The Role of External Knowledge Sources and Organizational Design in the Process of Opportunity Exploitation

Research highlights the role of external knowledge sources in the recognition of strategic opportunities, but is less forthcoming with respect to the role of such sources during the process of exploiting or realizing opportunities. We build on the knowledge-based view to propose that realizing opportunities often involves significant interactions with external knowledge sources. Organizational design can facilitate a firm’s interactions with these sources, while achieving coordination among organizational members engaged in opportunity exploitation. Our analysis of a double-respondent survey involving 536 Danish firms shows that the use of external knowledge sources is positively associated with opportunity exploitation, but the strength of this association is significantly influenced by organizational designs that enable the firm to access external knowledge during the process of exploiting opportunities.

[1]  Herman Aguinis,et al.  The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect in Management , 2013 .

[2]  J. West,et al.  Leveraging External Sources of Innovation: A Review of Research on Open Innovation , 2013 .

[3]  G. Rao,et al.  Open Innovation , 2019, Strategic Decisions.

[4]  Nicolai J. Foss,et al.  Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment , 2012 .

[5]  J. Cope,et al.  Entrepreneurial learning from failure: An interpretative phenomenological analysis , 2011 .

[6]  M. Tushman,et al.  External Communication and Project Performance: An Investigation Into the Role of Gatekeepers , 2011 .

[7]  Johan Wiklund,et al.  The dual nature of innovative activity: How entrepreneurial orientation influences innovation generation and adoption , 2011 .

[8]  Keld Laursen,et al.  Linking Customer Interaction and Innovation: The Mediating Role of New Organizational Practices , 2011, Organ. Sci..

[9]  Eileen Fischer,et al.  Social interaction via new social media: (How) can interactions on Twitter affect effectual thinking and behavior? , 2011 .

[10]  Henk W. Volberda,et al.  Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field , 2009 .

[11]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  INNOVATION OBJECTIVES, KNOWLEDGE SOURCES, AND THE BENEFITS OF BREADTH , 2010 .

[12]  J. Birkinshaw,et al.  The sources of management innovation: When firms introduce new management practices , 2009 .

[13]  Marjorie A. Lyles,et al.  Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field , 2009 .

[14]  M. Zack.  Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 2009 .

[15]  Zeki Simsek.  Organizational Ambidexterity: Towards a Multilevel Understanding , 2009 .

[16]  M. Frese,et al.  Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: An Assessment of past Research and Suggestions for the Future , 2009 .

[17]  Mike Wright,et al.  The extent and nature of opportunity identification by experienced entrepreneurs , 2009 .

[18]  R. Ireland,et al.  Conceptualizing Corporate Entrepreneurship Strategy , 2009 .

[19]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  An Overview of Innovation , 2009 .

[20]  S. Roper,et al.  Modelling the innovation value chain , 2008 .

[21]  Charles C. Snow,et al.  Strategic entrepreneurship, collaborative innovation, and wealth creation , 2007 .

[22]  Max Keilbach,et al.  The Theory of Knowledge Spillover Entrepreneurship , 2007 .

[23]  Mohanbir Sawhney,et al.  The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World, , 2007 .

[24]  Kyle J. Mayer,et al.  Contract design as a firm capability: An integration of learning and transaction cost perspectives , 2007 .

[25]  Steven C. Michael.  Transaction cost entrepreneurship , 2007 .

[26]  J. Dawson,et al.  Probing three-way interactions in moderated multiple regression: development and application of a slope difference test. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[27]  S. Parker,et al.  A Selection-Based Theory of the Transition from Employment to Entrepreneurship: The Role of Employer Size , 2006, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[28]  A. Salter,et al.  Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among U.K. manufacturing firms , 2006 .

[29]  Kimberly M. Green,et al.  Strategic Process Effects on the Entrepreneurial Orientation–Sales Growth Rate Relationship , 2006 .

[30]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Knowledge-Based View: A New Theory of Strategy? , 2006 .

[31]  John Cullen,et al.  Democratizing Innovation , 2020, Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

[32]  Pamela Mueller,et al.  Exploring the Knowledge Filter: How Entrepreneurship and University-Industry Relationships Drive Economic Growth ∗ , 2006 .

[33]  P. P. McDougall,et al.  Defining International Entrepreneurship and Modeling the Speed of Internationalization , 2005 .

[34]  Justin J. P. Jansen,et al.  Managing Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity: How Do Organizational Antecedents Matter? , 2005 .

[35]  William R. King,et al.  Antecedents of Knowledge Transfer from Consultants to Clients in Enterprise System Implementations , 2005, MIS Q..

[36]  Adam Brandenburger,et al.  Value-based Business Strategy , 2005 .

[37]  Dawn R. DeTienne,et al.  Prior Knowledge, Potential Financial Reward, and Opportunity Identification , 2005 .

[38]  R. Rumelt.  Theory, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship , 2005 .

[39]  Erik E. Lehmann,et al.  University spillovers and new firm location , 2005 .

[40]  Jack A. Nickerson,et al.  A Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm - A Problem-solving Perspective , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[41]  Kyle J. Mayer,et al.  Learning to Contract: Evidence from the Personal Computer Industry , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[42]  Andrew A. King,et al.  Prospects for Developing Absorptive Capacity Through Internal Information Provision , 2004 .

[43]  Børge Obel,et al.  Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design: The Dynamics of Fit , 2003 .

[44]  Christina Fang,et al.  The Economics of Strategic Opportunity , 2003 .

[45]  Joachim Henkel,et al.  Sloan School of Management Working Paper 4327-03 June 2003 Welfare implications of user innovation , 2003 .

[46]  D. Shepherd.  Learning from Business Failure: Propositions of Grief Recovery for the Self-Employed , 2003 .

[47]  Steven C. Michael.  First mover advantage through franchising , 2003 .

[48]  R. Katila,et al.  SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF SEARCH BEHAVIOR AND NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION , 2002 .

[49]  R. Veugelers,et al.  R&D Cooperation and Spillovers: Some Empirical Evidence , 1998 .

[50]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[51]  Jacques Mairesse,et al.  Accounting for Innovation and Measuring Innovativeness: An Illustrative Framework and an Application , 2002 .

[52]  Deborah Dougherty,et al.  Reimagining the Differentiation and Integration of Work for Sustained Product Innovation , 2001 .

[53]  Curba Morris Lampert,et al.  Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions , 2001 .

[54]  S. Shane.  Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities , 2000 .

[55]  Sharon O'donnell,et al.  MANAGING FOREIGN SUBSIDIARIES: AGENTS OF HEADQUARTERS, OR AN INTERDEPENDENT NETWORK? , 2000 .

[56]  H. Mendelson.  Organizational Architecture and Success in the Information Technology Industry , 2000 .

[57]  S. Shane,et al.  The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research , 2000 .

[58]  David J. Teece,et al.  Design Issues for Innovative Firms: Bureaucracy, Incentives and Industrial Structure * , 1999 .

[59]  Jan Venselaar,et al.  DESIGN RULES , 1999 .

[60]  R. Veugelers,et al.  COMPLEMENTARITY BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY MAKE AND BUY IN INNOVATION STRATEGIES : EVIDENCE FROM BELGIAN MANUFACTURING FIRMS , 1998 .

[61]  Lawrence M. Wein,et al.  Economics of Product Development by Users: the Impact of Sticky Local Information , 1998 .

[62]  Erkko Autio,et al.  NEW, TECHNOLOGY-BASED FIRMS IN INNOVATION NETWORKS SYMPLECTIC AND GENERATIVE IMPACTS , 1997 .

[63]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Know-how and asset complementarity and dynamic capability accumulation : The case of R&D , 1997 .

[64]  J. Birkinshaw.  Entrepreneurship in multinational corporations : The characteristics of subsidiary initiatives , 1997 .

[65]  A. Arora.  Contracting for tacit knowledge: the provision of technical services in technology licensing contracts , 1996 .

[66]  R. Grant,et al.  Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 2022 .

[67]  Yolanda Sarason,et al.  Facilitators of organizational innovation: The role of life-cycle stage , 1996 .

[68]  Kirk Monteverde.  Technical dialog as an incentive for vertical integration in the semiconductor industry , 1995 .

[69]  Richard N. Langlois,et al.  Firms, Markets and Economic Change: A dynamic Theory of Business Institutions , 1995 .

[70]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge and the Speed of the Transfer and Imitation of Organizational Capabilities: An Empirical Test , 1995 .

[71]  S. Zahra,et al.  Contextual influences on the corporate entrepreneurship-performance relationship: A longitudinal analysis , 1995 .

[72]  R. Burton,et al.  Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design , 1995 .

[73]  E. Hippel.  Sticky Information and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation , 1994 .

[74]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[75]  D. Teece.  Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy , 1993 .

[76]  E. Hippel.  The dominant role of users in the scientific instrument innovation process , 1993 .

[77]  M. C. Jensen,et al.  Specific and General Knowledge and Organizational Structure , 1995 .

[78]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[79]  D. Teece.  Competition, Cooperation, and Innovation Organizational Arrangements for Regimes of Rapid Technological Progress , 1992 .

[80]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[81]  Danny Miller,et al.  Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure. , 1986 .

[82]  M. Hannan,et al.  Structural Inertia and Organizational Change , 1984 .

[83]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[84]  Gavin J. Wright.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1982 .

[85]  Michael L. Tushman,et al.  Information Processing as an Integrating Concept in Organizational Design. , 1978 .

[86]  P. Allison.  Testing for Interaction in Multiple Regression , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[87]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  Boundary Spanning Roles and Organization Structure , 1977 .

[88]  Thomas J. Allen,et al.  Managing the flow of technology: technology transfer and the dissemination of technological informat , 1977 .

[89]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[90]  Jay R. Galbraith.  Organization Design: An Information Processing View , 1974 .

[91]  Israel M. Kirzner,et al.  Competition and Entrepreneurship , 1974 .

[92]  A. Cooper,et al.  Technical entrepreneurship: what do we know? , 1973 .

[93]  E. von Hippel,et al.  Sources of Innovation , 2016 .

[94]  Stephen I. Cohen,et al.  Information Flow in Research and Development Laboratories. , 1969 .

[95]  A. Chandler,et al.  Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise , 1962 .

[96]  J. Schumpeter.  The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle , 1934 .

[97]  Austen Albu.  Organisation of Industry , 2021, Nature.