Orchestrating innovation networks: the switching roles of orchestrators along startups’ lifecycle

Innovation networks enable innovating actors to access complementary assets beyond their corporate boundaries. Subsequently, the orchestration of such networks has attracted increasing attention. Network orchestration is a dynamic activity where orchestrator roles change along the innovation trajectory. However, research on network orchestration falls short of capturing the dynamic aspects of orchestration. Moreover, gaps in the literature limit our understanding of the dynamic nature of orchestration roles and the way these roles change over time. By drawing on network orchestration theory and the Resource Based View, this study introduces a capability-dependant framework to explain how the network orchestrator roles can adapt to the evolving situational circumstances of the startup’s lifecycle. Our analysis is based on a longitudinal empirical investigation of nine technological startups and their dyadic (one-to-one) relationship to an innovation intermediary as a network orchestrator in southwest Germany. Our findings reveal that orchestrators play different roles simultaneously in response to changing environments and varying startup requirements. We further identify factors associated with orchestrator role changes based on the dyadic relationship as an additional criterion for characterizing dynamic orchestrator roles. Overall, this work aims to contribute to the literature on network orchestration by moving debates about orchestration roles beyond a static setting, thus offering a dynamic and more accurate picture of evolving orchestration roles and underlying mechanisms.