Open Innovation and Competitive Advantage on the Hospitality Sector: The Role of Organizational Strategy

Orlando Lima Rua,Amélia Ferreira Silva,Mario Arias-Oliva,Francisco Musiello-Neto

doi:10.3390/su132413650

Abstract

This paper assesses the relationship between open innovation and competitive advantage and the mediating effect of organizational strategy. Using a quantitative methodological approach with survey data from 251 Portuguese hotel executive directors’ small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this research adopted a quantitative methodological approach, thereby conducting an exploratory and transversal study. Findings show that (1) open innovation influences organizational strategy and (2) organizational strategy enhances competitive advantage. Moreover, the results also highlight that (3) organizational strategy has a mediating effect between open innovation and competitive advantage. The paper provides relevant insights that will lead the firms’ top managers to design and implement strategies and define effective government policies, programs, and incentives to support the development of the firms’ open innovation model in the hospitality sector considering the new smart society and smart cities growing environment.

Highlights

Julián and César CamisónOpen innovation became an increasingly established topic in the management literature since the beginning of this century [1], with the impact of the open innovation management model currently a topic of significant discussion within academia [2]
This paper aims to investigate the effect of open innovation in competitive advantage by examining the mediating effect of organizational strategy by addressing the following research questions: Does open innovation have a positive effect on competitive advantage? does organizational strategy mediate the relationship between open innovation and competitive advantage?
Partial Least Square Structural Equations Modeling (PLS-SEM) path modeling was used to test our hypotheses [60,68]. This technique is the most adequate to estimate our research model since: (1) this study focuses on prediction and explanation of constructs variance, and (2) the relationship between open innovation and competitive advantage can be measured directly and indirectly via organizational strategy

Summary

Introduction

Julián and César CamisónOpen innovation became an increasingly established topic in the management literature since the beginning of this century [1], with the impact of the open innovation management model currently a topic of significant discussion within academia [2]. Smith [4] recognizes the evolution of open innovation in its various forms but concludes that further discussions are needed for its understanding and implementation due to few academic studies, mainly about SMEs. The innovation management literature has developed solid prior knowledge that has given rise to open innovation, antagonistic to closed innovation, with the contribution of. As a strategy of different management models, the role of open innovation aims to obtain a competitive advantage by organizations [7]. For this purpose, strategic positioning tends to identify key factors for recognizing opportunities and making decisions that affect organizational processes [8]. The development of innovative products by organizations derives from the openness to external knowledge [9,10,11]

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Conclusion