THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OPEN INNOVATION: DO SIZE AND PERFORMANCE OF OPEN INNOVATION GROUPS MATTER?

Emma L. Hitchen (), Petra A. Nylund and Eric Viardot ()
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Emma L. Hitchen: Department of Economics and Business, Universitat de Vic-Universitat de Central de Catalunya, Sagrada Família 7, 08500 Vic, Spain
Petra A. Nylund: Department of Economics and Business, Universitat de Vic-Universitat de Central de Catalunya, Sagrada Família 7, 08500 Vic, Spain
Eric Viardot: Global Innovation Management Center, EADA Business School, Aragó 204, 08011 Barcelona, Spain

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2017, vol. 21, issue 03, 1-24

Abstract: Innovation is accelerated by heterogeneous knowledge, which is obtained in open innovation. We investigate whether there are limits to the beneficial degree of openness. Conceiving innovator group size as a trade-off between knowledge heterogeneity and coordination costs for innovating groups, we theorise about the impact of group size on innovative performance. We hypothesise that openness and internationalisation positively moderate this relationship, but that the positive effects are limited by the trade-off between knowledge heterogeneity and coordination costs. Through an empirical investigation using a large set of international patent data, we find support for our conceptual development and are able to conclude how many individuals those groups contain that generate the most innovative performance. Groups of three inventors have the most positive impact, and groups of two to eight inventors also generate positive effects. Science-based industries however allow for bigger groups than other industries, and supplier-dominated industries have smaller beneficial group sizes.

Keywords: Innovation management; open innovation; group size; patents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919617500256

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