Open Innovation Projects Research Articles

The connection between absorptive capacity and open innovation in managerial perspective

The growing number of research dedicated to open innovation has determined a growth of company’s interest towards external sources of knowledge and of the interactions with these resources in order to obtain an added value. Absorptive capacity, together with the outside-in dimension of open innovation represent interconnected concepts. The present study examines their connection both in theory and in their representation in SMEs managers’ perception. The study that forms the base of the research is a survey conducted on companies’ managers who worked on open innovation projects. Although few studies dealing with the subject existed up until now, the vision of the managers was chosen to be examined due to the impact of a managerial decision over a company’s ability to learn from an exterior environment. In the future, open innovation is thought to be integrated in the management of innovation, this being the reason we view it as of utmost importance for the deepening of the managerial perspective regarding its influences and component elements.

Impact of specific investments, governance mechanisms and behaviors on the performance of cooperative innovation projects

Inter-organizational collaborative innovation projects are increasingly cited as a “best practice” in R&D activities, this study seeks to understand the factors affecting performance of cooperative innovation projects from a new perspective: specific investments. Specific investments is important to the value creation for inter-organizational projects, however which can induce the “hold-up” problem, formal contracts and relational trust are two typical governance mechanisms employed to safeguard specific investments. This paper tests the effects of both mechanisms simultaneously using empirical studies focused on Chinese cooperative innovation projects, exploring the effects of specific investments, governance mechanisms and behaviors on cooperative innovation projects performance. The findings demonstrate that specific investments favor both, the formation of formal contracts and relational trust, and the effect of specific investments to performance is mainly influenced by relational trust. As such, this study contributes to governance theories in cooperative innovation projects management literature by empirically showing how specific investments affect cooperative innovation projects performance.

The Effects of Locational Factors on the Performance of Innovation Networks in the German Energy Sector

Locational factors, like the quantity and quality of skilled labour, demanding customers, competitors, supporting industries, and research institutions, are assumed to have an influence on the competitiveness of a region and the performance of the regional actors. However, few studies focus on this topic from an innovation network perspective in the energy sector. Our study tries to close this gap: a sample of 128 German innovation networks of companies and research institutes in the energy sector is used to analyse the effects of locational factors on the performance (effectiveness) of innovation projects. Based on the distinctions in Porter’s Diamond Model, we find that two locational factors—the quality and quantity of the demand conditions and skilled labour—have positive effects. In contrast to the widespread assumption in the literature we could not find evidence for positive impacts on the quality and quantity of the competitive environment. In fact, the effect on performance was negative.

Usando as lentes da estratégia para compreender os determinantes do desempenho em projetos de pesquisa e inovação agropecuária

O presente trabalho objetiva identificar os fatores que afetam o desempenho de projetos de pesquisa e inovação agropecuária numa instituição pública de pesquisa. Selecionou-se uma amostra de 40 projetos de pesquisa da Embrapa e os resultados apontam que equipes heterogêneas e a formação de parcerias, redes e alianças influenciam positivamente no número de tecnologias geradas pelos projetos de pesquisa. O trabalho apontou um trade-off entre número de publicações científicas dos projetos e o número de tecnologias geradas pelos projetos. O número de artigos científicos gerados está correlacionado com a homogeneidade da equipe e com número de pesquisadores envolvidos nos projetos.

INFORMATION PLATFORM TO IMPROVE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION CAPABILITIES: ROLE OF CLOUD PLATFORM

Conceptualizing technological innovation capabilities and cloud platform implementation in the construc­tion management context is still rudimentary. The primary objective of this study was to validate a model for assessing the relationships among information platform usage, technological innovation capabilities, and capital facility project performance. This study also evaluated the moderating role of type of platform in the relationships. This study empirically investigated a sample of projects in the Taiwanese construction industry. The structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to validate the research model. In testing the moderation effect, two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. The findings indicate that implementation of information platform contrubutes significantly to technological innovation capabilities. In addition, these analyses suggest that technological innovation capabilities have a positive effect on project performance. The results also show that the relationship between information platform usage and technological innovation capabilities depends on type of platform (i.e., traditional or cloud-based informa­tion management platform). This indicates that the association between technological innovation capabilities and project performance is more strongly evident for projects that use cloud platform.

FIXING THE CHAIN: THE DATA ENRICHMENT CYCLE IN PROGNOSTIC HEALTH MONITORING

Only a very modest percentage of maintenance of capital goods is done condition-based, as opposed to plan-based or corrective. Doing much more would be very beneficial from a safety and operations perspective. Moreover, the basic methods have been known for some time. This paper addresses the question that, if condition-based maintenance (CBM) or Prognostic Health Management (PHM), as the terms commonly used to denote the same maintenance policy, is so logical and beneficial, why is it currently not more often applied in practice?This paper suggests that the answer lies in a complex interplay of technical and organizational issues. This interplay is best conceptualized as a data enrichment chain, which starts and ends at the physical asset to be maintained and ends at the actual prognostic maintenance being executed and evaluated. This chain is described in more detail, and illustrated with examples from an open innovation project in the process industry in the Netherlands, the CAMPIONE fieldlab. From this description, it becomes evident that this chain is currently broken in many places. If CBM/PHM is to become more established as a business practice, these breaks will need to be fixed. The paper discusses several of the options of how to fix this data enrichment chain in practice.

OPEN INNOVATION PROJECT: THE SYSTEM OF ONLINE INDICATORS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION OF AMAZONAS (SiON)

This study aims to evaluate the implementation of an open innovation project in a public institution in the state of Amazonas. The theoretical and empirical background deals with science, technology and innovation indicators and open innovation. The study is characterized as a qualitative and descriptive research, with the case study as a methodological procedure. The delimitation of the universe was composed by a public institution in the area of science, technology and innovation (ST&I). In the case study, it was used an approach as tool to assess the implementation of open innovation projects. The results are shown several stages of open innovation project analyzed. The study demonstrates the implications of open innovation project adoption to the strengthening of external networks and the maturing of the internal environment. The relevance of the study is based on the evaluation of an open innovation project in a public institution in order to foster the transition from traditional innovation processes to open innovation processes.

Do design rules facilitate or complicate architectural innovation in innovation alliance networks?

Architectural innovation is fundamental to the renewal of technological systems. However, it can be a real challenge to organize architectural innovation, all the more so when success hinges upon close collaboration with other firms that are responsible for different subsystems of the end product. This study examines the impact of product design rules and the degree of organizational coupling among innovation network partners on the performance of architectural innovation projects. Using data from 270 collaborative innovation networks in the United States, we found an inversely U-shaped relationship between the presence of design rules and architectural innovation performance. When a certain turning point is reached, dominant design rules have a pronounced net negative impact on the performance of collaborative architectural innovation projects. At the same time, our findings reveal that lead firms can alleviate this negative effect of strong design rules by selecting loosely coupled innovation partners. Accordingly, our findings suggest that the presence of design rules and the extent of partner coupling should be considered jointly when optimizing network configurations that focus on architectural innovation.

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Engaging in Open Innovation

The advantages of open innovation projects are widely discussed in innovation management research and practice (e.g., Man & Duysters, 2005). Particularly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to gain most from open innovation collaborations due to their inherently limited capabilities (Lee et al., 2010; van de Vrande 2009). However, these enterprises also face manifold challenges in open innovation practice, leading to uncertainty and even renunciation of open innovation project participation. Thus, SMEs often deal with the decision dilemma of having to cooperate with external partners in order to improve their own innovation capacity, regardless of their ability to cope with the correlated risks. Although it is essential for SMEs to find the right balance between positive effects and possible negative consequences (i.e., the “dark sides” of open innovation, cf. Huizingh, 2011) of open innovation project participation, appropriate methods of finding this balance are still lacking. The research project “Open Darkness” was initiated with the goal of enabling SMEs to weigh the risks and benefits of open innovation participation by developing: i) a weighing and decision process framework and ii) a software tool that automatically applies this framework and allows self-assessment for SMEs. Both solutions aim to structure and support the decision process regarding potential engagement in open innovation projects. In order to tackle these targeted outcomes, an interdisciplinary consortium facilitates a multi-perspective and an integrated holistic research approach. Besides several SMEs, which function as requirement authority and implementer, the consortium consists of three German research institutions: the Chair of Economic Law (University of Paderborn), the Chair of Technology and Innovation Management (University of Aachen), and the Chair of Business Informatics (University of Potsdam).

Open Innovation Projects in SMEs as an Engine for Sustainable Growth

Most innovation activities that are inevitable for sustainable growth are coordinated via research and development (R&D) projects, which can differ widely in terms of both project and open innovation characteristics, even when conducted within the same firm. Therefore, it is important to consider the peculiarities of R&D projects when evaluating the performance of open innovation strategies, as well as to explore how the benefits and costs of open innovation are shaped by cross-level interactions. This study identifies the differences between successful and unsuccessful open innovation projects, in both firm-level and project-level terms. We focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which usually lack the full set of internal resources and competences required to effectively develop, produce, and commercialize their innovations, and thus must adopt open innovation approaches more actively for sustainability. Adopting an empirical approach, we conducted a survey of 517 Korean SMEs and analyzed 241 successful and unsuccessful open innovation projects in depth. By combining measurements at the firm and project levels, this study provides new insight into the intra-organizational challenges of implementing open innovation projects, which are not only helpful to strategic decision-makers in SMEs, but also to those who make policies for them.

Building Interactive Communication Tools to Support Interdisciplinary Responsible Innovation

Recent science policy encourages the installation of Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI) practices, which should help solve grand societal challenges and be more readily adopted by society. RRI may be implemented by setting up interdisciplinary innovation development teams, bringing together technical and non-technical experts from various disciplines and backgrounds, enabling engineers to let their work become inspired by – or even partly co-shaped by – societal insights and viewpoints, while societal actors get acquainted with techno-scientific context. We developed a Decision Support Tool to support interdisciplinary innovation teams, that visualizes innovation project performance and success chances. It supports communication and collaboration in interdisciplinary teams by proposing practical improvement areas, based on shared expertise, including socio-ethical, societal, economic and management related aspects. Still, further investigation is needed to learn how such a tool can be used to systematically integrate RRI in practice, to harness its full innovative potential.

How to assess a company’s open innovation situation?

Open Innovation (OI) supports companies in systematically collaborating with external partners, offering various advantages. However, companies still face several challenges when applying OI, e.g., identifying relevant OI partners, collaboration methods, and project risks. Often, insufficient planning is the reason for subsequent deficits in OI projects. The analysis of relevant context factors (‘situation’) is important, which affect and constrain OI. To date, a general approach for analyzing (open) innovation situations or guidelines for developing one do not exist. Usually researchers develop their own situation analysis, including extensive literature reviews and experiencing similar challenges. This publication sets the basis for successfully planning OI projects. It focuses on developing an analysis approach for OI situations and supports other researchers in developing their own analysis approaches. The resultant objectives of the publication are to: (1) provide a list of potential situation analysis criteria; (2) provide a guideline for developing a situation analysis; (3) provide initial indications of relevant OI-specific situation criteria. The criteria were derived from the literature and qualitatively evaluated by three industry partners to assess their usability. Although this work is exploratory, and the results are not automatically generalizable, it is an important contribution for ensuring the success of OI, and for analyzing enablers and barriers to knowledge transfer from academia to industry.

Network contingencies in the relation between design rules and architectural innovation performance

Architectural innovation is fundamental to the renewal of technological systems. However, it can be a real challenge to organize architectural innovation, all the more so when success hinges upon close collaboration with other firms that are responsible for different subsystems of the end product. This study examines the impact of product design rules and the degree of organizational coupling among innovation network partners on the performance of architectural innovation projects. Using data from 270 collaborative innovation networks in the United States, we found that the presence of design rules initially improves performance, reaching a point after which dominant design rules have a net negative impact on the performance of collaborative architectural innovation projects. At the same time, our findings reveal that lead firms can alleviate this negative effect by selecting loosely coupled innovation partners. Thus, our findings suggest that the presence of design rules and the extent of partner couplin...

Where and how to search? Search paths in open innovation

Search for external knowledge is vital for firms’ innovative activities. To understand search, we propose two knowledge search dimensions: search space (local or distant) and search heuristics (experiential or cognitive). Combining these two dimensions, we distinguish four search paths – situated paths, analogical paths, sophisticated paths, and scientific paths – which respond to recent calls to move beyond “where to search” and to investigate the connection with “how to search.” Also, we highlight how the mechanisms of problem framing and boundary spanning operate within each search path to identify solutions to technology problems. We report on a study of 18 open innovation projects that used an innovation intermediary, and outline the characteristics of each search path. Exploration of these search paths enriches previous studies of search in open innovation by providing a comprehensive, but structured, framework that explains search, its underlying mechanisms, and potential outcomes.

Innovation projects performance: Analyzing the impact of organizational characteristics

This study analyzes the effect of organizational characteristics on the innovation project performance. This research applies fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to a large sample of Spanish firms appearing in the Community Innovation survey (CIS). The results show that the combination of organizational innovation, firm size and cooperation with national and, especially, international firms is a sufficient condition for the success of innovation projects within the organization. Evidence also suggests that variables such as the investment on R&D per employee or the seniority of the company do not affect the success of innovation projects. These findings help complement some results in previous studies on innovation projects performance.

Open Innovation Between Higher Education and Industry

A largely recognised fact is that knowledge creates the base for innovations in technology development. This means that enterprises need to adopt the newest technology knowledge in order to develop and create new innovations. This research is based on the assumption that technology knowledge transfer should be executed according to a plan based on need recognition in order to enable open innovation processes between higher education institutions and industry. In this paper, the two types of open innovation processes are modelled. The models are described and evaluated with case examples. The models are based on the research and innovation projects carried out with university and enterprise partners during the last seven years. The projects have varied from technology evaluating projects executed mainly by the students to targeted open innovation projects conducted by the researchers. In the paper, e.g. the processes and models are illustrated with case examples. The paper models technology transfer processes that have been created combined with targeted innovation processes and have been executed in practice. Comparisons between cases will be done, best practices will be pointed and filtering of explicit knowledge based on our tacit knowledge will be explained. Writers assume that partnerships based on trust will be one significant method to identify drivers towards targeted open innovation. As the main outcome of this research, two models of open innovation processes between a university and industry are modelled and evaluated. In the paper also, this modelling with the help of technology knowledge transfer process is presented. The open innovation process modelled and called innovation targeting participatory research process can be used by universities and enterprises which aim for open innovation process where university has an important role as a knowledge and technology source for the enterprise. The model emphasises committed participation and continuous dialogue.

The (In)Effectiveness of Cross-Functional Innovation Teams: The Moderating Role of Organizational Context

Cross-functional teams are often seen as key for innovation projects. At the same time, functional diversity also introduces conflict, which may hinder a team's optimal performance. Most of the existing literature focuses on resolving and preventing these conflicts; however, conflict alone fails to explain why the contribution of these teams to performance is found to be absent in certain types of firms. This paper investigates the moderating role of organizational context on the relationship between cross-functional teams and performance. A multilevel sample of 142 projects in 95 firms is used to demonstrate that cross-functionality contributes to the performance of innovation projects in more functionally organized firms, with a separate innovation unit, and above-average levels of organizational connectedness. Other types of organizations may want to reconsider the use of cross-functional teams for their innovation projects.

Identifying important features in the scope of an open innovation project via a web portal

The evolution of information technology was important for establishing the use of the open innovation model as an alternative for companies further increasing their competitiveness. This paper contributes to the theme by detailing the features to be considered in an open innovation project using the internet and evaluates the approach of these portals in Brazil vis-a-vis such features. The procedures used were a literature review to identify these features and a documentary analysis to evaluate three open innovation portals. The research identified seven important features for open innovation projects that use the internet. The analysis of the portals confirmed the importance of these features and revealed that information on them is scattered throughout the portals. Moreover, it was found that the approach to be used vis-a-vis each feature varies in accordance with the objective of the portal.

Competencies for open innovation for entrepreneurs in technological incubators: an empirical test in Romania

L’innovation ouverte augmente la performance des entreprises incubees, mais les capacites requises par les entrepreneurs dans ce contexte d’innovation demeurent inconnues. Cette etude vise a etendre la comprehension des capacites pour l’innovation ouverte en testant la pertinence du profil de competences pour l’innovation ouverte elabore par du Chatenier et collegues (2010) aupres des entrepreneurs ainsi que celle de capacites techniques de management existant dans la litterature. Pour cela, nous avons collecte des donnees sur les capacites aupres de 70 entrepreneurs dans six incubateurs technologiques en Roumanie. Les entrepreneurs ont evalue leurs capacites et indique pour chacune d’entre elles dans quelle mesure ils l’utilisent dans leurs projets d’innovation ouverte. Les donnees confirment la pertinence des capacites pour l’innovation ouverte, mais montrent que les capacites techniques de management ont de plus faibles scores que les autres. Les analyses factorielles ne confirment pas totalement les categories theoriques du profil de competences pour l’innovation ouverte, mais tendent a confirmer leur structure hierarchique qui differencie les competences liees au management de soi de celles liees au management des tâches. Les regressions montrent que les competences pour l’innovation ouverte sont davantage liees aux innovations radicales qu’aux innovations incrementales ou organisationnelles. Cette etude contribue a la litterature en entrepreneuriat en montrant la pertinence du profil de competences pour l’innovation ouverte pour les entrepreneurs. Le fait de connaitre les capacites requises pour l’innovation ouverte et de savoir comment les mesurer a des implications manageriales immediates et importantes. Les managers d’incubateurs peuvent mesurer les capacites et utiliser les competences liees au management de soi pour selectionner les entrepreneurs et les competences liees au management des tâches pour aider les entrepreneurs a les acquerir.

How to assess actors for an Open Innovation-project?

Companies are confronted with an increasing variety of challenges such as shortened development cycles or higher demand of market orientation. One potential solution is collaboration with external partners/actors in terms of Open Innovation (OI). This allows several advantages such as the utilization of external expertise and reduced risk of market fails. However, OI itself bears “new” risks which are often related to the choice of external actors, e.g. insufficient effort-benefit ratio or knowledge drain. So far, adequate methodical support is limited. To allow an efficient identification and selection of actors, established approaches from other fields, such as stakeholder (SH) analysis, are enhanced by OI-specific methods. This paper presents an integrated assessment approach for determining relevant actors within a previously identified pool of SH. The approach combines elements from SH-analysis and Lead-User identification, enhanced by elements from complexity management.