Problematizing the collaboration process in a knowledge-development context

This research discusses the role of collaboration in the development of new knowledge and innovation management. To illustrate collaboration's significance, this research uses a flow path analytic model to examine the key antecedents and their predictive relationship with organizational performance in the course of collaboration process. The antecedents comprise consensus, technological support, rules & procedures and innovation complexity. The research further documents a corroboratory note in an industrial innovation case, which measures the collaboration antecedent effects on the innovation outcome using three behavioral indicators, dependence, essentiality and predictability. The analytic results provide evidence about collaboration management in organizational learning and new knowledge activities. Finally a parsimonious framework shows that the effects resulted from the individual collaboration antecedents along the three stages of innovation work. This research has implications for managing collaboration as a means of organizational learning and perfection.