Alberto Di Minin

• Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
• Professor (Associate) at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

This paper addresses the conceptual ambiguity in the literature on exceptional innovations, labeled “radical,” “disruptive,” “breakthrough,” or “discontinuous.” A bibliometric analysis of 4407 articles shows that different labels are used by papers with shared theoretical foundations and thematic orientation. An in-depth analysis of 60 seminal cont...

This paper addresses the conceptual ambiguity in the literature on exceptional innovations, labeled “radical,” “disruptive,” “breakthrough,” or “discontinuous.” A bibliometric analysis of 4407 articles shows that different labels are used by papers with shared theoretical foundations and thematic orientation. An in-depth analysis of 60 seminal cont...

The recent open innovation (OI) literature underscores the importance of understanding how OI is implemented across diverse institutional contexts. China has captivated OI scholars, representing a distinctive business environment that challenges established theories and frameworks. Building on translation theory, this study systematically reviews h...

China from 2008 to 2022 has experienced structural and deep changes, from an economic, social and cultural point of view. Given its complexity, doing business in China is not an easy task, especially given the rapid transformations that its innovation and business environments are experiencing. The goal of this study is to understand how foreign m...

With the digital technologies diffusion, low-medium technology firms have been pushed to advance their dynamic capabilities. Through an exploratory multiple-case study, we analyze four Thai family firms assessing their preparedness in pursuing a digital transformation journey and their ability to improve dynamic capabilities. The study shows that L...

Due to the emergence of the digital economy, traditional corporate entrepreneurship (CE) forms (i.e. corporate incubators, corporate venture capital, and corporate accelerators) have become too heavy and resource-consuming. As such, large corporations need to adopt a lightweight and flexible approach to access startups' knowledge. Many of them have...

University spin‐offs (USOs) have attracted significant attention from scholars and policymakers as an important mechanism for science‐based innovation. The debate on how USOs generate innovation outcomes has often focused on tangible assets, while the role of intangible assets has been less explored and remains loosely defined. Yet emerging researc...

The integration of industrial and collaborative robots (cobots) in Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) has been steadily growing. Cobots emerged as cost-effective, flexible, and lightweight industrial robots, which are easily tailored to the manufacturing needs of SMEs. Unfortunately, SMEs still encounter formidable challenges, while venturing...

Traditional literature in terms of Open Innovation broadly explored the potential benefits firms might achieve in collaborating with external partners. However, in such a recognized framework, the investigation of the costs firms face remains an underexplored field. Understanding the immediate economic impact of Open Innovation strategies is crucia...

In 2020, R&D Management celebrated 50 years of publication. The present study honors that milestone by conducting a retrospective examination of the research conducted in the journal over time and reflects on its rich history to look forward in the R&D management field. Using bibliometric techniques, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the journ...

Open innovation (OI) is a paradigm that illustrates a business strategy. In this chapter, however, we ask, how is the OI paradigm capable of influencing innovation policy? After briefly illustrating how the OI paradigm has found its way into the realm of public policy, we develop a new vision for integrating OI within innovation policy practice: th...

Open innovation and innovation performance have been widely studied in the literature. However, few studies have examined the impact of openness to different types of external knowledge on start-ups’ innovation performance. Moreover, previous literature could be further complemented by additional investigation into how the coworking spaces provided...

Purpose This study investigates the role of “soft” factors of total quality management – in terms of empowerment and engagement of employees – in facilitating or hindering organizational performance of the university technology transfer offices. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), multiple regression...

We leverage the discontinuity in the assignment mechanism of the Small and Medium Enterprise Instrument - the first European R&D subsidy targeting small firms - to provide the broadest quasi-experimental evidence on R&D grants over both geographical and sectoral scopes. Grants trigger sizable impacts on a wide range of firm-level outcomes. Heteroge...

Technological discontinuities and dominant design models are among the most heavily researched topics in the strategy and innovation literature. In this paper, we attempt to illuminate the process of technological progress in the automotive industry, one of the most important contemporary industries. Drawing from a unique and archival database, we...

The extensive diffusion of new technologies (the Internet of Things, cloud computing, blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, algorithms and virtual reality) and their impact on businesses are massively attracting the interest of management scholars. Scientific production within this stream is quite broad and heterogeneous, and a wide-rangin...

For better or worse, digital technologies are reshaping everything, from customer behaviors and expectations to organizational and manufacturing systems, business models, markets, and ultimately society. To understand this overarching transformation, this paper extends the previous literature which has focused mostly on the organizational level by...

This study performs an in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of team boundary-spanning activities in the context of Chinese technology transfer, by addressing three related research questions: what are the drivers of teams’ boundary-spanning activities? How do teams conduct boundary-spanning activities? What is the impact of teams’ bound...

Accelerator programs are emerging in recent years as a new model of startup assistance. However, despite the rapid proliferation of such programs, academic literature on the topic is surprisingly scarce. In particular, previous literature has neglected to investigate how the open environment provided by startup accelerators can enhance the innovati...

We examine how the innovation and growth of firms in the EU have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and how as “European Innovation Champions”, SMEs reacted to the resultant shock. We find that compared to non-innovative firms, the economic performance of innovative firms in the EU has been considerably less affected by the pandemic. We also i...

Purpose This study focuses on the role of individuals in the innovation management process, by concentrating on leaders and associated behaviors. Specifically, Entrepreneurial Leadership (EL) represent one of the most important fields of innovation management that has become increasingly multifaceted and interdisciplinary with its evolution. Thus,...

Drawing on the theoretical foundations of attitudes and their role in the decision process underlying OI adoption this study conveys a new perspective of looking at firm-level openness as a construct. Based on item response theory (IRT), a family of latent trait models rooted in psychology, and using data from the German section of the Community In...

The new paradigm known as the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to have a significant impact on business during the next years, as it leads to the connection of physical objects and the interaction between the digital and physical worlds. While prior literature addressing the business implications arising from this paradigm has largely considere...

Although start-ups’ survival has been widely investigated, only few studies have focussed on the impact of the combined effect of firms’ internal resources. Drawing upon the resource-based view (RBV), we selected four internal resources influencing start-ups’ survival (R&D activity, advertising activity, export activity, and human capital) and we a...

Despite the increasing popularity of the Open Innovation (OI) concept in industry practice, the development of comprehensive measures of firms’ openness has remained an unclear issue within academic research. While different measurement approaches co-exist in the literature, doubts regarding whether they adequately identify the subtle nuances of OI...

Purpose This paper combines the literature on knowledge transfer and that on organizational behavior to analyze how perceived empowerment and perceived engagement affect knowledge transfer offices’ (KTOs’) performance, measured in terms of the number of license agreements. Design/methodology/approach The authors measured the cognitions which const...

Purpose - This study aims to understand how open innovation (OI) environments can help organizations in implementing knowledge sharing (KS) practices defusing KS barriers. Design/methodology/approach - An in-depth case study analysis on the strategic technology and innovation management (STIM) consortium at the Institute of Manufacturing of the Un...

This study addresses one of the most basic research questions investigated in the Open Innovation (OI) literature: how open are firms? This question has remained partially unanswered given the challenges encountered by empirical research in assessing the relevance of specific OI practices within the OI model, as well as the types of activities perc...

Macro (entrepreneurial environment and socio-economic macrosystem) and micro (personal turbulence) environments, provide several stimuli (Tang, 2008) to entrepreneurs. They are always under pressure (Imran et al., 2016) and often find themselves reacting to external stimuli in a complex macrosystem. In a complex macrosystem, especially when catastr...

Despite the wealth of research on open innovation, the mechanisms that enable capturing value through adopting an open innovation approach remain largely unexplored. In this study, we focus on open innovation processes among firms and radical circles and shed light on the related value capture mechanisms. We rely on a detailed qualitative case anal...

Purpose-The present paper aims to explore and map the development of the intellectual capital (IC)-related studies by answering the following research questions: (1) what are the theoretical pillars on which prior literature focusing on the IC-entrepreneurship relationship has grown and expanded?; (2) what are the main research areas covered by pas...

In this article, we explore and interpret organizational identity transformation associated with open innovation strategy of the largest telecommunication company in Italy, Telecom Italia (TIM). When TIM established eight joint laboratories within five major Italian universities to benefit from opening its business model, it transferred some of the...

The diffusion of digital technologies has enabled a notable transformation in the firms’ boundaries, processes, structures, roles, and interactions. It is now clear that digital transformation is not just a traditional IT back-end process; rather it affects the organization as a whole, redefining strategies, entrepreneurial processes, innovation, a...

Emerging economies represent a vivid market for firms worldwide who are massively investing in R&D. This tendency is generating an increase in the number of intellectual property (IP) registrations and is expanding the markets for IP. However, emerging economies tend to show unfair judicial systems, being unable to ensure IP rights protection, and...

Purpose This study aims to understand if and how European digital innovation hubs (DIHs) filling the role of knowledge brokers (KBs) can support the digital transformation (DX) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by triggering open innovation (OI) practices. Design/methodology/approach After presenting a conceptual model of reference, a s...

Open innovation (OI) projects are increasingly adopted by small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Yet, undertaking OI is not only a source of opportunities for SMEs as it can, at the same time, present risks. How SMEs manage the balance between the potential benefits and the emerging challenges of OI is still an overlooked topic in the literatu...

This exploratory study proposes an original methodology to operationalize and signal SMEs’ engagement in challenging dimensions of implementing Open Innovation. We verify whether the European SME Instrument is achieving its goal of providing public funds to the best SMEs in Europe, the ‘EU Innovation Champions’. We test our methodology on a sample...

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how knowledge sharing influences technological innovation capability (TIC) of the software small- and medium-sized enterprises (SSMEs). Design/methodology/approach Based on the theories regarding knowledge management, TIC, software engineering and open innovation, this paper constructed a research model compr...

JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation No 06/2020, European Commission, JRC121856

The present report explores the specific form of collaboration between university and industry set up by the STIM Consortium. In STIM, companies can experience and absorb emerging management and technological knowledge, and scholars can test their hypotheses co-developing their tools with managers. As a platform for practice-oriented research and n...

This paper focuses on how companies deploy structural properties of adaptive capacity (multiplexity, redundancy and loose coupling) to cope with the phenomenon of internal challenges of Open Innovation (OI) implementation, i.e. organisational and cultural changes. We developed a single case study, which offered significant findings. First, the mult...

It is about some lessons learned on open innovation in the family business, based on the case study of the family company Zambon REALIZZARE L’INNOVAZIONE APERTA NELLE IMPRESE FAMILIARI: LA FORMULA ZAMBON Alcuni luoghi comuni caratterizzano i family business. Non di rado, tra le altre cose, la diffusa presenza di imprese familiari è indicata come...

The study explores how European SMEs applying to the SME Instrument (SMEi) funding scheme under Horizon 2020 innovate use the digital platform business model. The study demonstrates a widespread awareness of the digital platform concept as a tool to be applied to gain momentum and growth, taking advantage of the digital affordances. The main challe...

The entrepreneurship literature has vastly focused on the antecedents and drivers toward recognizing opportunities for the individuals. There are also ongoing studies regarding the sources of knowledge for the venture creation, and scholars put these sources into three categories of entrepreneurship namely as “user entrepreneurship”, “academic entr...

The formation of new ventures is among the most significant sources of technological innovation and fast economic development. Nonetheless, most attempts at starting new businesses will be unsuccessful. This study seeks to predict new venture success (‘Take‐off’) based on different factors observed in the pre‐startup phase. We apply the resource‐ba...

In recent years a new model of start-up assistance appeared in the innovation landscape: the accelerators. Considered a new generation of business incubators accelerators present different characteristics. Notwithstanding the proliferation of accelerators the literature on such topic is surprisingly scarce. In order to fill this gap we performed a...

This study explores how an online market platform, BlaBlaCar, has been able to organize the nascent market of inter-city shared mobility. Data were gathered via three in-depth interviews with BlaBlaCar's managers, more than two hundred newspaper articles and other archival information. Using an inductive qualitative approach, the case analysis reve...

This study explores the process of open innovation (OI) implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the aim of shedding light on the factors that may either enhance or undermine effectiveness in different contexts. The hypothesis of different paths of OI implementation is shaped across three theoretical dimensions: (1) the com...

Purpose This paper aims to shed light on how family firms execute open innovation strategies by managing internal and external knowledge flows. Design/methodology/approach First, through a comprehensive literature review, the paper identifies the barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in open innovation processes. Second, it prese...

The notion of ‘Big Data’ has recently been attracting an increasing degree of attention from scholars and practitioners in an attempt to identify how it may be leveraged to create innovative solutions and business opportunities. Specifically, Big Data may come from a variety of sources, especially sources outside the usual boundaries of organizatio...

The advent of Internet has dramatically increased the interest of scholars about the topic of Business models. Due to the internet many companies were forced to reconsider their business models (Teece, 2010; Wirtz et al., 2010) in order to exploit new opportunities enabled by the digital revolution (Fleisch et al., 2014). In addition in the last ye...

In this paper, we present a bibliographic review of academic scholarship on ‘exceptional’ innovation, a specific type of innovation that is commonly characterized by a high degree of technological novelty and/or a significant impact on markets. Despite growing interest from innovation scholars, research on this topic has been qualified as ambiguous...

Chinese research and development (R&D) outside China is a growing phenomenon which requires increasing attention in the academic world. It is interesting, as well as necessary, to investigate why and how Chinese MNCs find innovation opportunities and implement international R&D strategies in developed countries such as Europe and the U.S.. In this...

L’idea dell’Innovazione Aperta si e diffusa ed e ormai radicata in Italia. Oggi e possibile inquadrare diversi elementi che caratterizzano l’applicazione di questo concetto. Compito del manager e quello di sperimentare, e di trovare prassi che portino ad una soddisfacente applicazione della strategia. Compito dello studioso di management e quello d...

Europe and the U.S. are the two popular overseas R&D investment destinations for Chinese companies. We explore whether there are significant differences or similarities in the comparison of international R&D strategies of Chinese MNCs in Europe and the U.S.. Specifically, we examine how Chinese MNCs implement R&D strategies to facilitate learning....

Although research on open innovation practices in larger and smaller organisations has been growing for over a decade, there has been limited evidence on the topic related to new and candidate members of the European Union. Existing studies of open innovation have predominantly focused on the examination of the phenomenon in companies from the most...

New ventures' formation is among the most significant sources of technological innovations and fast economic development. Nonetheless, most of the attempts will never be successful: It is a common saying in Silicon Valley that nine out of ten start-ups fail or suspend their activities without growing (they start " walking dead ") within 5 years. Th...

Going beyond the popular effectiveness argument of the OI paradigm, this study disentangle a neglected aspect of OI: the challenges embedded in its implementation. Through a systematic literature review, we analyze the private and public R&D, systematizing the challenges in internal and external, whether they arise within or outside organizational...

The 2008 crisis is still casting a long shadow upon the European Union’s growth, and its magnitude has been felt well beyond the purely financial sphere, impacting Europe’s social fabric and mentality like few other events in the recent past (European Commission 2014). Above all, the last few years have shown the vulnerability of the international...

This paper examines the relationship between innovation strategies and growth in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). By the use of firm-level survey data on a panel of of 383 high technology SMEs, we adopt a configurational approach and we identify through cluster analysis three groups with different and unrelated innovation strategies (clos...

The attention on open innovation in large enterprises rapidly grew among scholars and practitioners in the last decade. Nonetheless, recently academic research drew attention on the current limited understanding of the challenges faced by companies that undertake open innovation strategies. We address this knowledge gap by conducting a focused revi...

The rise of the open innovation paradigm has encouraged the creation of innovation networks (ecosystems) involving a mix of partners: universities, research laboratories, start-up companies, small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), multinationals and governments. Physical proximity is an essential driver of open innovation effectiveness. It enab...

Over the past decade, the concept of open innovation has received substantial attention. Research has ranged from case study representations to large-scale quantitative studies using the Community Innovation Survey data or developing novel approaches to measuring open innovation. In this study, we conceptualise and validate a firm-level measure of...

The present paper studied regional innovative behavior in Iran through a spatial knowledge production function approach by employing the principal components analysis (PCA). To this end, the determinants of regional innovative behavior, as measured by the number of Iranian patents granted to resident applicants, were analyzed. In addition to the to...

OVERVIEW: On August 12, 2011, Google filed a request with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the reexamination of two patents used by Lodsys to file lawsuits against several Android coders. The first public move of the Internet giant to defend Android application developers from patent lawsuits, this filing is just one of a growing numb...