Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide clarity to the concept of innovation and its various definitions. Design/methodology/approach -The article reviews the innovation literature and proposes that innovation has been conceptualized either from a process or from an outcome perspective. Also, the authors show that there is a substantive difference between innovation seen in the traditional innovation literature and innovation as conceived in the knowledge management literature.Findings -The paper proposes a general framework to categorize the existing views of innovation and show that innovation as an outcome has not been clearly defined from a knowledge perspective. To address this gap, the authors develop a new definition of an innovation outcome based on knowledge elements.Research limitations/implications -The research lays the groundwork for more comprehensive methods of measuring innovation and innovativeness, which is particularly useful for the study of service innovation.Practical implications -The framework and definition expand the ability of managers to measure and understand the key factors of innovation.Originality/value -The research contributes to the literature by developing a comprehensive knowledge-based, outcome-oriented definition of innovation.

Organizational network research has demonstrated that multiple benefits accrue to people occupying brokerage positions. However, the extant literature offers scant evidence of the process postulated to drive such benefits (information brokerage) and therefore leaves unaddressed the question of how brokers broker. We address this gap by examining the information-brokerage interactions in which actors engage. We argue that the information-brokerage strategies of brokers differ in three critical ways from those of actors embedded in denser network positions. First, brokers more often broker information via short-term interactions with colleagues outside their network of long-term relationships, a process we label “unembedded brokerage.” Second, when they engage in unembedded brokerage, brokers are more likely than are actors in dense network positions to intermediate the flow of information between the brokered parties, consistent with a tertius gaudens strategy. Conversely, and third, when they broker information via their network of long-term ties (embedded brokerage), brokers are more likely than are densely connected actors to facilitate a direct information exchange between the brokered parties, consistent with a tertius iungens strategy. Using a relational event model, we find support for our arguments in an empirical analysis of email communications among employees in a medium-sized, knowledge-intensive organization, as well as in a replication study. The theory and evidence we present advance a novel, temporal perspective on how brokers broker, which reconciles structural and process views of network brokerage. Our findings substantiate the notion of brokers as a dynamic force driving change in organizational networks, and they help to integrate within a unitary explanatory framework tertius iungens and tertius gaudens views of brokerage.

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Social networks can be important sources of information and insights that may spark employee creativity. The cross-fertilization of ideas depends not just on access to information and insights through one's direct network-the people one actually interacts with--but at least as much on access to the indirect network one's direct ties connect one to (i.e., people one does not interact with directly, but with whom one's direct ties interact). We propose that the reach efficiency of this indirect network--its nonredundancy in terms of interconnections--is positively related to individual creativity. To help specify the boundaries of this positive influence of the indirect network, we also explore how many steps removed the indirect network still adds to creativity. In addition, we propose that the efficiency (nonredundancy) of one's direct network is important here, because more efficient direct networks give one access to indirect networks with greater reach efficiency. Our hypotheses were supported in a multilevel analysis of multisource survey data from 223 sales representatives nested within 11 divisions of a Chinese pharmaceutical company. This analysis also showed that the creative benefits of reach efficiency were evident for 3 and 4 degrees of separation but were greatest for indirect ties that depend only on one's direct ties.

Previous research on interaction behavior among organizations (resource exchange, collaboration, communication) has typically aggregated those behaviors over time as a network of organizational relationships. We instead study structural-temporal patterns in organizational exchange, focusing on the dynamics of reciprocation. Applying this lens to a community of Italian hospitals during the period 2003-2007, we observe two mechanisms of interorganizational reciprocation: organizational embedding and resource dependence. We show how these two mechanisms operate on distinct time frames: Dependence applies to contemporaneous exchange structures, whereas embedding develops through longer-term historical patterns. We also show how these processes operate differently in competitive and noncompetitive contexts, operationalized in terms of market differentiation and geographic space. In noncompetitive contexts, we observe both logics of reciprocation, dependence in the short term and embedding over the long term, developing into population-level generalized exchange. In competitive contexts, we find no reciprocation and instead observe the microfoundations of status hierarchies. INTRODUCTION

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Research summary Recent entrepreneurship research has examined how opportunities are developed, highlighting the engagement of external actors. However, we know little about how entrepreneurs should interact with external actors to sustain their engagement. Since opportunity development is a process that unfolds over time, sustaining actor engagement is critical because it enables continued feedback and access to actors’ resources. We present a process model that explains how entrepreneurs can sustain external actor engagement through two iterative phases: translation and transformation. We also propose that entrepreneurs can sustain actor engagement by structuring the timing of interactions and by modifying actors’ perceptions of the time available for novel opportunity development. We conclude with an agenda for future research on actor engagement and entrepreneurs’ temporal capabilities. Managerial summary To develop business opportunities, entrepreneurs require support, feedback, and other resources from different groups of individuals (actors), such as customers, business partners, investors, and regulators. We explain how entrepreneurs should continue to interact with these actors throughout the development period to secure sustained access to resources. Entrepreneurs need to present the business opportunity to actors in an engaging way, and subsequently integrate the feedback received during development of the project. Sustaining engagement from actors involves an iterative process through which the business opportunity is communicated and transformed. Entrepreneurs can influence actors’ engagement by choosing how and when to interact with them. We highlight time and actor feedback as important resources that can be used by skillful entrepreneurs to increase the odds of opportunity development success. Copyright © 2016 Strategic Management Society.