CRC TRR 61 Z02 - Intercultural research cooperation and innovation networks

Basic data for this project

Description

Although research on innovation and technology management has in the past largely focused on finding the ideal innovation process, an exclusive best practice solution has not been developed so far. On the one hand, this is due to specific research contexts, such as different industries, companies, or projects. On the other hand, different research methods have been used that usually focus only on input and output factors. The innovation process itself, however, remains a black box. In order to open this black box between inputs and outcomes, the innovation process needs to be analysed by examining the temporal sequence of events. We would gather data on the chronological sequence of activities that occur throughout an innovation project and also consider its respective inputs and outputs. Thus, we follow a longitudinal process study design, which is called for by researchers and practitioners in innovation and technology management. One major research goal refers to the identification of success factors and barriers involved in the intercultural collaborative activities between Chinese and German researchers. Here, we specifically address the innovation network's intercultural dimension. The second major research goal is to identify best practices regarding the transfer of research results from fundamental research to applied research within the two different systems in China and Germany. Such best practices could be adopted in future intercultural research collaborations. The complexity and novelty of the research problem necessitates an inductive research strategy, which is complemented by a deductively built conceptual framework. We will furthermore apply a mixed-method approach and combine qualitative data from interviews and longitudinal observations and quantitative data resulting from a questionnaire and from (semi-)publicly accessible data sources in a mixed-method case study design.