Profiting from the virtual organisation of technological innovation: suggestions from an empirical study

Abstract

The process of technological innovation has been changing, and this greatly impacts on its management. Increasingly, technological innovation requires the fusion of multiple technological disciplines, deeper and deeper technical skills, and early availability of market knowledge. This increases the need of firms to access external sources of technical knowledge and information (markets, customers and technology suppliers), and to rely on technological collaborations. This paper attempts to identify effective practices to manage technological partnering. It is based on the results of an empirical investigation on seven cases of technological partnerships in high-tech industry.