Intentional Creation of Innovation Networks: An Exploratory Multi-case Study from German Industry

Due to its promising effects on the economic development, innovation networks have been recognized as an important instrument for the industrialization of regions and nations. Therefore, the creation of innovation networks has been fostered by national and regional innovation systems, as several EU nations are launching clustering and networking incentive programs. For example, the German Government initiated in 2002 an incentive program to foster the creation of innovation networks between SMEs, large enterprises, and research institutes. This research aims at identifying different strategies used in practice for the intentional creation of innovation networks by means of a multicase study on a German enterprise that adhered to the German Government incentive in order to create nine networks during the past three years. Through this exploratory study, we were able to identify three distinctive strategies used by the network managers for the intentional creation of innovation networks: Cooperation Project, Partner Alignment, and Activity Alignment.