Tensions in R&D networks: Implications for knowledge search and integration

•Focus: knowledge search and integration tensions in Dutch aerospace R&D networks•Dialectical tensions relate to knowledge sharing openness and inclusiveness.•Paradoxical tensions relate to goal alignment, coopetition and interdependence.•We also examine focal firm network role and network characteristics.

R&D Networks comprise different actors with various goals and motivations. Thus, such networks are filled with tensions that emerge from simultaneously existing, competing or contradictory organizing elements and demands. In this study, we examine the knowledge search and integration behaviour of firms participating in R&D networks in the Dutch aerospace sector. We find evidence of a multitude of tensions that have implications for knowledge processes of firms and within R&D networks. These tensions are grouped into dialectical and paradoxical tensions. In particular, paradoxical tensions require simultaneous attention to the different organizing elements, while dialectical tensions create either/or situations that need to be carefully managed. We find two types of dialectical tensions: openness of core knowledge exposure and inclusiveness of knowledge sharing behaviour; and three types of paradoxical tensions related to innovation goal alignment, coopetition, and actor interdependence. Overall, our results provide unique insights to how participants of R&D networks perceive tensions involved in knowledge search and integration, how the network role of the actors affects these perceptions, and what types of tension-resolving mechanisms are adopted in different types of networks.