The Role of Open Innovation in Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Increasingly more companies have taken up corporate social responsibility (CSR) to help solve societal grant challenges, and open innovation (OI) has been regarded as a feasible solution to these challenges. Since OI comprises various forms, how to choose an appropriate form to address CSR issues and simultaneously maintain a controllable level of knowledge sharing is an important issue. This study examines the question of how firms match their CSR problems to OI governance choices. We collected data from 587 publicly listed electronics firms for the period between 2012 and 2017. Our results show a match between CSR types and OI forms for superior performance. Specifically, the match indicates the following two distinct paths to achieve positive performance: the markets form of OI exclusively bridges responsive CSR and performance, while the partnerships form of OI otherwise links strategic CSR to performance. This paper contributes to the literature by identifying the importance of OI governance forms in the CSR engagement-performance link. Theoretical and practical implications are also provided.