Dynamic openness for network-enabled product and process innovation: a panel-data analysis
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 25 February 2022
Issue publication date: 10 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Prior research on open innovation has not investigated changes in knowledge acquisition strategies of firms over time overlooking how learning from past knowledge acquisition can change subsequent search strategies. Also, prior research has focused principally on product innovation overlooking process innovation. The purpose of the paper is to introduce the concept of dynamic openness, which is defined as temporal changes in external knowledge search strategy. We explore four dynamic openness strategies – closing down, opening up, persistent open and persistent closed – and examine the impact of these strategies on both product and process innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a panel dataset of 16,021 firms based on five waves (2009–2017) of the UK Community Innovation Survey (UKIS). All models are estimated using firm and year fixed effects (FE) method to control for endogeneity that arises from unobserved heterogeneity. Endogeneity and robustness tests were carried out to ensure the validity of results.
Findings
The results show that firms do use dynamic openness strategies over time leveraging learning from past searches. Specifically, the study indicates that closing down is not an effective strategy for either type of innovation. For process innovation, firms should pursue opening up strategy rather than persistent open strategy, whereas for product innovation firms could pursue either strategy, highlighting important contextual differences.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on knowledge acquisition in open innovation: (1) by theorizing the underlying reasons – learning from past collaborations, absorptive capacity and external knowledge heterogeneity – why firms pursue one dynamic openness strategy over another and (2) by extending literature by delineating the dynamic openness strategies that firms should pursue in process innovation vs product innovation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The statistical data used here is from the ONS and is Crown copyright and reproduced with the permission of the controller of HMSO and Queens Printer for Scotland. The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. The analysis upon which this paper is based uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates. The authors would like to thank the UK Data Service for providing access to the microdata. Errors in use of these data are the authors' own. The authors are grateful for the constructive comments from the editor, associate editor and reviewers of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management.
Citation
Kesidou, E., Narasimhan, R., Ozusaglam, S. and Wong, C.Y. (2022), "Dynamic openness for network-enabled product and process innovation: a panel-data analysis", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 257-279. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-06-2021-0380
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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