Examining exploration/exploitation along the innovation process in a network: Insights from a case HYGTECH

Innovations are increasingly developed and commercialized within networks. However, few firms have the capability to manage by themselves throughout the entire innovation process; from visioning and developing to commercializing. Therefore this study analyzes the process of how divergent collaborative organizations explore and exploit their resources along the innovation process comprising visioning, developing and commercializing in order to achieve their goal, a successful innovation.By building a framework for the exploitation/ exploration process of visioning, developing and commercializing new innovative solutions in an extensive complex network and by conducting a longitudinal case comprising a network of over 20 firms this study generates contribution to both network and innovation research.

KEY WORDS: Innovation, innovation process, network, exploration-exploitation,market visioning, research and development, commercialization