ABSTRACT
Innovation networks are often characterized by loose, semitemporal linkages between actors who seek to employ the right resources and engage in strategic collaborations in order to deal with specific problems and develop innovative services and solutions (Van Wijk et al., 2003). Due to the absence of tight structures and hierarchical authority, these networks usually rely on autonomous hub entities or strategic centers to maximize their efficiency and support their innovation output objectives (Hagel et al., 2002). In this context, the role of the hub firm is to coordinate, direct, and influence network members through a number of “orchestration processes” that will enhance innovation development and will ultimately create and extract value from the network (Kogut, 2000; Dhanaraj and Parkhe, 2006). These processes, which have employment and effectiveness that may vary according to the context and the characteristics of the innovation network, involve the management of knowledge mobility, innovation coherence, network membership, network stability, innovation appropriability, and innovation leverage, among others (Van Wijk et al., 2003; Nambisan and Sawhney, 2011). In this chapter, we concentrate on
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four of the above that are more relevant to our case study on the healthcare sector: managing knowledge flows, managing innovation coherence, managing network membership, and managing network stability.
