Network processes for collaborative innovation

Collaborative innovation networks represent adequate structures within which to foster members’ abilities to interact and cooperate in order to increase the level of knowledge and facilitate access to innovation. These systems show a high potential as the best engines to drive innovation. It is supposed that members take advantage of their participation in these networks by creating and extracting value when performing certain deliberate and purposeful processes. Within this paper, we examine such processes by considering two different network models: hierarchical and heterarchical. The first is the classic single hub organisation, where the orchestration model is deemed more appropriate. The second, the choreography model, is characterised by more than one hub and the power of decision is spread among all partners. The main contribution of this paper is to describe in detail the processes within organisations when they are configured in a heterarchical, instead of hierarchical, manner. Our contribution can be considered as valuable in that it offers support for firms to evaluate and pursue the diverse opportunities offered by such models according to their needs.