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In this paper, we investigate the role of brokers in the regional innovation network and its influence on innovative and collaborative outcomes. For this purpose, we make use of data from the European Patent Office and Eurostat in the period 1986–2015. We first build the regional collaboration network based on co-inventorship ties, and then we identify the brokerage roles played by each region, using the original taxonomy proposed by Gould and Fernandez (1989), to disentangle their impact on innovation and collaboration. Finally, we investigate regional collaboration intensity and how it interacts with brokerage roles, highlighting its mediating effect. Our findings indicate that brokerage roles contribute to the extension of collaboration networks, but also that they are not efficient for the creation of innovation. Collaboration intensity, on the other hand, enhances both innovation and collaborative outcomes and shows how a region can benefit from being a broker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subnetwork identification plays a significant role in analyzing, managing, and comprehending the structure and functions in big networks. Numerous approaches have been proposed to solve the problem of subnetwork identification as well as community detection. Most of the methods focus on detecting communities by considering node attributes, edge information, or both. This study focuses on discovering subnetworks containing researchers with similar or related areas of interest or research topics. A topic-aware subnetwork identification is essential to discover potential researchers on particular research topics and provide quality work. Thus, we propose a topic-based optimal subnetwork identification approach (TOSNet). Based on some fundamental characteristics, this paper addresses the following problems: 1)How to discover topic-based subnetworks with a vigorous collaboration intensity? 2) How to rank the discovered subnetworks and single out one optimal subnetwork? We evaluate the performance of the proposed method against baseline methods by adopting the modularity measure, assess the accuracy based on the size of the identified subnetworks, and check the scalability for different sizes of benchmark networks. The experimental findings indicate that our approach shows excellent performance in identifying contextual subnetworks that maintain intensive collaboration amongst researchers for a particular research topic.

Alliances are an important strategic tool for many companies. However, they are inherently risky and a large percentage of alliances fail. We examine the effects of integrated information systems (IISs) and alliance formalization (i.e., formal alliance controls) on information exchange risk and overall alliance risk. We develop a model that predicts that when firms are engaged in alliances with greater collaboration intensity (i.e., alliances with multiple objectives) they are more likely to use an IIS and a broad portfolio of formal controls to manage alliance risk. Using a survey of chief financial officers, we find that collaboration intensity is positively associated with IIS and alliance formalization. IISs are negatively associated with information exchange risk, but this effect is mediated by alliance formalization, suggesting that the formal controls implemented throughout the alliance, and within the IIS, are integral to reducing information exchange risk and, subsequently, overall alliance risk. Our study adds to the literature examining tools and strategies for effectively managing strategic alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain (SC) collaboration is the prerequisite for successful procurement and operational business practices for short life cycle products, especially due to competitive marketplace, globalisation and rapid change of technologies. This study focuses on the semiconductor industry as the case industry to demonstrate the evaluation of horizontal collaboration among the SC partners. It uses a graph–theoretic framework to comprehensively assess the intensity of collaboration with respect to individual horizontal collaboration initiatives. This framework considers the interdependencies and inheritances among the critical collaboration attributes to analyse the complex and unstructured problem of determining compatibility among competing suppliers. A compatibility measure, termed as horizontal collaboration intensity (HCI), is developed to assess the relationships among these evaluation attributes and evaluate the success of the collaboration initiative. An illustrative example using a focus group case study from a semiconductor industry demonstrates the applicability of the proposed framework for the measurement of horizontal collaboration initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many case studies highlight a positive relationship between regions' innovation performance and the intensity of collaboration among regional organizations. However, few efforts have been made to analyze this relation with quantitative approaches. In addition to a theoretical discussion, the paper presents an empirical investigation on this issue utilizing conditional efficiency analysis and patent co-application data for the Electrics & Electronics industry in 270 German labor market regions. The results show that the relationship between regions' innovation performance and the intensities of regional as well as inter-regional collaboration take the form of an inverted-U shape. Regions with average regional and inter-regional collaboration intensities are found to outperform those characterized by extremely low, high or unbalanced collaboration behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Distributed innovation processes (DIPs) are considered a new option to handle both the growing complexity of new products and services and the speed in which they need to be brought to the market. Apparently, DIPs - if conducted in a complementary way - have a positive influence on the innovation cycle regarding quality and development times. However, research has paid little attention to DIPs in collaborative networks (CNs) in the past. CNs, one of them being highly dynamic virtual organisations, could provide an ideal foundation for such DIPs. With the presentation of the collaborative network relationship analysis and the analysis of collaboration intensities, this research gap will be addressed. It is shown that a qualitative planning of collaboration intensities can support the management of innovation networks. Case studies from the business sector demonstrate the applicability. Finally, an example illustrates the underlying mechanisms. This article is an extended version of the paper 'Managing distributed innovation processes in virtual organizations by applying the collaborative network relationship analysis' presented at PRO-VE'09 (Eschenbacher, J., Seifert, M., and Thoben, K.-D., 2009. Managing distributed innovation processes in virtual organizations by applying the collaborative network relationship analysis. In: L.M. Camarinha-Matos, I. Paraskakis, and H. Afsamarnesh, eds. Leveraging knowledge for innovation in collaborative networks. Chennai: IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, 13-21). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two systems are discussed to verify the value of introducing internal competition; • Three types of collaboration intensity are analyzed and compared; • The efficiency of supply chain members' CSR investment is taken into decision models; • The strategies about CSR investment are proposed to promote regional collaboration. In this paper, we study the effects of introducing competition on supply chain systems and partner collaboration. We find that a system with internal competition obtains greater total profits, higher effective CSR investment levels, lower sales prices, and a larger market share through no collaboration or only-CSR-investment collaboration than a system without internal competition. Through introducing competition between retailers, only-CSR-investment cooperation achieves the same effective CSR investment level and total profits as CSR investment and pricing joint cooperation. We give some managerial insights into strategies for regional collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]