The limits of open innovation: Failures, risks, and costs in open innovation practice and theory

Marina Dabic; Tugrul Daim; Marcel L.A.M. Bogers; Anne-Laure Mention

doi:10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102786

The limits of open innovation: Failures, risks, and costs in open innovation practice and theory

Marina Dabic (Corresponding author), Tugrul Daim, Marcel L.A.M. Bogers, Anne-Laure Mention

Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Article number	102786
Number of pages	7
Journal	Technovation
Volume	126
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102786
Publication status	Published - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

This concerns an introductory article in relation to a special issue on what we may call the downside of open innovation

Funding

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.

Keywords

Costs
Failures
Limits
Open innovation
Risks

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

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The limits of open innovation: Failures, risks, and costs in open innovation practice and theory

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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