Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Meysam Poorkavoos, Yanqing Duan and John Edwards
Their opinion about o<strong>the</strong>r factors for different types <strong>of</strong> innovation was different so it is not possible to
say which one is really important for which types <strong>of</strong> innovation.
5.2 Preliminary analysis on research hypo<strong>the</strong>ses
Although <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> pilot interviews may not be appropriate for hypo<strong>the</strong>sis test, <strong>the</strong> comments
made by interviewees provided support for some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>ses.
Diversity <strong>of</strong> partners: In order to support <strong>the</strong> developed hypo<strong>the</strong>ses and find some preliminary
evidence, some questions have been asked about <strong>the</strong>m (e.g. different types <strong>of</strong> partners, diversity <strong>of</strong>
relations). Regarding to <strong>the</strong> diversity <strong>of</strong> nodes and its effects on radical innovation <strong>the</strong>y asserted
interesting ideas which support <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis 4a.
“I had an idea to license out our business. No one else in this type <strong>of</strong> company came up
with that idea. What we now developed as a service has been enhanced because I have
been spoken to <strong>the</strong> legal partner, I spoken to <strong>the</strong> IT partner, I spoken to <strong>the</strong> recruitment
partner. People have been given me ideas how I execute <strong>the</strong>m how I deliver that”.
(Interviewee 4)
This example supports <strong>the</strong> argument that variety in partners will help <strong>the</strong> focal firm to use various
channels to seek for different solutions and make <strong>the</strong> opportunity for radical innovation.
Diversity <strong>of</strong> Ties: They also mentioned that diversity <strong>of</strong> ties is important for being innovative. One
manager pointed out that
“We have limited number <strong>of</strong> partners because we haven’t got <strong>the</strong> capacity to do lot or lots
<strong>of</strong> that. When you work with someone you are effectively learning and <strong>the</strong>y learn too. And
you accept what you receive and you implement <strong>the</strong>m. And sometime <strong>the</strong> views <strong>of</strong>
different people are different [….] so for <strong>the</strong> company <strong>of</strong> our size somebody is helping for
marketing somebody is helping with business planning or technology”. (Interviewee 1)
Strength <strong>of</strong> Ties: Regarding to <strong>the</strong> strength <strong>of</strong> ties one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> interviewees provided an interesting
example. The example was about introducing a new service in <strong>the</strong>ir sector (radical innovation) by
using cloud computing. They have an IT-partner and according to <strong>the</strong> definition <strong>the</strong>y have a weak
relationship with this partner but this partner gave <strong>the</strong> idea about using cloud computing as a new way
<strong>of</strong> delivering <strong>the</strong>ir service to <strong>the</strong>ir customers.
6. Conclusion
There is no doubt that Inter firm networks contribute to firm’s innovation. However, this research aims
to make fur<strong>the</strong>r contribution by examining <strong>the</strong> relationships between network properties and types <strong>of</strong>
innovation. Our research framework distinguishes three aspects <strong>of</strong> ego network which will enables us
to understand which type <strong>of</strong> innovation benefits more from particular network properties. The results
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pilot study provided preliminary support for a number <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>ses and streng<strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>
existing understanding in <strong>the</strong> literature. For example, although prior literature has confirmed <strong>the</strong>
importance <strong>of</strong> using weak ties to increase innovation performance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> company, this research has
proposed a different approach to distinguish <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> this type <strong>of</strong> ties on different types <strong>of</strong>
innovation. Ano<strong>the</strong>r finding <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> research so far is <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> diversity <strong>of</strong> partners,
because <strong>the</strong> varieties in <strong>the</strong>ir abilities and resources can be more beneficial in radical innovations.
Next step for this research is to conduct a survey and analyze <strong>the</strong> findings in order to test <strong>the</strong>
hypo<strong>the</strong>ses and finalize <strong>the</strong> framework. This validated framework will help managers to have a better
understanding <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> impact <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir network activities on different types <strong>of</strong> innovation and be more
focused in developing <strong>the</strong>ir strategies and utilizing <strong>the</strong>ir limited resources.
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