Innovation networks: the key role of actors

Innovation is more and more the result of sophisticated interactions between a number of actors (Tsai et al., 2009; Powell et al., 1996), which makes the innovative process complex, chaotic, non-linear and characterized by both diverging and converging directions (Van de Ven et al., 1999). The first special issue includes seven papers, which can be grouped into the following areas: ◦exploring the different sources of heterogeneity among actors; ◦exploring the various goals of actors in INs; and ◦mediating actors’ heterogeneity.