The collaboration between people in innovation networks

In this chapter, we will focus on the collaboration between people from the different organisations. To develop today’s complex product (or service) innovations, people from different organisations go through an innovation process collaboratively (Blizzard & Klotz, 2012, Charnley, Lemon & Evans, 2011). They all have different knowledge that is needed in the joint project. The activity in which people from different organisations work together in order to innovate is what we call networked innovation. Several studies have been done into the factors that influence the collaboration in mono- and multidisciplinary teams within an organisation, but less is known about the factors that influence networked innovation. Based on a case study on the Senseo project in which Philips and Douwe Egberts jointly developed the Senseo coffee machine, we will explain what factors can influence the collaboration in innovation networks.