(Re)Organizing for Interaction within Innovation Networks – An Exploratory Study in the Public Sector

Innovation has seen a considerable increase of academic and managerial interest over the last decades, with more and more scholars and managers recognizing its importance. Similarly, a growing interest in the role of business relationships and networks can also be observed. The concept of innovation networks (INs) is positioned at the interface of these two trends. At the base of its development is the awareness that to reach better success rates, companies ought to utilize relationships with others as part of their key innovation activities. However, research on INs does not provide enough insights on the interplay between the processes of organizing for interaction and the development and implementation of innovation in networks. To cover this research gap, an exploratory case study research was conducted, which analyses two service innovations in a district within a municipality of a North European country. Our study shows that the development and implementation of an innovation will depend more on the actors’ perceptions of the network rather than on the planned structure of the interaction system. The way actors behave in interaction, based on their perceptions and interpretations, is particularly relevant for the organizing process and effectiveness of change processes; it follows that the network structure appears to be more an outcome of the innovation process rather than its determinant. By grasping how communication influences actors’ subjective perceptions, the study also sheds light on the relevant role of communication in the processes of organizing for innovation in networks, also highlighting the critical link between the internal organizational structure of each actor and the process of organizing within a network.