The effect of intra-organizational routines and inter-organizational routines on collaborative innovation performance. An experiment.

This study examines the effects of intra-organizational routines and inter-organizational routines on collaborative innovation and efficiency performance. Intra-organizational routines are the routines that exist within each partner firm and are brought into the collaboration. In this study they were operationalized as serial or parallel work routines. Inter-organizational routines are the routines that are developed in the collaboration itself and is operationalized as task variety within the collaboration. In an experimental design the effects of supplementary (similar intra-organizational routines that are used) vs. complementary (different intraorganizational routines that are used) alignment on collaborative innovation and efficiency performance was tested. Also the effects of inter-organizational routines on collaborative innovation and efficiency performance were studied. The results showed that a complementary intra-organizational routines alignment affected the collaborative performance (innovation and efficiency) more positively than a supplementary intra-organizational routines alignment. Inter-organizational routines were found to have an U-shaped effect on collaborative innovation performance. For inter-organizational routines, no effects were found on efficiency.