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INNOVATION & PRODUCTIVITY: INVESTIGATING EFFECTS OF OPENNESS IN SERVICES

International Journal of Innovation Management

June 2012
16(03)

DOI:10.1142/S136391961240004X

Authors:

Anne-Laure Mention

RMIT University

This study investigates the effects of openness on the different stages of the innovation process and further on firm performance. More specifically, it concentrates on inter-firm cooperation and information sourcing practices, which embody the implementation of an inbound open innovation strategy. Cooperation and information sourcing from market actors is contrasted with cooperation and information sourcing from competitors. To different extents, these actors may shape research and development (R&D) investments, affect success of the innovation process and contribute directly as well as through the innovation process to the labour productivity. Effects of these simultaneous practices on the innovation process are investigated in service sector firms, which have so far been largely neglected in (open) innovation studies. Results indicate that cooperation with and information sourcing from competitors positively influence innovation performance while market cooperation and information sourcing is resource-intensive and deteriorates performance on the short term.

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INNOVATION & PRODUCTIVITY: INVESTIGATING

EFFECTS OF OPENNESS IN SERVICES

ANNE-LAURE MENTION

and ANNA-LEENA ASIKAINEN

†

Centre de recherche public Henri Tudor

29 Avenue J.F. Kennedy, 1855 Luxembourg

anne-laure.mention@tudor.lu

†

anna-leena.asikainen@tudor.lu

This study investigates the effects of openness on the different stages of the innovation

process and further on ﬁrm performance. More speciﬁcally, it concentrates on inter-ﬁrm

cooperation and information sourcing practices, which embody the implementation of an

inbound open innovation strategy. Cooperation and information sourcing from market

actors is contrasted with cooperation and information sourcing from competitors. To

different extents, these actors may shape research and development (R&D) investments,

affect success of the innovation process and contribute directly as well as through the

innovation process to the labour productivity. Effects of these simultaneous practices on

the innovation process are investigated in service sector ﬁrms, which have so far been

largely neglected in (open) innovation studies. Results indicate that cooperation with and

information sourcing from competitors positively inﬂuence innovation performance while

market cooperation and information sourcing is resource-intensive and deteriorates per-

formance on the short term.

Keywords: Open innovation; performance; measurement; cooperation; information

sourcing; services; productivity.

Introduction

Although the interactive and networked nature of the innovation process is nothing

new, it has gained widespread interest since the term “open innovation”was

popularized by Chesbrough (2003). Usually relying on case studies, extant liter-

ature has described the phenomenon itself (e.g., Chesbrough, 2003 and 2011;

Huston and Sakkab, 2006) and explored its implementation highlighting the

inﬂuence of both internal and external contingency factors (e.g., Arora and

⁄

Corresponding author.

International Journal of Innovation Management

Vol. 16, No. 3 (June 2012) 1240004 (27 pages)

DOI: 10.1142/S136391961240004X

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