Open innovation practices for knowledge acquisition and their effects on innovation output

ABSTRACT

The paper aims at analysing the relationships between technological strategies, open innovation adoption and type of innovation output obtained after the knowledge-based perspective. Six hypotheses are generated and tested on 243 companies in R&D intense industries. A patent-based framework is designed for defining the variables under investigation and regression analysis is performed. Open innovation is mostly adopted to pursue exploration and diversification and mainly leads to modular and radical innovation. Incremental innovation is mostly attained through R&D outsourcing, joint development leads to architectural innovation, whereas both the acquisition and the incorporation of external technologies pertain the access to modular and radical innovation. The work suggests scholars to address their interests not only on the open innovation adoption but also on the differences among the various practices that may be employed in opposition to the internal development.

KEYWORDS:

• Open innovation
• technological strategies
• type of innovation
• patent data

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Antonello Cammarano is a Research Fellow at the University of Salerno. His research interests comprise innovation, knowledge management and patent statistics.

Francesca Michelino is an Adjunct Professor of Marketing and New Product Development at the University of Salerno. Her research interests focus on innovation and technology management.

Mauro Caputo is a Full Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at the University of Salerno. His research interests enclose innovation management and supply chain management.