Outflows Of Knowledge Research Articles

Explicating the factors influencing successful implementation and management of sustainable innovation practices in research intensive organizations

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that contribute to the successful implementation and management of sustainable innovation in research-intensive sectors such as the life sciences industry. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted through a combination of two methods. The first was qualitative interviews of 21 sustainability experts and leaders in the life sciences industry who were responsible for implementing sustainable innovation. They were selected through nonprobabilistic purposive sampling. The second method was thematic content analysis using the MAXQDA software. Findings The study identified that successful implementation of sustainable innovation in research-intensive firms begins with the alignment of the executive vision for sustainability with the business objectives of the research-intensive firm. Furthermore, implementation of sustainability practices is identified as a function of organizational reconfigurations that facilitate purposeful inflow and outflow of ideas and knowledge between internal firm resources and external stakeholders, anchored by the objectives of the research-intensive firm. Research limitations/implications The study explicated factors only within life sciences industry based on qualitative interviews. The study offers scope for cross-sector quantitative evaluation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first studies to systematically delineate the underlying factors that govern successful implementation of sustainable innovation in research-intensive industries, through integration of the resource-based view and stakeholder theory and thereby provide a framework for research-intensive organizations to implement sustainable innovation practices.

Open innovation networks: a driver for knowledge mobilisation in schools?

PurposeIn organisational and innovation research, the term “open innovation” refers to the inflow and outflow of knowledge to and from organisations: with open innovation theory suggesting active exchanges of knowledge with external actors leads to the development of exploitable new ideas. In the field of education, however, the exchange of knowledge with external parties represents a paradigm shift. In response, this article presents findings from research design to explore the nature and composition of school innovation networks, and the effects of such these networks on knowledge mobilisation.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on data from a representative random sample of 411 German school leaders. Respondents were asked to detail their engagement in open and closed innovation activity and their school's external collaborations during the last 12 months. A latent class distal outcome model was developed to examine whether different types of collaboration associate with different knowledge mobilisation processes.FindingsThe study findings suggest that schools in Germany mainly use internal knowledge for innovation, with external knowledge exchange taking place on a very limited basis. Knowledge mobilisation varies depending on the innovation network. The authors use the findings to indicate new insights for how schools can further innovate learning and teaching in future.Originality/valueAlthough there is increasing discussion on Professional Learning Networks in schools, the discourse on knowledge mobilisation within educational networks is limited, making concept of open innovation so far completely absent from discourses on school improvement. This paper initiates the population of this new research space.

Citation bias in measuring knowledge flow: Evidence from the web of science at the discipline level

• The notion and calculation of DPE(disciplinary potential energy) are introduced. • This paper explores the knowledge relationship and contribution between disciplines based on direct and indirect citations. • This paper analyzes the potential reasons for citation bias in revealing the contribution of disciplinary knowledge from a citation perspective. Knowledge flow between scientific disciplines has commonly been measured based on citation data. Previous studies using citing relationships have mostly considered direct citations but have paid little attention to indirect citations (IDC) to indicate how knowledge diffusion from one discipline to another via one or more intermediaries. In this study, we measured knowledge flow between disciplines from two perspectives: direct citations (DC) and discipline potential energy (DPE), which is proposed to combine both direct and indirect citations. Data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database. Findings include: (1) DPE overshadows previous measures by considering not only direct citations but also indirect citations between disciplines which was usually ignored in previous measures, and revealed that the knowledge contribution of some disciplines had been underestimated by previous measures, such as Physics and Engineering. (2) The proportion of IDC contribution is close to that of direct knowledge contribution when the discipline scale is removed, which suggests that it is essential to consider IDC to distinguish the knowledge relationship (net-outflow/inflow) between disciplines. (3) Both measurements show that Biology & Biochemistry has always been the top discipline with the highest net outflow of knowledge, which is inconsistent with the history of science that Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry would be the highest net outflow disciplines. The results show that even considering IDC does not fully reveal the knowledge contribution and academic influence of disciplines. This paper also analyzes the potential reasons for citation bias in revealing the contribution of disciplinary knowledge from a citation perspective. Therefore, caution should be taken in the use of citations as a primary measure of knowledge flow.

National Innovation Demonstration Zone policy and city innovation capability – a quasi-natural experimental analysis

PurposeThis paper aims to understand the relationship between the National Innovation Demonstration Zone policy and city innovation capability and the underlying mechanisms.Design/methodology/approach This paper collects panel data of 283 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2018 for the quasi-natural experiment of National Independent Demonstration Zone (NIDZ) policy. It applies the difference-in-difference (DID) method to study the impact of NIDZ policy on city innovation capability and its underlying mechanism to enhance it.FindingsThe empirical result indicates that the establishment of NIDZ significantly enhances the city's innovation capability, which was verified through a series of robustness tests. The mechanism analysis shows that the NIDZ promote the inflow and outflow of knowledge, which implies NIDZ enhances the innovation capability of cities by facilitating the innovation sharing impact. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the higher degree of digitalization, the higher the government service level induce a more favourable policy effect. The policy effect is more significant in the cities with a higher marketization or the eastern developed region.Practical implicationsThis study’s empirical findings suggest that it is essential to improve the digital infrastructure to accomplish the digital transformation and upgrading of NIDZ. The government should improve the service efficiency and reshape the city market environment to ensure the fair competition of science and technology enterprises.Originality/valueThe paper first proposed and empirically tested that innovation sharing is an important mechanism that can significantly enhance the city innovation capability. The authors analyse the heterogeneity of NIDZ from four aspects: digitalization level, marketization level, government service level, and regional development and expanded research boundaries.

Open Innovation Competence for a Future-Proof Workforce: A Comparative Study from Four European Universities

Digital transformation is a key driving force of open innovation to capture and transfer knowledge inside and outside of a company’s bounds. New challenges in organizing multiple knowledge flows imply the need for increased competences related to this paradigm of future employees. In this article, we organize and aggregate the competencies required for open innovation collaboration and develop a competence profile that organizes individual competencies in an open innovation context. Based on elements of the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, we delineate an OI Competence Profile and list the core competencies to manage and accelerate the inflow and outflow of knowledge. We explore this profile by comparing data from 2332 students from four European universities to find differences in the distribution of OI competencies between countries. The study contributes to understanding the individual competencies that target the future OI needs of companies necessary in the context of digital transformation. It also introduces an interdisciplinary approach to integrate the research streams of management practice, open innovation, and entrepreneurial education.

Open innovation for institutional entrepreneurship: how incumbents induce institutional change to advance autonomous driving

Without fundamental institutional change, such as a change in laws and regulations, many new technologies cannot achieve their full potential. Efforts to induce institutional change in favor of such technologies are, therefore, increasingly critical for innovative firms. To study how German automotive firms induce change that accommodates autonomous driving (AD) solutions, we conducted a case study research encompassing analysis of 31 interviews, internal archival documents, and media data. Taking the firm as the level of analysis, we identify ten practices employed by innovating incumbents in the three steps of creating saliency for change, mitigating reservations against the desired change, and institutionalizing it. We find that these practices involve shaping‐oriented and adaptation‐oriented knowledge flows. Through the combined use of these practices throughout the three steps, firms ‘open up’ their development process, utilizing purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to advance innovation. Our findings contribute to the literature on open innovation and institutional entrepreneurship and suggest that future open innovation research can profit from adopting an institutional entrepreneurship perspective.

Effects of Open Innovation Towards School Performance in Johore State

Open Innovation remains the process of enabling inflow and outflow of knowledge, ideas, design, plus technologies throughout the organization during the various stages of the innovation process. This Innovation consists of inbound and outbound open innovations, whereby inbound open Innovation is the influx of knowledge, while outbound open innovation remains the outward flow of knowledge. Previously, studies related to open innovation have only focused specifically on the business world, the industrial sector while less focused on strategy and its implementation in the education sector. This study aims to fill this gap by studying open innovation in ordinary day secondary schools due to their significant contribution to development Malaysian education. Based on an open innovation model and a theory of views based on resources, this study will analyse the role of open and innovative innovation activities government support in determining the innovative capabilities of secondary schools. In this conceptual paper, the author develops the conceptual model that will be used in further research activities in education sector and will contribute to a better understanding of open innovation activities and their practices in secondary schools in Malaysia.

The reverse transfer of knowledge in MNEs: the perspective of foreign subsidiaries in a post-transition country

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to identify the determinants of the marketing and managerial knowledge transfer from a foreign subsidiary located in a post-transition country to its headquarters established in a developed country.Design/methodology/approachThe authors combined the critical literature studies and empirical research, where the method of Computer-assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) was applied. The empirical data was gathered from 231 manufacturing foreign subsidiaries established in Poland (as one of the post-transition economy). To test the hypotheses logistic regression was applied.FindingsThe knowledge accumulated in the foreign subsidiary, the amount and level of novelty of innovation in the foreign subsidiary and its strategic autonomy is crucial for the occurrence of the reverse knowledge transfer. However, the more powerful the foreign subsidiary is, the less eager it is to transfer marketing and managerial knowledge to the headquarters.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is concentrated just on the manufacturing sector in the Polish economy. The results are based on the opinions and perception of managers, but they represent the corporate perspective (not their individual ones).Practical implicationsThe study provokes asking the question about the proper level of strategic autonomy of a foreign subsidiary. The implication related to the autonomy is much about the proper strategy for human resources management. The obtained results indicate that the intensity of innovation in a foreign subsidiary “translates” to the outflow of knowledge from a foreign subsidiary to its headquarters. Thus, encourages headquarters to let their subsidiaries innovate still monitoring their power.Social implicationsFSs are entities more or less embedded in the host markets, thus their strength and sustainable existence is important for their stakeholders, in particular – internal entities such as employees and external entities such as suppliers, and other cooperating organisations and institutions in the host market. The contribution of FSs to the innovation performance and knowledge pool of external partners is determined much by their absorptive capacity. Thus, the results obtained indirectly point to the importance of external agents ability to absorb and exploit the knowledge.Originality/valueThe originality of the paper concerns three issues. Firstly, the previous studies are mainly focused on either developed or emerging markets and as a result, the peculiarity of post-transition economies, like Poland has been neglected. Secondly, the determinants of reverse knowledge transfer are presented from the corporate perspective. Thirdly, authors focus on marketing and management knowledge distributed from a foreign subsidiary to its headquarter.

An ambidexterity perspective toward configurations of knowledge flows: an empirical testing of its two-phase performance implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how knowledge inflows and outflows interact to affect performance outcomes. Though previous studies have dealt with knowledge inflows and outflows, the quality and quantity characteristics of knowledge are often not taken into account, thus leaving a research gap with regards to the effect of their interactions on performance outcomes.Design/methodology/approachBased on Poisson regression analysis, this quantitative study fills the aforementioned research gaps by analyzing the ambidextrous configurations of knowledge flows from an ambidexterity perspective and examines their effects on two-phase performance (i.e. regular season and playoffs), using a longitudinal data set of National Basketball Association transactions from the 2003-2004 to 2014-2015 season.FindingsThe results suggest that the complementarity between knowledge inflows and outflows along the quality and quantity dimensions of knowledge, respectively, has a positive impact on two-phase performance, while the imbalance between knowledge inflows and outflows under the quality and quantity dimensions of knowledge, respectively, has a negative impact on playoffs performance (Phase 2). These findings suggest that organizations can balance knowledge inflows and outflows under a single quality or quantity dimension of knowledge. Furthermore, the interaction between the quantity of the inflows of knowledge and the quality of the outflows of knowledge and the interaction between the quality of the inflows of knowledge and the quantity of the outflows of knowledge are both positively related to two-phase performance. These findings suggest that organizations can balance knowledge inflows and outflows across quality and quantity dimensions of knowledge. Finally, the effects of the interaction between knowledge inflows and outflows on playoffs performance are greater than regular-season.Practical implicationsOrganizations should leverage ambidexterity to manage/balance knowledge inflows and outflows across quality and quantity dimensions, further enhancing performance outcomes.Originality/valueThis study, first, provides new insights into knowledge flows by distinguishing between the quality and quantity of knowledge, the inflows and outflows of knowledge, constructing ambidextrous configurations of knowledge flows from an ambidexterity perspective. Second, it contributes to the relationship between knowledge flows and organizational performance by revealing how ambidextrous configurations of knowledge flows exert different effects on performance outcomes. Third, it adds to the literature of ambidexterity-performance relationships and expands it to the context of sports.

Transformation of data and information into knowledge in the production enterprise and their use in the sales department

Abstract Modern age is associated with massive deployment of information technology in businesses that are forced to work with a wealth of data and information. Businesses are trying to make the most effective use of knowledge not only from real data, but they often have to rely on their employees' knowledge. Increasing fluctuation of employees and the resulting outflow of knowledge will force businesses to increasingly make use of knowledge management. The article describes the process of looking for the context and the implications of selecting contracts to transform them into information and knowledge on the example of a real business. The verified process is transformed into a design of knowledge system, which results in the recommended generated rule for selecting sales department orders to ensure profitability for the business.

Open innovation in small and medium enterprises: a bibliometric analysis

PurposeThe open innovation (OI) paradigm suggests that firms should use inflows and outflows of knowledge in order to accelerate innovation and leverage markets. Literature examining how firms are adopting OI practices is rich; notwithstanding, little research has addressed this topic from the perspective of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the relevance of SMEs in worldwide economies, the purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of research on OI in SMEs.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 112 academic articles were selected from the Web of Science database. Following a bibliometric analysis, the most relevant authors, journals, institutions and countries are presented. Additionally, the main areas these articles cover are summarized.FindingsResults are consistent in that the most prolific authors are affiliated with the universities leading the ranking of institutions. However, it is remarkable that top authors in this field do not possess a large number of publications on OI in SMEs, but combine this research topic with other related ones. At the country level, European countries are on the top together with South Korea.Research limitations/implicationsDespite following a rigorous method, other relevant documents not included in the selected databases might have been ignored.Practical implicationsThis paper outlines the main topics of interest within this area: impact of OI on firm performance and on organizations’ structure, OI as a mechanism to hasten new product development, the analysis of the inbound/outbound dimensions of OI, and legal issues related to intellectual property right management when OI is implemented.Originality/valueThe study uses a combination of bibliometric indicators with a literature review.

Product innovation rumors as forms of open innovation

Prior studies of open innovation have highlighted the effects of different flows of knowledge between firms and external partners—such as flows of software code, technical solutions, or new product ideas—and how firms face a “paradox of openness” about how open to be to external sources while also appropriating value. There are increasingly flows of more provisional knowledge as well, in the form of product innovation rumors exchanged within online technology blogs. Our study objective was to understand how product innovation rumors are used by firms as both inflows and outflows of provisional knowledge and their effect on the innovation process. Using interview data within a high-technology firm whose forthcoming products were the subject of rumor within technology blogs, we develop propositions regarding how inflows of product innovation rumors affect innovation decisions (while addressing concerns about appropriability and intrafirm knowledge flows) and how outflows from firms may affect stakeholders outside the firm (through selective revealing and influence of technology blog editors). Product innovation rumors in part address the paradox of openness by forming an informal means of open innovation alongside formal processes, and we suggest further research opportunities in this domain.

Can Government Policies Drive Open Innovation Type Platforms? Ideas from the MSC Malaysia Flagship Applications

The discussion of open innovation has always been centred on the organisation where innovation occurs. The focus would be on the inflow and outflow of knowledge into the organisation; several studies and cases published have addressed the concept around business (or government) organisations and their research and development (R&D) activities. The open innovation framework is based on a focal organisation, which is usually a business organisation that provides a platform for other organisations to collaborate—either helping the focal organisation to commercialise its knowledge and gain economic benefits or vice versa. This notion, we argue, is where an open innovation platform is ‘supplier-driven’, that is, ‘supplier’ indicating the focal organisation where innovation occurs. In this article, however, we propose an alternate framework for open innovation, that is, one that is ‘customer-driven’ where the customer organisation or demand-creating organisation provides a platform for open innovation. This alternate notion is derived from the case of the flagship applications of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia). The MSC Malaysia flagships can be seen as open innovation type platforms established by the customer, that is, the Malaysian government—which provides the demand pull for creating an open-innovation platform. This framework of a ‘customer-driven’ open innovation platform could provide lessons for other emerging economies to understand how their governments can play a more active role, as policymaker and demand-generating entity, to create a platform for open innovation.

Knowledge transfer in the context of frugal innovation

In this paper, we explore knowledge transfer in the context of frugal innovation (i.e., a specific form of resource-constraint innovation). Based on original data from 11 case studies, we observe two distinct clusters. Firms in the cluster 'active' are signified by their direct experience in the target market. Companies in the cluster 'non-active' were not physically present in the target market prior to the frugal initiative. Further, three distinct phases emerged along the value creation process: 1) market research; 2) development; 3) go-to-market. It became evident that firms from the cluster non-active are confronted much more with an influx and outflow of knowledge. Transfer in both directions requires significantly more effort. With this research we contribute to the growing body of literature on frugal innovation and the emerging middle class. We conclude this study with a discussion of the implications of our findings for management practice and research.

Adoption of Open Innovation in the Internationalization of Knowledge Intensive Firms

Involvement in different open innovation activities by using inflows and outflows of knowledge becomes the important premise for a successful business. However, on a global scale, open innovation literature does not pay enough attention to the international dimension, which is essential when seeking to increase the performance of overseas firm’s activities. Therefore, the paper aims to highlight coherences of open innovation and internationalization by analyzing knowledge intensive SMEs in Lithuania. Referring to case studies approach it is disclosed how much firms are open in performing innovative activities by collaborating, how they share knowledge, what main profiles of national and foreign partners are and how open innovation is applied in internationalizing firm’s activity. The research results indicated that firms while innovating were mostly focused on the R&D ecosystem oriented and innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem oriented networks at the national level . However, when internationalizing firm’s activities, the preference to the international value chain oriented innovation network was disclosed. It contributes to the theory of open innovation from the knowledge intensive firms’ internationalization point of view, especially in the understanding of open innovation’s role in pursuing fast development in foreign markets while providing further knowledge on internationalization of firms originating from Baltic region area. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.27.5.15371

Constraints to Open Innovation in Science and Technology Parks

Abstract Open innovation that is known as the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge with a view to accelerate firms’ own internal innovation, and expand the markets through external use of innovation is a very important window of opportunity for all firms to keep up with technology and survive. However, firms, which face lots of constraints to engage in open innovation, may be in tendency to closed approaches and reluctant to use open innovation. In terms of open innovation, however, our understanding of the factors, which are disincentives to apply open innovation, is still incomplete. On the other hand, science and technology parks are the platforms that enable firms to innovate in an open system thanks to their networking nature across universities, research labs, start-ups, SMEs, and large firms. In this context, this study aims to explore the factors that obstruct the use of open innovation based on the data gathered from 102 ICT firms that operate in science and technology parks in Turkey. Constraints to open innovation that are compiled from relevant literature are subjected to exploratory factor analysis to reduce the number of variables, and uncover some new structures. Constraints concerning “confidentiality and conservativeness of the firm”, “human resources, brand and image”, “resources and costs”, “management and organization”, “market, partnership, and technology sources” and “administration” are found as the constraints to open innovation faced by firms operating in science and technology parks.

Defining Open Innovation

In the last installment of this column, I initiated a new series of topics aimed at defining the vocabulary of innovation management. The object is to look critically at the profession's terms of art, exploring their origins and mapping their limitations, to provide new clarity, and in the process restore some of their power. By looking at the terminology at the heart of innovation management and exploring how it has emerged and evolved, perhaps we can also get a glimpse of where innovation is heading. In the first entry in the series, we looked at the concept of disruptive innovation. This time, we're examining another concept whose usage has become confused and, at times, diluted: open innovation. Henry Chesbrough introduced the concept of open innovation in his 2003 book, Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Despite popular conceptions, Chesbrough didn't actually invent open innovation--his book is rich with examples of companies already doing it. Rather, he gave a name to the pattern and defined the paradigm: Innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology. Innovation combines internal and external ideas into architectures and systems whose requirements are defined by a business model. He refined that definition in a 2006 book he co-edited, Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm: Open innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. The key in both definitions is the focus on an approach driven by the business model. As Gene Slowinski and Matt Sagal point out, in their 2003 book and in a 2010 RTM article, that approach must be supported by a set of tools and processes designed to facilitate the relationships--with universities, with researchers, with individual inventors, even with competitors--that are at the core of open innovation. Slowinski and Sagal's Want-Find-Get-Manage model, described in detail by Slowinski in Reinventing Corporate Growth, offers one framework for sustaining collaborative innovation. Chesbrough's assertion--in the books and in a series of journal articles between the two books (including two in the pages of this journal)--that open innovation would become absolutely essential was not wildly speculative; the precursors were clearly in place in the early 2000s. But he could not have predicted the changes to come in the few years after that first work, or the ways in which they would make openness both easier and more vital. Indeed, Innovation arrived on the cusp of revolutionary change. As markets became ever more dynamic and unpredictable, new technology platforms allowed knowledge to circulate ever more freely and far more widely. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Kickstarter all were born after open innovation. Wikipedia, Linux, Google's Raspberry Pi, and other open-source projects revealed the power of mass collaboration to create knowledge through unfettered sharing. And Red Hat and others showed that there was money to be made from open-source platforms. The crowd and the cloud became viable, even essential, tools. Wired magazine introduced the term crowdsourcing to the world in a 2006 article by Jeff Howe, and suddenly innovation had an entire new toolset. All companies had to do was figure out what to do with it. As Kevin Boudreaux and Karim Lakhani warned in a 2013 HBR article on the subject, Crowds are moving into the mainstream; even if you don't take advantage of them, your competitors surely will. All of these developments offered new tools for pursuing open innovation. But what many practitioners and researchers alike have done is conflate these new tools with open innovation itself, either treating crowdsourcing and open innovation as synonyms or suggesting some other kind of equivalence between the two concepts. …

Open Innovation: A New Mechanism For Adoption Of Organizational Innovation Empirical Evidence From Algerian Companies

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the openness degree of companies and organizational innovation. The openness degree is defined as the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal Innovation, and to expend markets for external use of innovation (Chesbrough, 2006). The research utilizes causality models and suggests a conceptual schema subsequent to a comprehensive analysis of the literature linked to open innovation field. A sample of 120 managers and employees of Algerian pharmaceutical company is used. The SEM is used to analyze and approve the proposal of the conceptual schema. Results of the empirical research show that open innovation is positively and significantly related to organizational innovation, on the other hand, these results indicate that there is a positive and significant impact of organizational innovation on organizational performance.

Open Innovation in Nonprofit Sports Clubs

This research paper investigates open innovation—that is, the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge in order to innovate—in the context of nonprofit sports clubs, and is based on the content analysis of semi-structured interviews held with representatives of eleven sports clubs. The study develops a framework that describes open innovation activities in nonprofit sports clubs as facets of four superordinate dimensions, namely permeability of the club’s boundary, application and implementation of open innovation practices, managerial competencies, and the environmental and organizational surroundings in which the club operates. Within these dimensions, subordinate facets such as commitment of the club’s president and the strategic use of coopetitive environments explain how and why sports clubs are successful at implementing innovations and how their nonprofit status (e.g., volunteer work) contributes to (or is in conflict with) innovation. The findings provide implications for nonprofit organizations inside and outside the sports sector.

Open innovation: Are inbound and outbound knowledge flows really complementary?

One novel implication of the open innovation paradigm is that inflows and outflows of knowledge are complementary. We argue that engaging simultaneously in buying and selling knowledge should allow firms to increase innovation outcomes. At the same time, we identify some of the relevant costs (cognitive, transaction, and organizational costs) that “open” firms can reduce by combining knowledge inflows and outflows. Empirically, however, we find no evidence for such complementarity in a sample of Belgian manufacturing firms. Firms buying and selling knowledge do increase their sales of new products, but at the same time theirR&Dcosts increase more than proportionally. Our findings, therefore, indicate the need for research into a better understanding of the drivers of actual costs of organizing for open innovation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.