Collaborative Innovation across Boundaries: An Investigation of Team Beliefs and Emotions

Abstract

In order to stay competitive and constantly innovate in a dynamic environment, companies often set up teams that collaborate with other stakeholders across organizational and knowledge boundaries. Due to the heterogeneity of beliefs, cultures, and goals, collaborating across boundaries is challenging and likely to be accompanied by strong emotions. The main objective of this dissertation is to gain a deeper understanding of cross-boundary collaboration with a particular focus on underlying team beliefs and emotions and their interplay with team activities in shaping innovation. To this end, this dissertation employed a longitudinal approach to study the innovation process of cross-boundary pharmaceutical and venture teams from idea initiation through development to integration. This thesis contributes to the literature on open innovation (OI) in four ways. First, it highlights how underlying team beliefs and emotions shape team activities in the context of OI. Second, the three studies shed light on the cross-boundary team activities that enable teams to effectively manage tensions that emerge between opening up and closing down. Third, this dissertation identifies drivers of knowledge decay and conditions under which rejecting external knowledge can be beneficial. Fourth, it illustrates the link between aspects at the individual, team and organizational levels. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this work also innovates on the methodological front by using an algorithm-based software and metaphorical cards to capture beliefs and emotions. The resulting insights can help managers derive strategies to promote the successful development and integration of new ideas in cross-boundary teams. Last but not least, this thesis further opens up promising avenues for future research on OI and cross-boundary teams.