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Businesses nowadays are facing increasing competition (think of the BRIC countries), rising R&D costs, and ever more complex technologies. In response to these developments, companies are increasingly opting for collaboration. This leads to networks of cooperative relationships between businesses, government institutions, and research centres. But how should an organisation position itself within the network in order to best benefit from the knowledge of different organisations in the network? This is a question that not only scientists have been pondering for some time, but one that has also piqued Dialogic's interest. In recent years, Dialogic has actively invested in developing knowledge related to network analysis in order to stay ahead in the application of network analysis as a method. Jaap Veldkamp seized upon this research question for his thesis within Dialogic (Master's programme in Science and Innovation Management at Utrecht University).
For this study, the focus was on the network of the European Aerospace Research (6th Framework Programme), with a specific emphasis on knowledge integration. Knowledge integration involves organisations combining new insights and experiences from the research network with internal knowledge development. This allows them to fully benefit from their participation in the joint research project. For instance, a company developing lightweight materials for aircraft exteriors can gain relevant knowledge from a research project on technical sustainability, resilience, and durability of lightweight materials. These insights can lead to improvements in their own products.
In order to link the network positions of organisations with the extent of knowledge integration from the network, the network structure was first analysed, followed by a questionnaire sent to the contacts of the 1014 organisations participating in this network. This connection between network information at the level of individual participants and participant attributes, gathered through other methods (such as questionnaires), is quite novel in the application of network analysis.
The questionnaire covered various topics, which were ultimately used to determine to what extent (structural) network positions of organisations can be explained or to find out where these positions ultimately lead. Explanatory factors included organisational type (small supplier versus large aircraft manufacturer like Airbus) and experience with previous rounds of the European Framework Programme. However, particular attention was paid to the organisation's knowledge integration within the network.
The linking of network metrics of participating organisations and their scores on knowledge integration (from the questionnaire) reveals that almost all participants are good to very good at integrating knowledge. Network position seems to be a less explanatory factor. Why is that? Participation in the Framework Programme involves preselection: only highly innovative organisations participate. They have a professional internal R&D apparatus and are thus able to easily translate results of joint research into their own needs and portfolio. Knowledge integration is therefore more of a condition for participating in the European research network rather than a result of network positions.
Jaap Veldkamp's thesis Knowledge integration by organizations. Does an organization’s network embeddedness matter? is freely available. Following his graduation, Jaap Veldkamp joined Dialogic.