Uncorking knowledge- purposeful spillovers as a strategic tool for capability enhancement in the cork industry

Abstract

There is a growing body of research linking knowledge spillovers to strategic entrepreneurship in multiple contexts, yet the existence of purposeful spillovers has been largely ignored. This study analyses the value-accretive potential of knowledge spillover strategies, where a selected body of knowledge is purposefully and strategically disclosed to competitors. The cork industry provides the empirical context, with the many small firms possessing limited innovation capabilities in an industry under threat from rival alternative technologies. The successful fight-back against the onslaught on cork by synthetic and screwcap closures is led by the Portuguese company Corticeira Amorim, the world's largest stopper manufacturer, whose knowhow then selectively spillsover to the rest of the industry. This multiple-case study involving 14 firms, unfolds in the context of two layers of underlying tensions. By exploring why and how knowledge selectively spillovers across filters from the industry leader to others, and knowledge revealing within small firms, the study contributes to extant literature by extending to the phenomenon of selected and purposeful spillover in the context of capability enhancement.

Resilience in a time of contagion: Lessons from small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The case method has also been considered to be the most appropriate when there is little knowledge of an emerging and complex phenomenon (Eisenhardt, 1989). We opted for a multiple-case study, where patterns are identified among cases, hence lowering the risk of insights being idiosyncratic, and enhancing the promise that observed findings are due to common attributes (Ruebottom, 2013;Sarkar, 2017). Extreme cases usually contain richer information than other settings because people in them rapidly absorb cues that can potentially endanger or save life (Cunha et al, 2015;Stinchcombe, 2005), cues that can activate actors and basic mechanisms in the situation studied (Flyvbjerg, 2006, p. 229).…”

Cooperation as a vehicle for innovation: a study of the effects of firm size and industry type

“…Researchers in the field (Acs et al, 2012;Ghio et al, 2016;Sarkar, 2017;Tavassoli et al, 2017) have stated that the various economic, social, political and technological changes occurring in society worldwide have made the market challenging for any firm, whether statistics of the variables and difference in means. As a contribution to theory, the study found evidence that types of cooperation towards innovation can vary according to firm size and sector.…”

Strategic entrepreneurship: mapping a research field

“…Results show that knowledge spillovers and spill-ins benefited all major players within the industry at the time and that these spillovers led to both an industry and firm-specific knowledge spillover pool (Kotha, 2010). Other articles analyze deliberate knowledge spillovers of firms to competitors as a strategic tool (Sarkar, 2017) and study knowledge spillovers in the context of transnational entrepreneurship (Veréb and Ferreira, 2018).…”