Organisational frameworks for listening post activities

摘要

Technological listening posts are increasingly being observed as an empirical phenomenon in centres of technological excellence. Based on 118 semi-structured interviews with 24 technology-intensive European multinationals, we revealed three types of organisational frameworks suited for the management and support of technological listening posts which we termed ad hoc constellations, temporary-overlaying organisations and institutionalised scanning units. Our empirical research also revealed four determinants that are shaping the overall degree of Efficiency of the organisational frameworks. While the first two are proxies for the well-known concept of absorptive capacity, the last two describe what we term as multiplicative capacity. The advantage of each particular organisational framework can be justified with the four determinants.