Open-System Orchestration as a Relational Source of Sensing Capabilities: Evidence from a Venture Association

Abstract

Research on innovation networks has highlighted the pivotal role that actors with more prominence and power, such as hub firms, may play in orchestrating the activities of other network members along a collective innovation effort. Our study examined the under-theorized, but no less important, type of orchestration that characterizes other organizations, such as business incubators and venture associations, who seek to support the dispersed entrepreneurial efforts of network members. We refer to this type as "open-system" orchestration, as opposed to the commonly studied "closed-system" type performed by hub firms. Our findings reveal how the processes of open-system orchestration differ markedly from those of closed-system orchestration, and detail how these processes influence the micro-foundations of network members' sensing capabilities. By doing so, we also offer empirical substantiation and theoretical elaboration to the idea that dynamic capabilities might not reside exclusively inside firms, but could be co-created relationally with other parties in the business ecosystem. Entrepreneurship and innovation often occur within large networks of independent or semiindependent firms (Freeman, 1991; Howells, 2006; Powell, Koput, & Smith-Doerr, 1996). Previous studies have drawn attention to the fact that, in some of these networks, a central actor takes a leading role in "orchestrating" collaboration among member firms (Dhanaraj & Parkhe, 2006; Paquin & Howard-Grenville, 2013). This line of inquiry has focused on so-called "hub firms"typically large corporations attempting to harness the resources and capabilities of several smaller partners to pursue a collective innovation goal (Nambisan & Sawhney, 2011)-and has begun to unpack the processes through which these orchestrators govern their networks (see Dagnino, Levanti, & Mocciaro Li Destri, 2016, for a review). Recent studies, however, indicate that in other types of innovation networks, rather than attempting to extract value from members' coordinated efforts as hub firms do (Dhanaraj & Parkhe, 2006), central actors primarily support members' dispersed and largely independent search and pursuit of new business opportunities. This is the case, for instance, of business incubators and accelerators, national and regional agencies, or associations of small and medium-sized enterprises. Scholars have referred to organizations that perform this supporting role as "bridging organizations" (Berkes, 2009; Sapsed, Grantham, & DeFillippi, 2007) or "open-system This paper has greatly benefitted from the support and comments provided by the Editor Scott Sonenshein and three anonymous reviewers whom we thank sincerely. We also gratefully acknowledge the constructive comments of

How Sustainability Crept Out of the Black Box: The Case of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

“…We analyzed the data in mutual sparring processes, during which we connected empirical observations to extant conceptual frames. Our aim was to identify critical events in order to generate tentative ideas on how sustainability gradually crept out of the black box into the spotlight (Giudici et al, 2018).…”

Value-independent Third-party Orchestrators as Catalysts of Business Collaboration

“…Only a few studies also encompass value-independent collaboration facilitators. Metcalfe (2010) recognizes the role of non-commercial facilitators in triple-helix relationships (government-industry-university) and Giudici et al (2018) extend their organizational perspective to include potential facilitators such as business incubators, regional innovation programs, and venture associations. Even in this case, however, the open-systems context excludes closed-system organizations, such as membership-based facilitators.…”

“…Value-independent collaboration facilitators are very under-represented in the collaboration literature and have only been tangentially recognized previously (e.g. Giudici et al, 2018). Studies of network orchestrators and intermediaries focus on value-appropriators; value-mediators that benefit commercially from the relationships they create.…”

Social Entrepreneurship Policy: Evidences from the Italian Reform

“…An ecosystem is therefore formed by many actors who perform different activities, have different objectives, and can make different kinds of contributions. For this reason, it is important to recognize the important role of those actors able to act as mediators and orchestrators [Giudici et al, 2018] in the processes of the identification, production, and implementation of solutions. Given the complexity of actions collectively put into play, it is necessary to understand the strategic importance of actors who manage the transmission of information and act as the platform or marketplace by which all the actors interact with each other.…”