AbstractThis paper discusses why companies should consider collaboration with customers andsuppliers for innovation and identifies a set of activities that appear to be critical to managingcollaborative innovation. It conceptualises how these activities may be affected whenperformed in complex networks, thus complicating the task of trying to manage themeffectively. The paper reports on findings from a small set of exploratory interviews anddiscusses some possible explanations for apparent cross-case differences. A note onmethodological and theoretical lessons completes the paper.