Multilevel interaction mechanisms influencing knowledge integration in innovation projects reflecting elements of entrepreneurial culture

Research objective: The paper explores the impact of interaction mechanisms on knowledge integration in Complex Products and Systems innovation projects, reflecting entrepreneurial cultures, by challenging prevailing knowledge-as-possession viewpoint discussions.
Design: Semi-structured interviews from two case-study manufacturers and affiliated suppliers were used to collect data to be analysed with Template Analysis and cross-case analysis.
Results and contribution: Results reveal diverse interaction mechanisms, spanning structural, processual, and behavioural types, and their effects, influence knowledge integration, mirroring entrepreneurial cultures. Our framework contributes by identifying minimally related phenomena that influence knowledge integration. Our suggestion to permeate structural and processual mechanisms with behavioural interactions facilitates conceptual integration, broadening the understanding of interaction mechanisms' impact on knowledge integration and providing a nuanced view of entrepreneurial cultures.