Numerous researchers and practitioners emphasize the potential to create value through sustainable business models (SBMs). However, little attention has been paid to how sustainable value is proposed, created, delivered, and captured in the organization, and how customers perceive sustainable value in service. The aim of this paper is to explore this research gap empirically through a case study of sustainable value (co-)creation through SBMs of sustainable service innovations as experienced among two hotels' managers, employees and customers. The contributions of the study relate to the development of SBMs in service, where the value processes happen simultaneously and where the element value perception has to be added to the extant SBM literature, which is closely related to the creation and delivery of physical goods as in product-oriented industries. The study also contributes through the dual perspective (providers and customers) on sustainable value proposition, value creation and value capture. The findings reveal different key aspects in creating and capturing sustainable value through SBMs and sustainable service innovation. The managerial implications for creating and implementing SBM in service stress the need for employee engagement, customer involvement and targeted and personal communication educating internal and external sustainability ambassadors.
Sustainability transitions are a significant challenge that requires established industries to adopt innovative ways of doing business. Research suggests that while this is possible through business model innovation (BMI), risk avoidance by regime actors and high levels of future uncertainty act as barriers to successful transitions. Specifically, we lack knowledge about how established companies innovate their business model (BM) to reduce uncertainty related to sustainability transitions. We explore the case of a large forest-based manufacturing company in the construction industry, Stora Enso. We find that, by pursuing transformative BMI and combining multiple value creation logics, a company can reduce different types of uncertainty while shaping its business ecosystem towards more sustainable opportunities. We show that the BM can serve as an organizational tool for collectively exploring new knowledge, reducing uncertainty and driving change in a business ecosystem.
In the knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are a key driver for innovation and competitiveness. The internationalization of these businesses raises challenges given their specificities such as knowledge intensity, the importance of customer interaction and intimacy in service delivery. This paper focuses on design consultancies as a specific type of creative KIBS for which these characteristics are emphasized. The objective of this research is to analyse the resources leveraged by the firms to compete internationally. It is based on 11 case studies of design consultancies located in five different countries (France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK) that were selected for their capacity to perform at the international level for several years. The paper advances three internationalization modes depending on contingent variables and focusing on specific resources that enable international competitiveness: star-based, process-based and glocality-based. In star-based creative KIBS, the individual designer has developed a reputation that attracts customers internationally, operating as a brand. In process-based creative KIBS, the reputation of a collective creative process attracts clients from other countries. In glocality-based creative KIBS, the geographical proximity obtained by opening international offices helps to develop a close understanding of the client through frequent interactions, and also to know the client's market well and to better understand local codes and signs. These modes complement those presented in the existing internationalization literature which takes the peculiarities of creative KIBS into consideration.
Industrial PhD students, affiliating to industrial firms and academic institutions, hold unique boundary-spanning positions as they engage in knowledge co-creation through university–industry collaboration (UIC). Despite much research on knowledge transfer processes and boundary spanners in inter-organizational contexts, firms who engage in UIC remain uncertain about how to reap the benefits of co-creating knowledge through industrial PhD projects. This paper investigates the enablers of knowledge dissemination for PhD students in industrial firms. Based on a qualitative case study in Sweden, our study identifies enablers and mechanisms related to individual and organizational actions in the internal knowledge dissemination process. Based on the findings, the paper presents a model that distinguishes between surface and deep knowledge dissemination and elaborates on the symbiotic nature of enablers, with middle management mediating between the individual and organizational levels. The paper enhances research on knowledge dissemination in UIC by specifically addressing industrial PhD students' dissemination of co-created knowledge. The findings inform organizations in managing their expectations, making more informed decisions and improving dissemination conditions for boundary-spanning industrial PhD students in UIC.
What impact do managers have on successful implementation of organisational change? A model is suggested to assess the strength of managers to initiate and implement organisational change and development. The model rests on leadership theories and factors that describe and explain various change aspects of managers’ behaviour. It is assumed that managers who have a change‐centred leadership style, who are intuitive combined with power motivation and see urgent demands for change and development, have an optimal capacity for implementing major changes in their organisations. This model has been tested on a sample of 153 vicars, each facing a radically new situation. The Church of Sweden was disestablished this year breaking a structure, which has lasted for 500 years. As expected, very few of the vicars (as managers) exhibited change and development related behaviour described by the model. In fact, only one percent of the vicars appears to have maximum capacity to implement organisational changes. Whether the model can predict successful implementation of major organisational change remains to be tested.
In today's business environment, digitalization plays a key role in establishing competitive advantage and developing new business models. However, little is known about business model innovation (BMI) processes and practices of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) in their digital venturing. Thus, the aim of this paper is to address this research gap by investigating the process activities of SMEs in effectively building new business models through digitalization. Through a case study of 18 SMEs, document studies and 36 interviews, we explore the BMI processes during the case companies' digital transformation. The research results identify four critical BMI process activities: (1) assessing the environment in search of new opportunities, (2) conveying a sense of urgency, (3) exploring and testing new opportunities through experimentation and (4) handling decision-making with a combination of intuition and data. Finally, our study reveals managerial implications related to data-driven decision-making during BMI, constituting four managerial dilemmas: (1) prognosis and scenario-driven search myopia, (2) timing and sustainability, (3) radical shift from traditional experimentation to data-based methods and (4) using intuition versus data-driven decision-making.
Agile methodologies have been adopted by an increasing number of organizations to improve their responsiveness. However, few studies have empirically analysed the effect of Agile on long-term organizational goals such as learning and innovation. Using an abductive approach, this study examines the relationships between self-regulated teams’ social conduct and their resulting learning and innovation. Results indicate that the perceived time pressure to get the job done greatly impedes team engagement in learning and innovation activities. Time pressure is affected by the various control strategies deriving from the implementation of Agile, which constitute its dark side: concertive, belief, diagnostic and boundary controls.
We explore how the literature on business models can explain the outcomes of innovation attempts in the public sector. Our findings suggest that governments can access a well-developed knowledge domain for a public sector area but have a weak ability to propagate its value for society. Drawing on the business model literature concerning interdependence and distributed agency, we illustrate how a collective action problem related to innovation may arise in the public sector. We illustrate this new category of public innovation challenge with the (failed) case of the Swedish civil contingencies system and subsequently discuss a new line of inquiry for future research.
The purpose of the paper is to illuminate the costs and benefits of crossing firm boundaries in inbound open innovation (OI) by determining the relationships among partner types, knowledge content and performance. The empirical part of the study is based on a survey of OI collaborations answered by R&D managers in 415 Italian, Finnish and Swedish firms. The results show that the depth of collaboration with different partners (academic/consultants, value chain partners, competitors and firms in other industries) is positively related to innovation performance, whereas the number of different partners and size have negative effects. The main result is that the knowledge content of the collaboration moderates the performance outcomes and the negative impact of having too many different kinds of partners. This illustrates how successful firms use selective collaboration strategies characterized by linking explorative and exploitative knowledge content to specific partners, to leverage the benefits and limit the costs of knowledge boundary crossing processes.
The purpose of this paper is to explore possible effects for learning when a manufacturing plant takes a double role, as being both master plant and apprentice plant, in a globally distributed industrialization process. Industrialization is here understood as the process of preparing new products for volume manufacturing. Two research questions are addressed. The first is what characterizes the dual roles. The second concerns how the dual roles affect knowledge integration and learning processes, and whether this arrangement facilitates learning between master and apprentice. Based on a study of a global telecom equipment company, the paper provides insights into some of the challenges and effects of dynamic switching of roles. By separating the network function from the strategic role of the plant, the study identifies four options for learning. The case adds to the literature on learning in manufacturing networks and to previous research on how distributed processes affect innovation capability.
This paper analyses how two different outsourcing manufacturing strategies relate to plant performance and innovation capability when taking into account the organizational integration of design and manufacturing as well as product complexity. The study discriminates between low-cost-oriented outsourcing and innovation-oriented outsourcing. The empirical data used is based on a survey of 267 engineering firms, of which half have outsourced manufacturing. We found that the two outsourcing strategies do have different effects, which illustrates that outsourcing represents a trade-off between improving innovation capability and lowering costs. The study furthermore shows that manufacturing and supplier integration in product design processes is mainly beneficial when applying innovation-oriented outsourcing, and in particular when products and manufacturing processes are complex.
Innovation is to a large extent considered a social and communicative process, and input from other individuals potentially improves the generation of novel and valuable ideas also in the early stages of idea creation and development. Both colleagues inside organizations and external parties have frequently been proposed as important sources of information and knowledge within this part of the innovation process. Other contributions addressing social networks and innovation bring into focus the potentially negative effects that certain network structures may have on innovation, pointing to inconsistencies in received theory. In order to address these inconsistencies, an empirical study of ideation in a Swedish multinational firm was performed, taking into account two different knowledge creation processes - combination and in-depth analysis - and their inter-relationships with organizational distance between contributing individuals. Data was collected using a survey and was analysed using regression models. It was found that different levels of organizational distance correlate with different knowledge creation processes. In-depth analysis occurred more often with employees' close colleagues, whereas the combination of existing ideas and information was more frequent in interaction with employees' close colleagues and with external parties. Both these interaction patterns were also found to be positive for the generation of patents, whereas no such relationship could be seen when individuals interacted with colleagues in other departments in the same firm. The findings have implications for theory on cognitive distance, and also suggest that management needs to facilitate different types of collaboration and networking when aiming to facilitate and support ideation, taking into consideration the type of innovation aimed for, as well as its supporting knowledge creation processes.
Ideation is increasingly receiving attention as a management issue, and we can at present witness the emergence and diffusion of a range of different proactive approaches towards ideation. This development is hardly surprising in the light of the changed nature of innovation activities, including a higher reliance also on external sources for innovation and more focus on non-technological types of innovation, such as business model innovations. Firms need to handle both a larger number of sources for innovation and more different types of innovations. This article investigates how spanning different knowledge domains influences individuals' ideation performance. A study has been performed using data on all ideas created within an organization during three years. From this data, two broad set of knowledge domains are identified and the influence on ideation of the individuals spanning these domains the knowledge domain spanners in ideation are investigated. The empirical results show that knowledge domain spanners in ideation have higher ideation performance than individuals engaged in only one knowledge domain.
This paper explores ideation capabilities in large organizations. Based on the dynamic capabilities framework, it is seen that ideation capabilities are managerial and organizational processes for the stimulation, identification, selection and implementation of ideas. In order to explore how these capabilities are manifested and used in firms, case studies of four Swedish companies have been performed. The results of the study show that there are different approaches to ideation. In terms of the nature of innovative ideas, the observations lead to the suggestion that ideation presents some seemingly paradoxical issues to management. Firms with an explicit focus on building ideation practices experience that there are some negative consequences of the resultant formalization. Furthermore, the extent to which many employees should be involved in ideation is a difficult aspect, even though new technologies make this more viable. Also the degree to which the search for ideas should be directed is a non-trivial question, as the ideation processes can be facilitated by both freedom and limitations. It is nevertheless seen that firms can benefit from more deliberate approaches to ideation, in particular if these are broad and balanced and focus on both building capabilities that formalize the informal, in terms of establishing explicit processes, roles and systems, and building capabilities needed to manage informal structures in new ways.
Creativity and Innovation Management has grown substantially over the last couple of years, both quantitatively and qualitatively. From 2016 to 2021, the number of submissions has grown from 287 to 395. Most of the growth was realized in Asia: The number of submissions from that continent increased from 72 in 2016 to 193 in 2021. The rest of the world remained (close to) stable: 215 in 2016 and 203 in 2021. Equally important, the Thomson ISI Impact Factor increased from 1.423 in 2015 to 3.051 in 2021 and further to 3.644 in 2022. This is not where our ambitions end, though. We want to be the ever-better outlet for authors researching, and practitioners working in, the fields we cover. Editing a journal with the ambition to continuously increase its quality while dealing with a substantial growth requires teamwork—teamwork among the editors and the editorial office, teamwork between the editors and their reviewers and, as surprising as this may sound, teamwork between the authors and their reviewers in a top-quality reviewing process. The purpose of this piece is to present and discuss some reviewing standards. In particular, we aim to share with our reviewers what we think is an excellent reviewing process. Furthermore, we formulate our ideas about what it is that makes a review an excellent one. The title of this piece is deliberately ambiguous. It denotes that Creativity and Innovation Management strives for reviewing excellence—as in an excellent reviewing process. It also denotes that we reach for the stars and hope to one day receive and, hence, review only excellent submissions.
Complexity leadership theory (CLT) is about balancing formal and informal organisation to leverage dynamics of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and produce learning, creativity, and adaptation in organisations. Based on interviews with sixteen agile coaches (AC) at Spotify, this study examines how AC practice enabling leadership, a key balancing force in complexity leadership. Coaches practice enabling leadership by increasing the context-sensitivity of others, supporting other leaders, establishing and reinforcing simple principles, observing group dynamics, surfacing conflict and facilitating and encouraging constructive dialogue. The AC as complexity leader values being present,observing and reacting in the moment. Findings suggest flexible structure provided by an attentive coach may prove a fruitful way to navigate and balance autonomy and alignment in organisations.
Companies increasingly seek to foster collaborative innovation through the design of innovation spaces such as incubators, accelerators, studios, and fab labs. Innovation spaces bring together multiple actors for collaborative practices to generate new products and processes. Despite their growing popularity, many innovation spaces fail to deliver on their promises and are subsequently shut down. How can innovation spaces foster effective collaborative innovation? This article illustrates the role of space and boundary objects to facilitate collaborative innovation. Based on illustrative examples from the context of business studios, the findings show that innovation spaces enable the four affordances of convergence, generativity, socialization, and collaborative learning. Managers who design and run innovation spaces need to leverage these affordances to propel collaborative innovation.
This study empirically tests the Continuous Improvement (CI) maturity model across multiple countries. The analysis is based on data from the 2nd International CINet Survey, limited to the situation in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Despite some differences in Continuous Improvement maturity level between countries, findings lend support to the convergence argument. Regardless of national specificity, Continuous Improvement behaviour patterns emerge in a similar fashion, and furthermore, correspond to improved operational performance if adopted. In addition, findings show that other contextual variables such as company size and type of production system are of limited importance. This implies that Continuous Improvement is something that can be implemented and developed successfully if managed properly, irrespective of contextual influences such as those stemming from cultural and industrial factors.
This paper looks into how new ventures organize their business models in order to meet their available resources. It employs the business model as the unit of analysis to investigate the role and nature of business model adaptation as a coping mechanism with resource constraints. By drawing on a case study with two ventures starting with different resources, the paper shows how those ventures use business model adaptation under resource constraints as a way to create comparable offerings. Business model adaptation involves a process of continuous search, selection, and improvement in value creation, value proposition, and value capture, based on the surrounding environment. For the two new ventures included in this study, early business model adaptations were related to (1) market — geography and customer, (2) strategy — marketing, sales, and growth, (3) profit — profit formula and cost structure, and (4) structures, processes, and capabilities. This paper also shows how the adaptation process is conditioned by the venture's stock and flow of resources. Bringing a resource perspective into the process of business model adaptation implies practical implications for new ventures that are developing and adapting their business models to strategically co‐develop their offering with their resources such that they match required adaptations.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of frontline employees (FLEs) in service innovation processes and how they contribute to these roles. In the literature, FLEs are argued to play an important role in service innovation; however, neither the potential types of roles nor what taking on these potential roles means to FLEs, have previously been studied. This study investigates FLEs' actions in different types of service innovation processes. Based on analyses of eight different service business units, FLEs are identified as having either of two sets of roles: (1) leading roles as idea creators, developers and implementers, or (2) supporting roles as problem reporters, advisors and executors. The analysis provides managers with guidelines which can help them to better utilize FLEs as contributors to service innovation, either as leading or supporting actors. These imply different management challenges, which are discussed. Advice on how to tackle these challenges is given on the basis of the findings.
A firm's ability to develop radical innovation is heavily contingent on the front-end phases where ideas and concepts are created, yet few empirical studies provide detailed insights into radical idea and concept development. Using literature on problem finding and problem solving, we explore how radically new ideas and concepts emerge, and outline the process by which they are created. Based on multiple case studies of five completed and two ongoing projects conducted by a highly innovative consultancy firm, Prime Group, the article proposes a six-step process for radical idea and concept development. The insights provide theoretical implications and advice for how firms can increase novelty and success rates of emergent radical ideas and concepts
This brief note focuses on how to communicate with reviewers through the response letter. Specifically, we elaborate on how to minimize the risk that reviewers underestimate the quality of the study because of poor communication in the response letter. We outline ideas for how to plan and organize a revision, and then crafting the response letter. We organize the discussion around how common writing rules, such as “Make it simple to read” and “Write for the target audience”, may apply to response letters but need adaptation to be effective. In summary, while the changes made in the actual paper are most important in any revision, this note provides an additional resource to use in order to increase the chances that the revised paper reaches its greatest potential.
It is well established that engaging paradoxes and the role of space are important aspects of idea work. Although the significance has been recognized, studies that focus on the intersection between space and paradox are scarce. Accordingly, this article explores the intersection and focuses on the role of space in idea work characterized by paradoxes. More specifically, the aim of this article is twofold. First, the article aims at identifying the spatial conditions that enable organization members to think and act paradoxically. Second, the article aims at exploring how spatial conditions evoke a paradoxical way of thinking and doing. Based on three Scandinavian architectural firms, and through abductive inference, four spatial conditions are identified and outlined. The conditions are conceptualized as organized chaos, boundary(less)ness, premeditated spontaneity, and (re)framing. From the results, and through the discussion, the notion of "generative space" is introduced to explain the overall importance of spatiality, as well as how the interrelatedness of the conditions facilitates a paradoxical way of thinking and doing in idea work.
It is well established that engaging paradoxes and the role of space are important aspects of idea work. Although the significance has been recognized, studies that focus on the intersection between space and paradox are scarce. Accordingly, this article explores the intersection and focuses on the role of space in idea work characterized by paradoxes. More specifically, the aim of this article is twofold. First, the article aims at identifying the spatial conditions that enable organization members to think and act paradoxically. Second, the article aims at exploring how spatial conditions evoke a paradoxical way of thinking and doing. Based on three Scandinavian architectural firms, and through abductive inference, four spatial conditions are identified and outlined. The conditions are conceptualized as organized chaos, boundary(less)ness, premeditated spontaneity, and (re)framing. From the results, and through the discussion, the notion of “generative space” is introduced to explain the overall importance of spatiality, as well as how the interrelatedness of the conditions facilitates a paradoxical way of thinking and doing in idea work.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) largely depend on proficient idea generation activities to improve their front-end innovation performance, yet the liabilities of newness and smallness often hamper SMEs’ ability to benefit from systematic idea generation. To compensate for these liabilities, many SMEs adopt an open innovation approach by collaborating with market-based partners such as customers and suppliers. This study investigates the relationship between SMEs’ systematic idea generation and front-end performance and investigates the moderating role of market-based partnership for SMEs. Drawing on a survey of 146 Swedish manufacturing SMEs, this study provides two key contributions. First, the systematic idea generation and front-end performance relationship in SMEs is non-linear. Accordingly, higher levels of front-end performance are achieved when idea generation activities are highly systematic. Second, the returns from higher levels of systematic idea generation are positively moderated by market-based partnerships. Thus, external cooperation with customers and suppliers pays off most toward front-end performance when SMEs have highly systematic idea generation processes. These results indicate a contingency perspective on the role of external partnerships. They also have implications for research into the front-end of innovation and open innovation in the context of SMEs.
Firms are increasingly relying on collaborating with external partners to drive technology development. Many firms struggle with managing the inherently uncertain and ambiguous technology development process, however, especially with external actors involved, because they may not have or share the same project management practices concerning coordination and control activities. To address this gap, this study examines appropriate project management practices for market- and science-partnerships in three large technology intensive firms. Our results suggest that interorganizational technology development is problematic because firms lack sufficient partner understanding and struggle with aligning their project management practices with those of their partners. To address these problems, we identify project management practices of coordination and control to fit the contingencies of each type of partner collaboration. Our results provide implications for theory and managerial practices related to managing interorganizational technology development.
Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) largely depend on proficient idea generation activities to improve their front‐end innovation performance, yet the liabilities of newness and smallness often hamper SMEs' ability to benefit from systematic idea generation. To compensate for these liabilities, many SMEs adopt an open innovation approach by collaborating with market‐based partners such as customers and suppliers. This study investigates the relationship between SMEs' systematic idea generation and front‐end performance and investigates the moderating role of market‐based partnership for SMEs. Drawing on a survey of 146 Swedish manufacturing SMEs, this study provides two key contributions. First, the systematic idea generation and front‐end performance relationship in SMEs is non‐linear. Accordingly, higher levels of front-end performance are achieved when idea generation activities are highly systematic. Second, the returns from higher levels of systematic idea generation are positively moderated by market‐based partnerships. Thus, external cooperation with customers and suppliers pays off most toward front‐end performance when SMEs have highly systematic idea generation processes. These results indicate a contingency perspective on the role of external partnerships. They also have implications for research into the front‐end of innovation and open innovation in the context of SMEs. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Firms are increasingly relying on collaborating with external partners to drive technology development. Many firms struggle with managing the inherently uncertain and ambiguous technology development process, especially with external actors involved, because they may not have or share the same project management practices concerning coordination and control activities. To address this gap, this study examines appropriate project management practices for market-based and science‐based partnerships in three large technology‐intensive firms. Our results suggest that interorganizational technology development is problematic because firms lack sufficient partner understanding and struggle with aligning their project management practices with those of their partners. To address these problems, we identify project management practices of coordination and control to fit the contingencies of each type of partner collaboration. Our results provide implications for theory and managerial practices related to managing interorganizational technology development. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
The growing recognition of the importance of cultural and creative sectors as sources of creativity and innovation has put emphasis on the development of entrepreneurs within this field. Cultural entrepreneurs are often described as being driven by artistic, rather than entrepreneurial, ambitions, where value creation is based on unique expressions, requiring them to engage in continuous innovation to sustain their activities, as well as facing challenging conditions. However, more understanding is needed on the work of these entrepreneurs and how they deal with challenges. The purpose of this paper is thus to explore the work of cultural entrepreneurs by integrating the current understanding of its challenges and strategies. Through reviewing empirical articles focusing on entrepreneurs in these industries and analyzing how the activities of entrepreneurs are described, we argue that the academic conversation around these entrepreneurs revolves around broad questions: who they are, what they have and where they are. These questions constitute three domains of entrepreneurial activity. We outline the challenges and strategies of cultural entrepreneurs and discuss the dynamics in the interplay between challenges and strategies within and across these domains. In highlighting the interplay between challenges and strategies, we advance the knowledge of entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative sectors and provide avenues for further research.
This study shows that effective knowledge management is essential in a creative knowledge environment of R&D groups in cutting-edge fields such as biotechnology. To a great extent, knowledge management is revealed as a group leadership task. Moreover, group leaders emphasize group organization as a way to generate ideas, while group members are concerned with creative leadership. Group climates are unanimously perceived to be conducive to creative output. Theoretical starting points taken in creativity are seen as fostered by the environment rather than by individual characteristics. Data were collected by semi-structured, oral interviews (N = 84) with group leaders and group members at universities and biotechnical companies in Sweden. Data were analysed by content and categorized accordingly. Future research on creative micro-environments should focus on leadership issues and knowledge management.
This study examines how group leaders in academic and industrial research settings stimulate creativity in group members. The study uses a modified version of the critical incident technique to collect creative incidents as perceived and reported in interviews with research group members. These incidents were content analysed according to the reported creative situation and the creativity-stimulating leadership behaviours. Reasons for the importance of the incidents are given (each incident is subdivided into categories and subcategories). The highest ranked categories deal with how leaders provide expertise in research meetings and in supervisory situations, in particular for the advancement of research. Four types of creativity-stimulating leadership behaviours are also discussed. The study finds few differences between how leaders in universities and industries stimulate creativity.
Innovation is a social and interactive process in which collaboration and exchange of knowledge and information play crucial roles. Two conflicting hypotheses have been raised in previous research: Burt's structural hole hypothesis and the density hypothesis. In brief, the former of these hypotheses builds upon arguments for open network structures in the acquisition of innovation; the latter one builds upon arguments for closed network structures for innovation. To shed some light on this state of confusion, this paper tests these two conflicting hypotheses on two separate measures of innovation in a service industry setting. One innovation measure is more incremental in nature and regards the implementation of employees' ideas. The other innovation measure is more radical in nature and regards new services. Findings suggest that social network measures are, indeed, powerful predictors of innovation and, further, that the impact of these are likely to be radically different depending upon the type and measure of innovation. Consequently, this paper recommends caution when studying the impact of social network measures upon innovation, and that more fine-grained measurements in particular are needed rather than focusing upon inter-relationships of an overly general and superficial nature.