Mechanism of Leveraging Innovation Capability via Networks and All Time-Space Innovation

Open innovation has been proposed as new paradigms for the management of innovation and it is gaining grounds in many academies and industries. The role of the networks as a main model of open innovation is a powerful base to foster innovation in companies and industry-wide. (Chesbrough, 2003; Vrande, 2009; Chi, 2009). “….New models of innovation have suggested that many innovative firms have changed the way they search for new ideas, adopting open search strategies to help them achieve and sustain innovation” (Laursen and Salter, 2006). The traditional linear model from research and development as a basis of innovations is thus shifting to a model with a wide network of sources and partners integrating complementary competencies. Especially the downturn will push firms to adopt more networked approaches to innovation (Leadbeater et al., 2008). As described in the previous section (see Chapter 5), mainstream of innovation in SMEs is becoming more open, and they are practicing extensive networking activities.In a word, openness causes great changes in the innovation landscape in recent years. Accordingly, the spatial and temporal scope of innovative working and organization in networks has changed dramatically, such as structure, culture, activity and so on. All these indicate that a broader and more comprehensive approach to innovation will be required for future success. In this section, we will explore the mechanism to leverage innovation capability via networks and all time-space innovation. Firstly, an integration of framework to study the dynamics of networks is proposed based on literature review. Secondly, we analyze different strategic pathways to leverage competence in SMEs by innovation networks. Thirdly, mechanism to leverage competence by internal-external networks co-evolution is explored. Besides that, implications for globalization via all timespace are also discussed.