Page - (000273) - in Knowledge and Networks

270 organizational configurations to different forms of learning. Organizational integra- tion, for example, typically supports the institutionalization of conventions of col- laboration and two-way learning, whereas spatial proximity increases the visibility and observability among actors and thus leverages the undeniable incentive of com- petitive, one-way learning. If colocated competitors have agreed to collaborate, the key question arises as to how firms manage the tensions of cooperation and compe- tition that accompany collective learning. We begin by discussing imitation and invention in terms of the opportunities and relative advantages each can offer to learning and innovation. Specifically, we adopt a perspective of social conventions to distinguish two practices of imitation: the convention of collaborative learning through friendly imitation and the taboo of unfriendly imitation in a context of rivalry. We then analyze the conditions govern- ing different forms of spatial organization for interfirm collaboration and imitation processes before we present the research strategy of the mixed-method network case study Comra.de, an organized interfirm network of 25 new media technology companies in eastern Germany. We follow up with an analysis of the empirical find- ings on the various mechanisms of interorganizational learning and the imitation practices between convention and taboo. The chapter closes with a discussion of the consequences for network governance. Innovation by Imitation Inventions are often the result of planned research and development. Although the directed search process may not always lead to the expected outcomes, as is the case with serendipitous and “false negative” inventions (Chesbrough, 2003, p. 3), research and development activities frequently entail high costs, risks, and long development phases. Innovation studies suggest that high levels of research and development intensity, that is, the allocation of major resources to inventive activity, are strongly correlated with a firm’s economic performance (Ahuja, 2000; Mansfield, Rapoport, Romeo, Wagner, & Beardsley, 1977). Small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) often try to compensate for their diseconomies of scale by building alliances. In network organizations or, more precisely, organized interfirm networks (Glückler, Dehning, Janneck, & Armbrüster, 2012), firms are able to jointly develop resources that they would not be able to develop alone. So-called network goods are one way to achieve common goals that would be unattainable without partners. Essentially, network goods are collective outcomes from collab- orative effort and have the additional advantage of being available to all members of a given social group regardless of their individual contributions to the creation of those goods (Glückler & Hammer, 2015). Because innovation refers to the process of introducing and disseminating new solutions on a market (Akrich, Callon, Latour, & Monaghan, 2002), it does not depend on invention alone. Instead, the process of imitation by observation offers an additional opportunity to learn from other orga- nizations and to adopt and create new knowledge. J. Glückler and I. Hammer