An Open Innovation Project Typology of Exploration and Exploitation: Managerial Implications and Empirical Applications

Majbritt Rostgaard Evald (), Ann Højbjerg Clarke () and Britta Boyd ()
Additional contact information
Majbritt Rostgaard Evald: University of Southern Denmark
Ann Højbjerg Clarke: University of Southern Denmark
Britta Boyd: University of Southern Denmark

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2021, vol. 12, issue 2, No 16, 740-755

Abstract: Abstract Despite an increased use of open innovation (OI) in firms, it is still a question of how firms can work successfully with OI in a way that enables them to exploit their current capabilities and simultaneously explore fundamentally new competencies. Firms need to be able to practice different forms of OI activities—inbound, outbound, or coupled—while simultaneously reaping the value these forms create. How firms reap value from different OI activities however remains under-investigated and consequently, we know very little about how these activities co-exist in firms. Before engaging in how firms can embrace different forms of OI activities simultaneously, we argue that there is a need to reassess how OI research approaches the idea of exploiting current capabilities and simultaneously exploring fundamentally new competencies. Based on the original framework of exploitation and exploration, a typology is proposed, which takes its departure at the project level in firms. The project level is promising as OI research has shown that OI at the firm level typically is a consequence of various OI initiatives at the project level. The value of the proposed typology and its applicability for firms is demonstrated through the case of Lego. The conceptual study results in a project typology of four generic OI approaches: inbound-exploration project; inbound-exploitation project; outbound-exploration project; and outbound-exploitation project. When these approaches are integrated, the coupled processes appear. Practical implications are derived with an overview of how managers can cope with different forms of OI strategically.

Keywords: Open innovation; Inbound; Outbound; Exploitation; Exploration; Project level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-020-00642-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:jknowl:v:12:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s13132-020-00642-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-020-00642-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().