Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to fill a significant research gap in academic literature pertaining to open innovation (OI). To do so, this paper empirically tests the impact of organizational culture, employees’ knowledge, attitudes and rewards as antecedents and mediators of OI adoption in organizations, facilitating a more thorough understanding by using an empirical multi-level approach.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes the results of the “Identification of Industrial Needs for Open Innovation Education in Europe” survey through a quantitative analysis using logistic regression models. This survey includes 528 employees working in 28 different industrial sectors in 37 countries, most of which are in Europe.FindingsThe results suggest a positive impact of organizational characteristics on the adoption of OI (i.e. including the adoption of outside-in and inside-out OI activities in participating organizations), showing that the openness of an organization’s culture increases its likelihood of adopting an OI paradigm. More importantly, the results highlight the positive mediating effect of employees’ knowledge and rewards on this relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe data set that was the basis of this paper was generated in European countries, the results of the analysis are limited and appropriate for this region and may vary when applied to other regions of the world.Practical implicationsThe proposed multi-level approach offers new insight into organizational knowledge. It enables the improvement of OI and knowledge management practices in organizations by assisting practitioners and academics in recognizing the relationship between organizational culture; employees’ knowledge, attitudes and rewards; and the adoption of the OI paradigm.Social implicationsThis paper offers a possible explanation on why open-border cultures are more likely to have a successful OI adoption, by relating it to factors that advance in the presence of an open-border culture, such as active participation of OI relative departments in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, and rewarding employees for OI activities.Originality/valueThis paper presents a new framework which links organizational culture to OI, moving on from merely examining culture in terms of its positive or negative impact on OI adoption. It contributes to research on the OI paradigm and knowledge management by highlighting the significance of antecedents and mediators from a multi-level perspective using multiple units of analysis. Most previous studies focus on a single unit of analysis.
Highlights
Open Innovation (OI) has been recognized as one of the most important factors related to societal development worldwide (Fini et al, 2018; Ahn et al, 2019)
Social implications This paper offers a possible explanation on why open-border cultures are more likely to have a successful open innovation adoption, by relating it to factors that advance in the presence of an open-border culture, such as active participation of OI relative departments in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, and rewarding employees for open innovation activities
This paper aims to highlight some of the essential adoption characteristics and skills necessary in order to understand their impact. This analysis is further expanded through the examination of more factors that might mediate the relationship between open-border organization culture and OI adoption, such as employees’ active participation in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange practices, and rewarding OI related activities in order to enhance our understanding of this relationship (Dabić et al, 2019)
Summary
Open Innovation (OI) has been recognized as one of the most important factors related to societal development worldwide (Fini et al, 2018; Ahn et al, 2019). This paper aims to highlight some of the essential adoption characteristics and skills necessary in order to understand their impact This analysis is further expanded through the examination of more factors that might mediate the relationship between open-border organization culture and OI adoption, such as employees’ active participation in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange practices, and rewarding OI related activities in order to enhance our understanding of this relationship (Dabić et al, 2019). A fifth section concludes this research by making a special reference to the limitations of the research conducted, offering future lines of research These results suggest that the active participation of employees in relevant departments to OI in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, as well as rewarding OI activities, mediate the relationship between open-border organization culture and OI adoption in firms, and they explain this relationship to some extent. At the end of this paper, we suggest that a better exploration and articulation of the combined fields of OI and organizational practice and reward systems is required
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