Abstract
This study aims to investigate the factors influencing research community participation and open innovation through the mediating role of absorptive capacity from the lens of Resource Based View and Dynamic Capability perspectives. Based on a survey of 115 senior engineering faculties from three research universities in Malaysia, this study applies the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to investigate the research model. The findings demonstrate that top management support has a major impact on research community participation. The findings also suggest that absorptive capacity mediates the association between research community participation and open innovation capability. This study provides a theoretical basis on the resources and capability that are pertinent for open innovation. From a practical perspective, the relationships among research community participation, absorptive capacity, and open innovation suggest how universities can promote research community participation and assess their absorptive capacity to achieve open innovation.
Highlights
Due to the turbulence in the market and increased competition, the firm has moved its focus from internal R&D to collaborative partnerships with external sources
The reflecting measurements were defined as top management (TM), openness (OP), research community participation (CP), and open innovation (OI), whereas the formatively assessed components were identified as structure and absorptive capability
The results of the structural equation modelling supported our main hypothesis that absorptive capacity mediates the relationship between research community participation and open innovation capability; supporting the previous studies that found the support of the mediating effect of AC related to innovation (Kostopoulos et al, 2011; Mueller, 2014)
Summary
Due to the turbulence in the market and increased competition, the firm has moved its focus from internal R&D to collaborative partnerships with external sources. The means of accessing and receiving knowledge from external sources and actors are termed as open innovation search (Parida, Westerberg, & Frishammar, 2012). Knowledge is formed in communities (Johnson, 2010; Kassicieh, 2010). Scientists in their communities are usually the ones who capture and produce tacit experiential knowledge (Giudice, Peruta, & Maggioni, 2013).
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