The Influence of Internal Barriers on Open Innovation

Pedro de Faria, Florian Noseleit, Bart Los

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000357288
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Negocios en general

Despite providing us with a good understanding of how firms use certain mechanisms to benefit from open innovation strategies, current research provides only limited insights into how barriers internal to the firm may hamper knowledge transfer and limit effective utilization of external knowledge sources.

The Influence of Internal Barriers on Open Innovation proposes a dynamic perspective that addresses this gap and aims at stimulating this discussion in two ways. First, by looking at how the way firms structure their internal (innovation) activities may (unintentionally) create barriers to the incorporation of external knowledge. Second, by reflecting on how internal barriers might be coupled to firm decisions aimed at the optimization of innovation processes, like the balance between exploration and exploitation strategies.

The chapters of this book provide detailed conceptualization and investigation of organizational characteristics and practices that influence internal barriers to open innovation. The diverse set of studies described in the chapters of this book will help open innovation scholars to better understand the challenges that firms face when dealing with internal barriers that affect their external knowledge search and knowledge sourcing.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Industry and Innovation.

What facilitates external knowledge utilisation in SMEs? – An optimal configuration between openness intensity and organisational moderators

Nan Kyung Kim and Joon Mo Ahn ID

ABSTRACT

This study explores the complex relationships between open innovation (OI) climate and OI activities by investigating the changing moderating effects of organisational facilitators in small innovative firms. Our partial least squares structural equation modelling analysis suggests (1) OI-friendly climate promotes OI activities, (2) this process is further facilitated by various organisational efforts, but (3) the efforts firms must put in are proportional to the level of openness intensity. The findings also suggest that systematic knowledge management is the most basic facilitator, while entrepreneurial orientation is generally underperformed despite its high importance. This study provides implications for managers and policymakers who lead OI adoption and implementation.

Abbreviation: SMEs - Small and Medium-sized Enterprises; PLS-SEM - Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling

1. Introduction

Open innovation (OI) has received increasing attention over the 15 years (West et al. 2014b; Bogers et al. 2017). To date, its advantages have been extensively researched, and many case studies of successful OI in various types of firms and industries have been reported (Vanhaverbeke, Chesbrough, and West 2014; Ahn et al. 2019). Yet, admittedly, not all firms succeed in OI adoption and implementation (Deichmann, Rozentale, and Barnhoorn 2017). OI implementation is a laborious task for large established firms (Zynga et al. 2018), and these implementational challenges would be more critical in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which lack resources. Although there are some lessons and implications from large established firms, those are not directly transferred to SMEs with different organisational characteristics (Vanhaverbeke et al. 2018). Large firms can even conduct parallel innovation experiments by launching an internal and external innovation project simultaneously (Minshall et al. 2010), but SMEs may have to find the optimised best route to cope with their resource constraint. However, while many studies have investigated whether openness can result in performance enhancement (e.g., Mazzola, Bruccoleri, and Perrone 2012; Ahn, Minshall, and Mortara 2015), few studies have considered ‘the process that leads to OI’ (Huizingh 2011).

OI distinguishes itself from traditional-closed innovation in that it allows the utilisation of external knowledge, demands relationship coordination, and requires the establishment of a new innovation routine. This complex nature and various practical challenges in its implementation have made it more difficult for SMEs to employ it. OI involves substantial changes in organisation, such as new task set-ups and job function transitions (Salter, Criscuolo, and Ter Wal 2014). Therefore, the successful implementation of OI depends on how well a firm can facilitate openness by changing its operational configuration. As noted by Zynga et al....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: The influence of internal barriers on open innovation
• 1 What facilitates external knowledge utilisation in SMEs? – An optimal configuration between openness intensity and organisational moderators
• 2 Internal barriers to innovation and university-industry cooperation among technology-based SMEs in Brazil
• 3 Harnessing adaptive capacity to close the pandora’s box of open innovation
• 4 Collaborative ties and ambidextrous innovation: insights from internal and external knowledge acquisition
• Index