A long way home: How an intra-organizational innovation network overcomes its political boundaries

Outline

C. Rau, A. Neyer, A. Schipanski, F. Schweitzer - A long way home: How an intra-organizational innovation network overcomes its political boundaries - Management Revue, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2016, pp. 139-159

Abstract

This article focuses on the still understudi ed link among political boundaries and in- novation practices and its inherent boundary-crossing mechanisms in intra- organizational innovation networks. Our single case study at the sports company adid- as derives two particular combinations of boundaries and boundary-crossing mecha- nisms to overcome political boundaries in intra-organizational innovation networks. These are the ‘open-closed (minded) boundaries’ and ‘everybody-is-an-innovator boundaries’. They have been addressed with distinct innovation practices that com- prise the boundary-crossing mechanisms ‘reframe interests’ and ‘negotiate interests’. We find that these boundary-crossing mechanisms to be crucial in the process of managing the intra-organizational innovation network. Our findings have implications for the organizational anchoring of innovation practices given its importance as ena- bler or barrier to overcome political boundaries in intra-organizational innovation networks.