Creativity and Innovation Management Special Issue – Call for papers Paving the way for performance management and management control in innovation networks Guest editors: Lara Agostini, Anna Nosella University of Padua – Department of Management and Engineering (Italy) Contact email:
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The current global business environment increasingly pushes firms to go beyond their boundaries (Bititci et al., 2007; Dekker, 2016), establishing a plethora of interorganizational relationship, regarded as a means to increase competitiveness through the acquisition of new knowledge, the joint development of new products or the expansion into new markets (Agostini and Nosella, 2015). Particularly, ‘partner or perish’ is the new mantra when it comes to innovation (Lefebvre et al., 2014), which brought many firms to share the ‘burden’ of innovation through innovation networks (Pullen et al., 2012). However, the literature (Kale and Singh, 2009) wonders why innovation networks continue to grow in number and remain as a strong strategic tool, when the list of drawbacks (Tjemkes et al., 2012) is just as many as the advantages promised. Among the different factors discussed by the literature that explain the failure of networks, there are the lack of the identification of common targets, the focus on individual short term benefits instead of long term collective benefits, the low level of communication among partners, and finally the lack of commitment. All these elements are strictly related to network management that has proven to be an important determinant of network performance (Agostini et al., 2015). In this perspective, recent literature (Sambasivan et al., 2011) has recognized the importance of establishing a performance management system that could support partners in sharing information and responsibilities, communicating results to partners and setting new goals. Despite the literature on network management has called for more research into this area, it still remains confined in the supply chain context, leaving the other typologies of networks under investigated (Berry et al., 2009). In parallel, an apparently separate strand of literature has developed, namely managing accounting, which has dedicated attention to the investigation of control management in interorganizational settings (Caglio and Ditillo, 2008; Anderson and Dekker, 2014). This body of knowledge provides insights on the determinants of investments in contracts and other management controls, on how managers can mitigate the risks connected to inter firm transactions and finally on some specific performance and control management practices that fit particular networks forms such as outsourcing relations or supply chains. Most of this literature has investigated performance management and management control taking into consideration the single firm (Dekker, 2016). Models and frameworks put forward within this field generally focus on the partner level, rather than considering the management and control practices of the collaborative relationship itself. Ultimately, this could impact on the network success, through an improvement of commitment, coordination, managerial or employee behavior and goals setting and achievement (e.g. Malmi and Brown, 2008; Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). As Dekker (2016) claims “management accounting studies tend to take a one-sided point of view in the analysis by considering control problems and control responses from the perspective of a focal firm (e.g. the outsourcer, or buyer firm in a supply chain), instead of a
dyadic or network level of analysis that incorporates the perspectives and influences of the different partner firms involved”. Along the same line, the role of the network managers has been analyzed from the point of view of the single firm, disregarding the fact that he is expected to act not only in the interest of their own organization but as well as on the interests of the networks itself. Furthermore, recently some authors (Caglio and Dillo, 2008; Anderson et al., 2015; Dekker, 2016) have argued that models developed within the intrafirm control literature have been applied to the interfirm setting without considering their specific peculiarities. In this context, the challenge seems to be related to the ability to separate the fundamental and unchanging principles of management control “from the contingent practices that develop in specific contexts and environments” (Berry et al., 2009). In particular, innovation networks encompass a large variety of forms, going from alliances, to consortia and joint ventures, that often require specific models and frameworks for performance management and control. For this purpose, a number of mutually related research topics need to be investigated within the context of innovation networks and performance management, including:
How performance management can support the execution of innovation network strategies The coevolution of innovation networks and their performance management Performance management of innovation networks for different governance forms (e.g. contractual agreement, joint venture, consortia) Performance management of innovation networks for different typologies (supply chain, extended enterprise, public-private collaboration, etc.) Performance management of innovation networks for different structures (e.g. dyadic vs multipartner, horizontal vs vertical, weak vs strong ties) Formal and informal control mechanisms in innovation networks The interplay between intraorganizational performance management and interorganizational performance management in innovation networks The role of performance management in dealing with tensions in innovation networks Learning how to practice performance management in innovation networks How companies might align the behaviors of network managers with the network objectives as well as those of the parent firm The role of the network manager in implementing performance management Specific capabilities for the successful implementation of performance management in innovation networks Network portfolios and performance management Performance management of innovation clusters
Submission deadline: October 31st, 2017
For any further information, please visit the Journal website or contact us! http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8691
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