It is widely thought that intra-firm integration has a positive effect on organizational performance, especially in environments characterized by complex and uncertain information. Research and development activities of a firm are especially likely to face complex and uncertain information environments. Following prior work in contingency theory, this paper analyzes the effects of intra-organizational integration on manufacturing firms’ innovative performance. Using data from the 1994 Carnegie Mellon Survey of R&D in the United States, we examine the relation between mechanisms for linking R&D to other units of the firm and the relative innovativeness of the firm. Furthermore, we argue that the impact of integration may vary by the importance of different mechanisms for protecting the returns from innovation (i.e., sources of strategic advantage), in particular, the importance of secrecy in protecting an innovation advantage. We find that intra-firm integration is
associated with higher innovativeness and more patent applications in R&D organizations. We also find that while internal information flows have an effect on performance, this does not explain the integration effect. We suggest that the integration effect works primarily through facilitating trust and mutual adjustment. Finally, we find some evidence that this effect is moderated by appropriability regime, with the effect weaker in high-secrecy industries. These results both support and develop the network theory of organizations and the contingency model of organizational performance.