How French Wine Producers Use Open Innovation to Gain and Manage Their Legitimacy

Sylvaine Castellano () and Insaf Khelladi ()

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 155-171

Abstract: While open innovation and legitimacy are two processes that redefine the boundaries between the firm and its surrounding environment, no study has so far bridged the gap between these two concepts. Herein, we analyze how innovation strategies on the continuum between closed and open innovations confer different types of legitimacy. Our empirical setting focuses on traditional industries characterized with long and established know-how transferred from generation to generation. The wine industry is pertinent as it went through major changes over the past 30 years and since innovation plays a major role. Over time, our results show that in the wine sector, closed innovation was used not only to gain legitimacy but also to protect the acquired legitimacy. Then, open innovation brought normative and cognitive legitimacy to maintain and protect legitimacy. The findings contribute to the neo-institutional approach of legitimacy. We also contribute on a better understanding regarding the balance between closed and open innovations. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Keywords: Open innovation; Legitimacy; Wine appellation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s13132-015-0332-x

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