How does open innovation enhance productivity? An exploration in the construction ecosystem

Marco Greco, Michele Grimaldi, Giorgio Locatelli and Mattia Serafini

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2021, vol. 168, issue C

Abstract: The innovation literature on operations-based organisations describes the positive effect of Open Innovation (OI) on productivity. However, a systemic overview of how OI directly and indirectly impacts productivity is missing, particularly for project-based organisations. Hence, the article aims to fill this gap by providing a systemic representation of how OI enhances project-based organisations' productivity. The article focuses on the construction ecosystem since construction is an exemplary project-based industry and is known for its widespread and longstanding poor productivity. In particular, we investigated how OI is adopted and how OI can enhance productivity in the construction ecosystem. We conducted twenty semi-structured interviews with experts involved in OI construction projects in the UK. This paper makes three academic contributions. First, it provides an account of the most relevant causes for poor productivity in construction. Second, it consolidates primary and secondary data in a novel cognitive map providing a systemic representation of how OI enhances productivity in construction. The validity of the map goes beyond the boundaries of the construction ecosystem, being supported by several cross-sectorial references. Third, the paper offers six strategies that leverage OI to address the specific causes of low productivity in construction.

Keywords: Open innovation; Inter-organisational collaboration; Construction; Project-based firms; Productivity; Innovation ecosystem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521001724
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:168:y:2021:i:c:s0040162521001724

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120740

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().