Successful Open Innovation Research Articles

The effect of managing different types of work on open innovation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the different types of work and to examine how they are related with open innovation, either by carrying out relationships with companies or external agents, or through the outsourcing of qualified and creative work.Design/methodology/approachAfter the theoretical analysis of the different types of work, the empirical study uses qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to analyze the different variables and their relations which favor open innovation.FindingsThe combination of the variables in the QCA makes it possible to obtain three paths among the characteristics of the qualified work and open innovation, with a positive empirical result. The general conclusion is that the motivation level of the qualified work is relevant for open innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has some limitations, notably the reliability of the measurement of the variables, based on the subjective assessment of the respondent employee. The limited number of cases is always a question to be considered, although the statistical results show consistency in the results.Practical implicationsThe most important implication for practice is the relevant connection between the internal efficiency in the management of the different types of work and open innovation.Originality/valueThe originality and value of this paper consist in relating the internal efficiency in the work management with the effectiveness and success of open innovation.

Mechanisms of customer knowledge integration in the open innovation process: health-tech case

PurposeThis paper aims to reveal the expression and specificity of customer knowledge integration in the open innovation process in the health-tech sector.Design/methodology/approachThe collection method of data for this research is hermeneutic interview with top management or employees, which are directly responsible for innovation development in the organization. Only innovative organizations, which act in the health-tech sector and have high level of knowledge intensity, were selected. Interviews with ten organizations had reached saturation of data. Data coding and analysis was conducted by using MAXQDA 18.FindingsThe results showed that customer knowledge integration research mechanisms depend on different markets and open innovation process in the health-tech sector.Practical implicationsThe results of research increase understanding and ability to integrate customer knowledge more effectively in the open innovation process in the organizations. Following it, organizations become more flexible and gain sustainable competitive advantage.Originality/valueOpen innovation development is intensive knowledge activity that requires continuous knowledge updating. The success of open innovation with customers requires effective utilization and adaptation of customer knowledge which is the result of customer knowledge integration in the open innovation process. Scientific literature identifies different mechanisms that help to integrate knowledge successfully. However, these mechanisms are common for all kinds of knowledge. Therefore, this research was focused on looking into the specificity of the context of customer knowledge because it is the most complicated kind of all knowledge.

Key settings for successful Open Innovation Arena

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to examine settings for the Open Innovation Arena. In greater depth, this paper aims to analyse and reveal which factors influence the formation of an appropriate arena for doing open innovation and furthermore to prescribe how a firm can create an effective arena to gain access to external knowledge. This paper presents a review on open innovation literature with the purpose of examining the current understanding of factors influencing a firm's capacity to embrace and practice open innovation as well as understanding what is critical when fitting outside systems. It presents the results of a survey conducted among 25 researchers from INESC TEC, the Portuguese Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology, and Science. The study concludes that conditions, namely culture, leadership and strategy, are the main drivers to an open innovation arena, highlighting culture as the most important one.Highlights Nowadays, the goal of each organisation is to conquest competition and to win new customers. Firms must create physical locations where collaboration is encouraged. Companies must be able to diagnose, measure and question its innovation performance and potential. The Innovation Scoring System impacts a firm's capacity to embrace and practice open innovation; Impacting factors on Innovation Scoring System: Conditions, Resources, Processes and Results. Open Innovation is a powerful tool for the sustainable development of the companies.

Knowledge management and open innovation in agri-food crowdfunding

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and successful open innovation within agri-food businesses. This particular piece of research focuses on agri-food businesses which utilize crowdfunding platforms. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a survey-based methodology, which is useful in enhancing the generalization of results. The final sample includes 80 cases for the analysis. The model and the hypotheses were tested through a hierarchical regression model. Findings This research assesses the importance of knowledge management capabilities for successful open innovation in crowdfunding for agri-food businesses. In particular, it emerged that IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities are enablers of open innovation strategies. Additionally, it emerged that knowledge exploration capabilities can positively mediate the relationship between IT-based knowledge exploitation capabilities and open innovation in the context of agri-food businesses. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, few researchers have explored this topic and, as such, there is a need to better conceptualize this intriguing phenomenon and to provide empirical evidence to support it.

The significance of knowledge sharing platforms for open innovation success

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical background on how organizational change (OC) enhances open innovation (OI) processes and enables a company to reach performance results through implementing knowledge sharing platforms (KSPs). The authors aim to better understand and investigate how the changes introduced by the implementation of KSPs impact the OC and facilitate the OI process.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, an exploratory longitudinal single case study based on a variety of data sources is used: participant observations, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with the KSP members and top managers of a Tunisian SME operating in the dairy products sector. The open-ended responses were subsequently exposed to thematic discourse analysis.FindingsThe case study findings deeply explore and investigate a company’s experience in implementing OCs when using a joint-venture alliance with a French leader to develop OI. Central to this exhibit is the nature and magnitude of the knowledge sharing between the parties in the OI process, and the significant impact it had on the consumers’ reception of the new products. The outcomes show that due to the sharing of external research and development skills, the creation of the KSP has been an incentive for significant changes and customer targeting and for promoting internal absorptive capacity, minimizing complexity, uncertainty and risks and reaching performance results.Originality/valueThis paper provides a deep understanding of the new product development process and offers a holistic approach with respect to KSP practices. The significant impact on the consumers’ first response and the subsequent adaption of an industrially produced cheese as a subsidiary product to an existing artisan quality product are examined in this study. Examining the implementation of an OI process, this research is one of the few studies revealing the shortcomings of a former process and a subsequent adaption of a newly successful one that targets the consumers in a MENA country.

Success factors for open innovation in Norwegian manufacturing

The ability to innovate and introduce new products faster is critical to maintain a competitive position internationally in an increasingly dynamic marketplace. Shorter product life cycles and increased competition makes open innovation strategies a viable way of reducing research and development costs for companies. Open innovation includes inter-company and intra-company process and activities like cooperation in extensive networks, knowledge management, managerial activities, team formation and individual motivation. Therefore, this study is based on empirical research thorough using questionnaire-based survey and semi-structured interviews, examines various aspects that influence successful open innovation projects. Data was collected from a sample within the Norwegian metal forming industry, making advanced structural components for different industrial sectors, such as automotive, building and construction, offshore and marine. The study will report on open innovation types practices among these companies, as well as how they manage their intra-company activities for successful innovation management. Both small and medium-sized enterprise’s as well as large multinational corporations are part of the study.

Managing Organizational Open Innovation Capability in a Knowledge-Intensive Business Environment

The paper is aimed to develop a theoretical framework for investigating the main determinants of an organizational open innovation capability and provide a conceptual basis for identifying the core areas which are of importance for effectively managing the implementation of open innovation practices within business organizations. Based on a literature review of research on managerial practices for open innovation collaboration, a definition of a company’s open innovation capability is proposed which places special emphasis on the interrelationship among the strategic components of a business organization’s environment and its dynamic knowledge management capacities. As a result of the study, the integrated model of the organizational open innovation capability is presented that can be used for defining strategic priorities and managerial guidelines for achieving open innovation success. From a practical perspective, companies can apply the proposed conceptual model to review and adjust their organizational open innovation capability on a continuous basis in order to improve innovation performance in the challenging knowledge-intensive business environment.

The role and place of the procurement process in the functioning of the open innovation model of manufacturing company

To ensure competitiveness in the face of accelerating scientific and technological progress and the digitalisation of socio-economic processes the modern industrial companies should not be limited to internal environment during the process of search and implementation of innovative solutions. These enterprises are conducting an active search for new solutions in the open market and attracting external experts, using the communication potential of the World Wide Web. This model which called as «open innovation», has gained in popularity. Its use leads to the inevitable transformation of the existing business processes in the enterprise, one of which is the procurement process. Open innovation become a new stage in the development of the logistic function, already passed the way from the technical supply function to the procurement division gained the status of one of the key centers of cross-functional and inter-firm interaction on industrial enterprise. An important prerequisite for the success of open innovation, implemented jointly with our suppliers is the availability of long-term partnerships. The further evolution of the procurement function within the model of open innovation should lead to the integration of the procurement division to the acquisition of the results of intellectual activity, not only as a commercial service in company but as the operator of system of knowledge management and network crowd sourcing platform providing information and expert support to take management decisions on those or other innovative solutions offered by external suppliers. The formation of expert community is intended to reduce the risks associated with the procurement of obsolete intangible assets and the illegal use of the results of intellectual activity.

Open IoT Ecosystem for Enhanced Interoperability in Smart Cities-Example of Métropole De Lyon.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately, building a single global ecosystem of Things that communicate with each other seamlessly is virtually impossible today. The reason is that the IoT is essentially a collection of isolated “Intranets of Things”, also referred to as “vertical silos”, which cannot easily and efficiently interact with each other. Smart cities are perhaps the most striking examples of this problem since they comprise a wide range of stakeholders and service providers who must work together, including urban planners, financial organisations, public and private service providers, telecommunication providers, industries, citizens, and so forth. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) discuss business and technological implications as well as challenges of creating successful open innovation ecosystems, (ii) present the technological building blocks underlying an IoT ecosystem developed in the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 programme, (iii) present a smart city pilot (Heat Wave Mitigation in Métropole de Lyon) for which the proposed ecosystem significantly contributes to improving interoperability between a number of system components, and reducing regulatory barriers for joint service co-creation practices.

Overcoming cultural barriers in open innovation processes through intermediaries: a theoretical framework

Certain cultural barriers, such as insufficient openness, aversion to risk-taking, organizational inertia and specific syndromes could inhibit successful Open Innovation processes. However, how Open Innovation Intermediaries help in overcoming obstacles to successfully achieve Open Innovation processes, has not yet been analysed in depth. This paper aims to fill this gap, relying on extant contributions of Open Innovation processes, Open Innovation Intermediary features and types. Based on the distinction between outside-in, inside-out and coupled Open Innovation processes, the theoretical framework developed here identifies specific cultural barriers affecting each process and suggests which intermediary types could be more suited to sustain firms undergoing these processes. The framework supports firms opening up their internal R&D activities to choose the intermediary type most suitable for adaption to an appropriate culture, as well as overcoming any possible cultural barriers.

A two-sided matching decision method for supply and demand of technological knowledge

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a novel prospect-based two-sided matching decision model for matching supply and demand of technological knowledge assisted by a broker. This model enables the analyst to account for the stakeholders’ psychological behaviours and their impact on the matching decision in an open innovation setting.Design/methodology/approachThe prospect theory and grey relational analysis are used to develop the proposed two-sided matching decision framework.FindingsBy properly calibrating model parameters, the case study demonstrates that the proposed approach can be applied to real-world technological knowledge trading in a market for technology (MFT) and yields matching results that are more consistent with the reality.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed model does not differentiate the types of knowledge exchanged (established vs novel, tacit vs codified, general vs specialized) (Ardito et al., 2016, Nielsen and Nielsen, 2009). Moreover, the model focuses on incorporating psychological behaviour of the MFT participants and does not consider their other characteristics.Practical implicationsThe proposed model can be applied to achieve a better matching between technological knowledge suppliers and users in a broker-assisted MFT.Social implicationsA better matching between technological knowledge suppliers and users can enhance the success of open innovation, thereby contributing to the betterment of the society.Originality/valueThis paper furnishes a novel theoretical model for matching supply and demand in a broker-assisted MFT. Methodologically, the proposed model can effectively capture market participants’ psychological considerations.

Fast-connecting search practices: On the role of open innovation intermediary to accelerate the absorptive capacity

Firms that engage in distant search activities seek to leverage on external knowledge to innovate. The firms' ability to acquire new knowledge depends on strong search practices and the corresponding absorptive capacity where the latter predefine firms' ability to span out of its core competences area, to follow the open innovation processes. Absorptive capacity is often seen as a precondition for the open innovation success. This research focuses on the cases of open innovation when the absorptive capacity is absent internally and is taken in charge by an open innovation intermediary that is capable to develop the potential absorptive capacity for the firm.Based on an exploratory case study of an intermediary platform that proposes novelty driven search practices – ideXlab, our results demonstrate how intermediary can accelerate the absorptive capacity value recognition function and therefore, potentially facilitate further diffusion of knowledge. Implications for open innovation in the distant search contexts are discussed.

Hitting the nail on the head: Exploring the relationship between public subsidies and open innovation efficiency

The success of open innovation as a new paradigm to enhance innovation development has brought public authorities to incentivize firms to collaborate with external organisations. Such incentive is often provided in the form of public subsidies to research and development activities. Some studies observed that public subsidies are generally successful in pursuing the goal of promoting open innovation. Nevertheless, as the number of partners increases, the positive effect of collaboration on innovation performance is likely to decrease due to over-search and over-collaboration issues. In this perspective, a mere increase of the firms' propensity to collaborate should not satisfy public authorities, which instead should carefully monitor how public subsidies can improve the efficiency of such collaborations. This article advances the literature about the relationship between public subsidies and open innovation by assessing how funds provided by local, national and European authorities are associated with open innovation efficiency. By analysing an extensive sample of 43,230 European firms, this study confirms that the three typologies of public subsidies are associated with collaboration in beneficiaries. Furthermore, the study shows that local and national subsidies are also associated with open innovation efficiency, whereas European subsidies are not statistically significantly associated with it. This study provides theoretical and policy implications. In a theoretical perspective, it introduces the concept of open innovation efficiency, it analyses its public policy drivers and presents several recommendations for future research. In a policy perspective, it suggests explanations for the results obtained and advises policy initiatives to foster open innovation efficiency.

PBOL: An Idea Filtering Method Based on Negative Multi-Voting and Pareto Aggregation

Open Innovation has pioneered as a troubleshooting method based on massively magnifying the source of solvers who bring new and unusual perspectives to solutions. Successful crowdsourcing brings a new challenge: the selection of ideas that deserve attention. This paper describes a new method for filtering ideas based on crowd evaluation: pBOL. The novelty lies on three aspects: the task is predicting a specialized committee’s choices rather than providing preferences, the task is eliminating bad ideas rather than selecting the best ones and the final solution comes from Pareto aggregation of subgroup solutions. Experimental results show the potential benefit of using pBOL as a high speed filtering method to enable successful open innovation.

Beyond absorptive capacity in open innovation process: the relationships between openness, capacities and firm performance

ABSTRACTThe literature has shown that open innovation (OI) can be a winning strategy in improving firm performance. However, in order to adopt and implement it, managers need to resolve practical problems, such as understanding the role played by OI capacities and openness on firm performance. In response to these needs, this study aims to investigate the hierarchical relationships between openness, OI capacities and performance using a structural equation model approach. This paper also attempts to compare the levels of openness between firms in different industries to discover similarities and differences in OI phenomena. The analysis of data obtained from a survey of Korean firms shows significant interrelations between openness, OI capacities and firm performance. Our results go further in developing understanding of the building blocks on which successful OI is built and particularly suggest that desorptive capacity which underpins the out-bound OI process, is in turn strongly supported by knowledge management capacity. It is hoped that the results of this study can enrich our understanding of the OI mechanism and provide managerial and policy implications.

Who creates value in a user innovation community? A case study of MyStarbucksIdea.com

Purpose – Successful open innovation requires that many ideas be posted by a number of users and that the posted ideas be evaluated to find ideas of high quality. As such, successful open innovation community would have inherently information overload problem. The purpose of this paper is to mitigate the information problem by identifying potential idea launchers, so that they can pay attention to their ideas. Design/methodology/approach – This research chose MyStarbucksIdea.com as a target innovation community where users freely share their ideas and comments. We extracted basic features from idea, comment and user information and added further features obtained from sentiment analysis on ideas and comments. Those features are used to develop classification models to identify potential idea launchers, using data mining techniques such as artificial neural network, decision tree and Bayesian network. Findings – The results show that the number of ideas posted and the number of comments posted are the most significant among the features. And most of comment-related sentiment features found to be meaningful, while most of idea-related sentiment features are not in the prediction of idea launchers. In addition, this study show classification rules for the identification of potential idea launchers. Originality/value – This study dealt with information overload problem in an open innovation context. A large volume of textual customer contents from an innovation community were examined and classification models to mitigate the problem were proposed using sentiment analysis and data mining techniques. Experimental results show that the proposed classification models can help the firm identify potential idea launchers for its efficient business innovation.

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.

Collaboration with scientific partners: the mediating role of managerial mechanisms

Open innovation literature suggests that firms can improve their innovation performance by learning from different actors and, among them, universities, research institutes and innovation intermediaries can play a relevant role. However, the success of such collaborations is still debated. In particular, the firms' internal organisational context seems to be crucial when explaining the success or failure of open innovation: firms attempting to leverage partners' knowledge must design an appropriate internal organisation, made up of organisational practices and managerial mechanisms. Despite this assumption, the role of the firm's internal context in fostering the success of open innovation is poorly investigated, in particular in the case of scientific partners (such as universities and research centres). Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the relations among collaboration behaviour between a firm and scientific partners, managerial mechanisms and both sides of innovative performance (i.e. novelty and efficiency). Our study, based upon a survey research developed in Finland, Italy and Sweden, suggests that collaborations with scientific partners should be carefully managed, through the development and implementation of managerial mechanisms, in order to foster performance. These managerial mechanisms emerge just as the means (i.e. the mediator) through which the collaboration behaviour can foster innovative performance.

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.

Research on China's knowledge-sharing system: under open innovation framework

Knowledge sharing is considered as a main driver of successful open innovation. By probing into the practice and development of China's knowledge-sharing system, the paper has focused on the practical evidence from institutional and organisational perspectives. At the institutional level, the paper points out the government regulation to construct a system of specific Chinese knowledge-sharing mode between firms, universities, research institutions, and market. At the organisational perspective, the article analyses firm's organisation of knowledge sharing at the example of Huawei as a typical high-tech enterprise in China. The main contribution of the article is to illustrate the Chinese experience in the building of knowledge-sharing system in order to implement the open innovation model.