Collaboration intensity in innovation: A reconceptualization and empirical validation

Over a period of decades, innovation has transformed into a collaborative endeavor. An extensive literature focuses on collaboration in general terms, for example on the number of collaboration partners (breadth of collaboration). However, the intensity (or depth) of collaboration may vary widely across partners and contexts. Unfortunately, empirical findings on collaboration intensity (CI) are fragmented, ambiguous and difficult to compare. We reconceptualize CI as a second order, six dimensional construct, develop a reflective CI scale and test this scale using a survey of 185 firms who practiced collaborative innovation. Our deconstruction of CI into six dimensions provides novel insights into the relative importance of dimensions and reveal that the commonly used dimensions ‘collaborative communication’ and ‘information sharing’ are actually less important than ‘joint learning’, ‘social bonding’, and ‘creativity’. In addition, our findings investigate the complete chain of effects, from antecedents to CI to collaborative innovation outcomes. For example, they strongly support the positive impact of CI on innovation performance and long-term orientation, for which the extant literature provides mixed empirical results. Our paper concludes with implications for management and promising suggestions for future research. • The intensity of collaboration varies widely across partners and contexts. • The extant innovation literature suggests six dimensions of collaboration intensity. • A six dimensional model of collaboration intensity is tested. • Intense collaboration enhances innovation and relationship outcomes. • Less commonly used dimensions of collaboration intensity are most important.