In the area of innovation management, the Chair of Production and Operations Management examines structures of innovation networks and their correlation to the behavior of their agents. Of particular interest is the performance of the network and the absorptive capacity of the organizations partaking in the innovation network. The success of the innovation process is highly dependent on the organizations' ability to acquire, assimilate, transform and apply new knowledge; i.e. the absorptive capacity of both: the organizations, particularly; and the network; generally. In order to make this process more effective and efficient, the use of innovation networks is appropriate. Innovation networks facilitate the development of new knowledge by combining existent knowledge and capabilities from the different partners partaking in the netwrok. Hence, especial focus is made on the factors influencing the potential absorptive capacity of organizations and their repercution on the innovation network performance.