Emerald Management Reviews

Design/methodology/approach - The nature of collaborative innovation and the development of collaboration networks to assist companies in their innovation activities is discussed. Explains that collaborative innovation is not a single approach but takes a wide variety of forms where, as companies increasingly team up with outsiders to innovate, they confront critical and complex choices about whom to join forces with and how to share power with them.

Findings - A simple framework, capable of helping managers make correct collaboration decisions, focuses on two questions: how open or closed the membership in a network of collaborators should be; and how flat or hierarchical the network's governance structure should be. Proposes four basic modes of collaboration, each characterized by distinct trade-offs, encompassing: elite circle, where one company selects the participants, defines the problem, and chooses the solutions; innovation mail, where one company posts a problem, anyone can propose solutions, and the company chooses the solutions it likes best; innovation community, where anybody can propose problems, offer solutions, and decide which solutions to use; and consortium, which operates like a private club, with participants jointly selecting problems, deciding how to conduct work, and choosing solutions.

Originality/value - Advises companies on how to stay ahead in the race to develop new technologies, designs, and services, by revisiting their approach to collaborative innovation as their strategies evolve.