmenting or knowledge exploiting. Engagement in global innovation networks can mobilize the organizations that are part of the lead firms’ innovation networks at home. This mobilization effect differs according to the lead firm’s strategy.

 

Seminar IBEI Borras