Imperial College London
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DrAnneter Wal

Business School

Associate Professor of Technology & Innovation Management
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1460a.terwal Website CV

 
 
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Location

 

272Business School BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{ter:2017:10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.003,
author = {ter, Wal ALJ and Criscuolo, P and Salter, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.003},
journal = {Research Policy},
pages = {1039--1054},
title = {Making a marriage of materials: The role of gatekeepers and shepherds in the absorption of external knowledge and innovation performance},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.003},
volume = {46},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Through interviews and a large-scale survey of R&D scientists and engineers, this paper explores individuals’ attempts to absorb external knowledge, focusing on their efforts to identify and assimilate external knowledge and promote its utilization. Extant research does not explicitly address whether individuals should better specialize in certain absorption efforts or rather work as generalists dedicated to a range of efforts. We suggest that assimilation efforts increase the value of individuals’ efforts at external search and at promoting the utilization of external knowledge, which culminates in two main absorption roles that can help individuals achieve greater innovation performance. We argue that gatekeepers who combine external search with assimilation effort help to achieve innovation by contributing to building potential absorptive capacity, while shepherds who combine assimilation with utilization effort aid innovation by building realized absorptive capacity. We find support for these predictions and discuss the implications for research and managerial practice in open innovation.
AU  - ter,Wal ALJ
AU  - Criscuolo,P
AU  - Salter,A
DO  - 10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.003
EP  - 1054
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 0048-7333
SP  - 1039
TI  - Making a marriage of materials: The role of gatekeepers and shepherds in the absorption of external knowledge and innovation performance
T2  - Research Policy
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.03.003
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/45570
VL  - 46
ER  -
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