1 Vertical and Horizontal Cross-Ties: Benefits of cross-hierarchy and cross-unit ties for innovative projects Submission for special JPIM on Networks of Innovation Rick (H.L.) Aalbers is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Innovation at the Institute for Management Research at Radboud University, the Netherlands. He earned his Ph.D. in Business and Economics from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and holds two Masters from Erasmus University, one in business administration and one in business economics (cum laude). Dr. Rick (H.L.) Aalbers main research area is innovation strategy, with special interest in the evolution of organization networks under conditions of network intervention. His work has been published inResearch Policy, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, and British Journal of Management, among others. His Sloan Management Reviewcontribution won the 2013 SMR Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize. His dissertation on intra organizational collaboration and restructuring won the SOM Best Dissertation Award of the University of Groningen. Wilfred Dolfsma is Professor of Strategy and Innovation at the University of Groningen School of Economics and Business. He studied economics and philosophy, and holds a PhD in the former from Erasmus University. He published in, a.o., the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, the British Journal of Management, Technovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Social Economy (2005-). He authored or edited, a.o.,Interdisciplinary Economics (ed., with S.Kesting, Routledge 2013), Government Failure (Edward Elgar 2013), Understanding Mergers and Acquisition in the 21st Century (with K.McCarthy, Palgrave Macmillan 2012), and The Nature of the New Firm: Beyond the Boundaries of Organizations and Institutions (ed. With K. McCarthy and M. Fiolet, Edward Elgar 2011).His Institutional Economics and the Formation of Preferences (Edward Elgar 2004) won him the Gunnar Myrdal Prize in 2006.