Knowledge Integration and Innovation : Critical Challenges Facing International Technology-Based Firms

Innovation processes have increasingly becomeinterdisciplinary, collaborative, inter-organizational, andinternational. Based on empirical studies, this bookexamines how this integration of knowledge has becomeessential to firms in enabling innovation, particularlycrucial in technology-based industries.

Christian Berggren is Professor of Industrial Management, Linkoping University, and Director of the KITE research programme. He has written or co-authored several books on production and product development in international firms, such as The Volvo experience (MacMillan, 1992), The Resilience ofCorporate Japan (Sage, 1997), Being local world-wide - ABB and the challenge of global management (Cornell, 1999), as well as many publications in journals such as Creativity and Innovation Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, Research Policy, R&D Management, Sloan Management Review, Technology Analysis, and Strategic Management and Technovation.

Anna Bergek is Associate Professor of Industrial Management, Linkoping University, and founding member of the KITE research programme. She has published articles on industry dynamics, firm strategy in relation to technical change, and innovation and energy policy in journals such as Energy Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Research Policy, Technovation, and Technology Analysis & Strategic Management.

Lars Bengtsson is Professor of Innovation Management at the Univeristy of Gavle and Professor within a PhD school at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. He is a founding member of the KITE research programme and has published many articles and books on the subjects of continuous improvements, manufacturing strategies, and outsourcing.

Michael Hobday is Professor of Innovation Management at CENTRIM (Centre for Research in Innovation Management), Brighton Univeristy. As well as many journal publications, he is the author of various books including Innovation in East Asia: The Challenge to Japan (Edward Elgar, 1997), co-author of The Business of Projects: Managing Innovation in Complex Products and Systems (with Andrew Davies, CUP, 2005), and co-editor of The Business of Systems Integration (with Andrea Prencipe and Andrew Davies, OUP, 2003).

Jonas Soderlund is Professor at BI Norwegian School of Management and founding member of the KITE research programme. He has researched and published widely on the management and organization of projects and project-based firms and the evolution of project competence, including papers in Organization Studies, Human Resource Management, International Journal of Innovation Management, and International Business Review. He is the author or co-author of five books and one of the editors of The Oxford Handbook of Project Management.