WHAT'S THIS "TOSH"?: INNOVATION NETWORKS AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AS A POLITICAL PROCESS
Ian P. McLoughlin, Christian G Koch, Keith Dickson · International Journal of Innovation Management · 2001
Innovation is increasingly seen as best conducted in networks and understood through a synthesis of evolutionary economic and sociological perspectives. This article contributes to this understanding by seeking to apply a political process perspective to collaboration between organisations engaged in new product development. It argues that the building of collaborative networks is a power-process and requires political action. Contrary to conventional views, power and politics are treated as an omnipresent feature of the creation of collaborative networks. It is concluded that mastering the political is central element of the eventual success of any product development endeavour. This argument is illustrated by drawing upon the findings of an international study on collaboration in new product development (BiCoN). Here we focus on a UK and a Danish case of software development where two contrasting forms of collaboration between the software supplier, intermediaries and end user/customers are evident.