The limits of open innovation: Failures, risks, and costs in open innovation practice and theory
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
The success of open innovation has been widely acknowledged in both industrial practice and academic research. However, we understand much less about the limits of open innovation. A better understanding of this downside is nevertheless very important as there are still many organizations that struggle when trying to implement an open innovation strategy. At the same time, some research has pointed to decreasing returns to openness, or more generally to the compex relationship between open innovation and (financial) performance. This is why we call for more attention to failures, risks, and costs — and even the “dark side” — in the context of open innovation. In this editorial, we will further introduce this perspective, describe the articles published in this special issue, and offer some suggestions for future research. Overall, we believe that a better understanding of the limits of openness will allow for a more balanced view, thereby further expanding the frontiers of open innovation practice and theory.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 102786 |
| Tidsskrift | Technovation |
| Vol/bind | 126 |
| Antal sider | 7 |
| ISSN | 0166-4972 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2023 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
Open innovation as a powerful strategy in industry has long been a part of the academic debate ( Dabić et al., 2021 ). Engineering companies like Intel have diverged from companies like Xerox in the 1980s and 1990s by finding ways to leverage research done by their peers and universities funded by government in the forms of university grants, research centres and internships. Or as Chesbrough (2020) puts is, while the lab used to be our world, it is now the world that is our lab. Nevertheless, despite some positive impact from open innovation, it is also important to look beyond initial success for operational competencies, and for example consider challenges around new product innovations, as there were competitive risks such as the Nokia case ( Ciesielska, 2018 ). Indeed, a recent study revealed an S-shaped relationship between open innovation and financial performance, implying that the benefits of open innovation will not always outweight the costs ( Schäper et al., 2023 ). In this special issue, we seek to understand the limits of open innovation through the relationship between determinants and outcomes within teams, projects, alliances, or organizations, from the perspective of risk, failure, and cost.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
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