Sustainable innovationIn search for the value added configuration

- Rink Weijs & Niels Faber -

Knowledge collaboration and learning in sustainable innovation

IntroductionSustainable innovation goes beyond realizing technical solutions. To be effective, knowledge has to be dispersed and used to assure maximum benefit. But to what extend can knowledge sharing for sustainable innovation be realized without losing its ownership?

Innovation paradoxIPR’s provide an incentive to create knowledge, but protection slows the diffusion of proprietary knowledge to public knowledge. Valuable knowledge for sustainable innovation becomes ‘captured’ as proprietary knowledge and stops flowing through cultural space (figure 1).

AppropriationUnique knowledge assets strengthen a organizations competitive advantage. Sharing knowledge that has carefully been developed during costly innovation processes with third parties jeopardizes the competitive advantage.

Therefore firms tend to protect their knowledge with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). IPR’s like patents, copyright, database right and trademarks provide an appropriation regime which main mechanism is restricting the availability of knowledge in order to maximize economic benefit.

Framework for configurationsIn search for more value adding configurations, we identified four important dimensions for knowledge sharing that shape the dynamics of knowledge exchange (table 1).

ConfigurationsThree basic configurations can be derived based on a continuum from closed to open business models: (1) Closed Innovation Model, (2) Open Innovation Model and (3) the Open Access Model. Each of them have different effects on sustainable innovation, collaboration and learning.