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Exploring the domain of open innovation: Bibliometric and content analyses
Abstract
Open innovation (OI) has received considerable attention since its introduction and has positive and negative characteristics. To offer an overview for future research, this article produces a comprehensive review by combining bibliometric analysis and content analysis. A total of 4,463 journal articles and 3,061 conference papers on OI were extracted from Web of Science (WOS). The synthesized networks were constructed and visualized through CiteSpace software to aid analytical studies. After the descriptive bibliometric analysis of all publications, a content analysis of 213 articles was carried out to develop the conceptual framework of OI. The results reveal that OI still confined itself to limited disciplines and innovation-centric journals but is beginning to put more effort into becoming a more open ecosystem by influencing other disciplines. We also find some gaps in the extant research and provide some research directions in the OI field: empirical studies in various contexts could enrich the external validity of OI, other theoretical perspectives could provide novel views, and OI is on its way to becoming mature but has a long way to go.
... As noted before, we use keyword search as several scholars have utilised this method to examine open innovation (Ankrah and AL-Tabbaa, 2015;Ogink et al., 2023;Ramirez-Montoya, 2020). The objective behind such a wide range of searches was to ensure the comprehensiveness of open innovation-related articles (Gao et al., 2020). We employ the same syntax for searching titles, abstracts, and keywords across many disciplines in the databases. ...
... We exclusively choose articles from the Core Source resources to ensure input quality, as Gao et al. (2020) suggested. Four hundred ninety (490) papers were identified as not matching with Core Source and removed from the database. ...
... This leaves us with 71 studies in our primary data collection for content investigation. Content analysis describes the basic structure of open innovation literature, while bibliometric analysis examines its present condition (Gao et al., 2020). Not all references in a publication are equally significant, and citations may be irrelevant (Cheng et al., 2018). ...
... To comprehensively understand the developing phase, it is necessary to consider all characteristics of VA and analyze past studies to develop a theoretical framework that may explain these aspects and suggest future research possibilities (Gao et al., 2020). Gary Bente et al. examined the impact of avatar use on many aspects of online cooperation, including social presence, interpersonal trust, perceived communication quality, nonverbal behavior, and visual attention (Bente et al., 2008). ...
... Despite the abundance of review findings that offer a concise overview of potential avenues for future research, the current body of literature lacks adequate theoretical grounding, and there remains a dearth of studies employing diverse methodologies. Bibliometric analysis has become a crucial approach for evaluating the existing state, tracking the progress of significant achievements, and predicting future trends due to the growing quantity of publications (Gao et al., 2020). While there have been earlier reviews on VA (Felnhofer et al., 2023;Lin & Latoschik, 2022), no one has employed bibliometric tools to examine this area. ...
... Bibliometrics (Ninkov et al., 2021), content analysis (White & McCain, 1998), and meta-analysis are often used approaches in literature reviews (Lopes & de Carvalho, 2018). However, relying on a single research method can introduce bias (Gao et al., 2020). Therefore, this study employs a mix of bibliometric analysis and content analysis. ...
The virtual avatar (VA) concept has gained significant attention since the introduction of virtual products. This study aims to investigate the present level of advancement and forthcoming research directions in the domain of VA while also constructing a conceptual framework for VA. A thorough examination of the VA field was carried out by integrating bibliometric and content analytic techniques. Eight hundred ninety-nine journal articles underwent descriptive bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace and VOSviewer software to construct and visualize synthetic networks. Two hundred forty-eight documents were selected for content analysis. VA is mostly focused on a few specific disciplines and journals prioritizing innovation. Conducting empirical investigations in many settings can enhance the research areas of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Extended Reality (XR), including improving algorithms, exploring accessibility usage, and examining public service applications. Alternative theoretical frameworks can provide novel insights and additional directions for the development of the VA field.
... The literature on innovation indicates an increase in the number of studies carried out in this field (Gao et al., 2020;Medeiros, 2021;Carneiro et al., 2021). Nonetheless, few systematic efforts have been made to conceptualize and develop analysis models that aim to understand the dynamics of innovation at the organizational level (Zeng et al., 2017). ...
... Thus, this study tackles the challenge of studying innovation in MSEs that operate in traditional sectors of the economy, diverging from the literature, which has suggested that innovation originates in the research and development (ReD) activities and the technological and financial resources of large corporations (Fernández-Esquinas et al., 2017). However, current research refutes this presumption, which masks those truly responsible for innovation and competitiveness (Berends et al., 2014;Baumann & Kritikos, 2016;Fernández-Esquinas et al., 2017;Oliva et al., 2019;De Carvalho et al., 2020;Gao et al., 2020;Medeiros, 2021;Carneiro et al., 2021). ...
... For example, to consider a local scenario, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth of companies based in Rio Grande do Norte was 17.3% higher in 2021 than in the previous year (Tribuna do Norte, 2022). This increase corroborates the structure, learning, organizational commitment and behavioural advantages attributed to small companies as a result of their innovation process (van de Vrande et al., 2009;Parida et al., 2012;McGuirk et al., 2015;Silva et al., 2016;Popa et al., 2017;Lima & Müller, 2017;Gao et al., 2020;Medeiros, 2021;Carneiro et al., 2021). ...
Objective: Validate a scale for measuring the multiple possibilities for innovation in Micro and Small Enterprises (MPEs) operating in the Metropolitan Region of Natal/RN. Methodology/approach: The research is exploratory, with a survey of 542 companies in Natal/RN. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis technique and confirmatory factor analysis using the technique based on partial least squares. Main results: The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) resulted in the formation of 5 innovation constructs. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis was modeled by applying the PLS-SEM, which evaluated the confirmatory measurement model, based on the results identified in the EFA. Theoretical/methodological contributions: The inclusion of the construct called Innovation in Knowledge Channels was validated, contributing with a broad and multidimensional proposal, being able to capture the complexity of innovation, reducing conceptual ambiguity and proving to be theoretically viable for future research. Relevance/originality: The study is relevant, approaching innovation from the perspective of Micro and Small companies, considering a multidimensional measurement scale, as empirical research so far has shown little evidence of innovation from the perspective of creating value for organizations and customers. Social/Management Contributions: As managerial implications, unlike the one-dimensional perspective, supported by concepts of technological innovation developed with large Research and Development (ReD) structures in large companies, this research considered the innovative role of small companies, which are capable of generating multiple innovations.
... A literatura sobre inovação indica um aumento quantitativo no que concerne à realização de trabalhos neste campo de pesquisa (Gao et al., 2020;Medeiros, 2021;Carneiro et al., 2021). Apesar desse aumento no quantitativo dos estudos, pouco se observou em esforços sistemáticos para conceituar e desenvolver modelos de análise que visassem compreender a dinâmica da inovação no âmbito organizacional (Zeng et al., 2017). ...
... Desta forma, destaca-se o desafio de estudar a inovação em MPEs que atuam em setores tradicionais da economia, uma vez que a literatura dissemina a noção de que a inovação é oriunda das grandes corporações, detentoras de atividades de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (PeD), bem como de recursos tecnológicos e financeiros (Fernández-Esquinas et al., 2017). Todavia, pesquisas atuais consideram essa noção falaciosa, chegando a mascarar os verdadeiros responsáveis pela inovação e pela competitividade (Berends et al., 2014;Baumann & Kritikos, 2016;Fernández-Esquinas et al., 2017;Oliva et al., 2019;De Carvalho et al., 2020;Gao et al., 2020;Medeiros, 2021;Carneiro et al., 2021). ...
... No cenário local, por exemplo, mesmo diante da pandemia, o percentual de crescimento de empresas criadas no Rio Grande do Norte foi 17,3% maior em 2021, quando comparado ao ano anterior (Tribuna do Norte, 2022). Isso corrobora a estrutura, o aprendizado, o comprometimento organizacional e as vantagens comportamentais atribuídas às pequenas empresas em decorrência do seu processo de inovação (van de Vrande et al., 2009;Parida et al., 2012;McGuirk et al., 2015;Silva et al., 2016;Popa et al., 2017;Lima & Müller, 2017;Gao et al., 2020;Medeiros, 2021;Carneiro et al., 2021). ...
Objetivo: Validar uma escala de mensuração das múltiplas possibilidades de inovação em Micro e Pequenas Empresas (MPEs) que atuam na Região Metropolitana de Natal/RN. Metodologia/ abordagem: A pesquisa é do tipo exploratória, com um levantamento de dados junto a 542 empresas de Natal/RN. Os dados foram analisados por meio de estatísticas descritivas, da técnica de análise fatorial exploratória e análise fatorial confirmatória com a técnica baseada em mínimos quadrados parciais. Principais resultados: A Análise Fatorial Exploratória (AFE) resultou na formação de 5 construtos de inovação. A Análise Fatorial Confirmatória foi modelada por meio da aplicação da PLS-SEM, o qual avaliou o modelo de mensuração confirmatório, a partir dos resultados identificados na AFE. Contribuições teóricas/metodológicas: Foi validada a inclusão do construto denominado Inovação em Canais de Conhecimento, contribuindo com uma proposta ampla e multidimensional, sendo capaz de captar a complexidade da inovação, reduzindo a ambiguidade conceitual e se mostrando teoricamente viável para futuras pesquisas. Relevância/originalidade: O estudo mostra-se relevante ao abordar a inovação sob o ponto de vista das Micro e Pequenas empresas, considerando uma escala de mensuração multidimensional, pois as pesquisas empíricas até então pouco evidenciaram a inovação sob a perspectiva de criação de valor para organizações e clientes. Contribuições sociais/para a gestão: Enquanto implicações gerenciais, diferentemente da ótica unidimensional, apoiada em conceitos de inovação tecnológica desenvolvida com grandes estruturas de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) em grandes empresas, a presente pesquisa considerou o papel inovador das pequenas empresas, capazes de gerar múltiplos aperfeiçoamentos.
... The magnitude and management of an innovation process addressed to a social purpose depends on the managerial challenges involved [59], the kind and numerousness of stakeholders required [10] and their degree of involvement [60]. The same concept of OI has currently become more complex by orchestrating large numbers of participants across multiple phases of the innovation process [61]. Specifically, actors that could be involved in the co-creation and promotion of innovations with social aims range from the overall society (including users, consumers and citizens, according to the context), to the institutions (governments, technological institutes, universities), to the social entrepreneurs or the companies carrying out SI as a mission [60,62]. ...
... Purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge from and to external sources of innovation encompass many dimensions, as by the broad concept of OI [64]. Along this line, many distinct managerial practices and mechanisms have been identified in the OI literature [29,61,65] and applied to address societal problems. Open social innovation contest in the field of poverty alleviation [69] Activities specifically relating to peculiar technological contexts (e.g., contracting with R&D service providers) and intellectual property issues (e.g., in-and out-licensing) were excluded as not relevant for addressing social needs [51]. ...
... From the OI viewpoint, this work provides evidence of the ability to leverage targeted OI practices to support long-term social strategy, with OI considered a new source for businesses to innovate socially [15]. In this sense, results contribute to the investigation of the mechanisms of OI being often used in practice [65] and involving multiple types of partners working together [61] as foundational routines. From the SI viewpoint, the results show that effective modes of innovating to address social challenges require the development of specific abilities for openness with a practical perspective beyond the capture of value [59]. ...
Companies are increasingly committed to pursuing social goals with the development of Social Innovation (SI), but they need to adopt adequate mechanisms to effectively manage, promote and sustain it in the long term. This paper aims to explore how businesses leverage Open Innovation (OI) practices to tackle social challenges in collaboration with SI stakeholders. We performed a multiple case study in three large manufacturing enterprises that are well-known for their excellence in innovation in terms of both SI impacts and OI depth. Results show that businesses develop and nurture a set of SI capabilities founded on purposeful knowledge exchanges across organizational boundaries, enhancing innovativeness, sustaining SI and enlarging SI social and economic outcomes. The study provides key insights into the interplay between OI and SI, still underinvestigated in the literature, identifying the capabilities that should be fostered in the innovation processes of companies tackling broad societal challenges with openness.
... This approach evolved into the open innovation paradigm or Innovation 2.0, which advocates for the integration of external ideas and collaborations (Chesbrough, 2006). Throughout our conceptualization process, insights are derived from the open innovation theory, which posits that the primary method of encouraging additional innovation entities to participate and advance innovation is through the disclosure of technological information (Gao et al., 2020;Gupta et al., 2017;Zhang and Ming, 2023). ...
... Because WoS and Scopus journals overlap and produce similar result (Gao et al., 2020;Salim et al., 2019), we chose Scopus considering its broad and interdisciplinary coverage and strong bibliometrics aligning with our research goals to reduce redundancy. The search of publications through Scopus was conducted with a refinement period from April 1, 2023, to December 24, 2023. ...
... Keyword co-occurrence analysis TG more sustainable, equitable and participatory societies through the integration of cuttingedge technologies (Carayannis et al., 2023(Carayannis et al., , 2022. Innovation 5.0 is set to evolve from its predecessors, beginning with "closed innovation" or "Innovation 1.0," moving to "open innovation" or "Innovation 2.0," followed by the concept of "embedded innovation" or (Costa and Moreira, 2022;Gao et al., 2020;Kalmakova et al., 2021;Lin and Xie, 2023;Phonthanukitithaworn et al., 2023) Human-centered green transformation ...
Purpose
This study aims to undertake a comprehensive analysis of innovation models, tracing their evolution from Innovation 1.0 to Innovation 4.0 and introducing the concept of Innovation 5.0. It explores the intersection between innovation models and the principles of sustainability, resilience and human-centeredness, providing insights into their implications for Industry 5.0, and their potential to foster a resilient ecosystem amidst challenges and multiple crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this objective, the authors used a systematic literature review approach, considering academic articles on Innovation 4.0, Industry 5.0 (specifically in the context of innovation) and helix models of innovation. The authors conducted thematic analysis and content analysis, followed by keyword co-occurrence analysis, enabling us to systematically synthesize and interpret the relevant literature.
Findings
The results conclude that Innovation 5.0 is a new paradigm for innovation that fosters broader societal engagement, and emphasizes sustainability, resilience and human-centeredness. Innovation 5.0 is evolving, but it has the potential to transform the way we produce, consume and live. Using insights from the sextuple helix model, this research leverages media and ICT as sixth helix vital role of knowledge sharing, digital transformation, innovation ecosystem and next industrial revolution in this process.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on exploring Innovation 5.0 through the sextuple helix model, offering a fresh perspective on innovation models and their collaborative potential. Its contribution lies in providing practical insights into the transition to Innovation 5.0, emphasizing the need for sustainability, regulatory support and awareness while also offering clear recommendations for future research.
... For scholarly researchers, assumptions about open innovation and SME internationalisation inspire further research that examines ways in which it can be applied to provide market development and business expansion pathways for internationally-oriented SMEs. In the case of international managers and business practitioners, the new propositions and midrange open innovation model encourages the renewal and recalibration of the way they formulate their internationalisation strategies towards consideration of open innovation as a potential foreign market entry strategy (cf., Gao et al., 2020) and their internationalisation scope. Likewise, policy makers are challenged to find ways of harmonising policy and practice in order to support firm-level activity, such as open innovation activities that can span over a firms' immediate geographical space. ...
... Research elsewhere shows that firms that are open innovation-oriented have a high likelihood of generating better networking capabilities that can be vital for their international expansion strategy (Bianchi et al., 2010;Gao et al., 2020). However, and whilst open innovation seems to be this important, it is surprising that research on the purpose of open innovation is still lacking nearly two decades since Dana et al.'s (2004) research call. ...
... Related to that, the literature on networking suggests that for firms seeking to enhance their competencies, networks can provide a pool of resources that are both tangible and intangible (Huggins and Johnston, 2010;Lau and Bruton, 2011). Therefore, it is plausible to claim that firms that engage in various collaborations as prescribed by the open innovation paradigm (Chesbrough et al., 2006), enable them and their collaborators to jointly capture and create value for their operations as well as their markets (Chesbrough et al., 2018;Gao et al., 2020;Pirkkalainen et al., 2018). ...
Choosing a foreign market entry strategy is known to be essential for firm internationalisation yet there is very little focus on the role, purpose, and value of open innovation for internationalising high-tech SMEs. A review of the international business, international entrepreneurship and international marketing literature combined with a bibliometric mapping of 2501 articles on firm internationalisation, suggests that research does not readily associate open innovation and the internationalisation of high-tech SMEs. This is regardless of open innovation's activities that can span over a firm's immediate geographical space. Thus, this study introduces new theoretical explanations and a midrange open innovation theory to advance open innovation as an alternative foreign market entry strategy especially for internationalising high-tech SMEs. This has theoretical and practical implications for academics, international business managers, and practitioners because it introduces an alternative internationalisation strategy for SMEs.
... (Du et al. 2021). This statistical study maps the bibliometric data of WR-related scientific publications from the CE perspective over the previous two decades (Gao et al. 2020;Zhu et al. 2024 of bibliometric factors are used, including the evolution of publications, citation analysis for significant publications and authors, collaboration analysis for countries and institutions, analysis of the bibliographic coupling network for data clustering, and co-word analysis for identifying hotspots (Feng et al. 2017). ...
... The article's keywords may disclose the authors' study priorities and research technique. Word-frequency or coword analysis can help select strong study topics (Gao et al. 2020). The keyword list was rigorously cleansed before performing the co-occurrence analysis. ...
To develop a circular economy (CE) and protect the environment, waste recycling (WR) is crucial. This study examines WR research conducted over the past two decades to identify the most significant advancements and promising areas for future research. The following challenges were handled through text mining, content, and bibliometrics analysis: How has CE influenced the evolution of WR research? What are the CE’s most important WR research trends and themes? What directions could future research on WR take regarding the CE transition? Using 1118 articles from the Scopus database journal, bibliometric networks were made and analyzed. Hence, five critical CE-related problems needing further research were recognized: waste recycling is the first cluster, followed by technology, the CE transformation, plastic waste, and waste management (WM). Examining WM and inclusive waste reduction practices and their distinct highlight patterns may impact future research fields and serve as a transitional tool to CE (which aims to minimize waste generation). Forthcoming research targets contain waste reduction and incorporation of WR into the CE framework.
... Moreover, OI supports SMEs internationalization by leveraging external resources, thereby increasing the probability of successful global expansion (Simba et al., 2024). As a result, OI is considered a viable strategy for SMEs' foreign market entry (Gao et al., 2020) and international expansions (Simba et al., 2024). ...
... Most SMEs cannot cover all the innovation processes because of their limited internal R&D resources (Haddoud et al., 2023). OI is therefore an important innovation strategy for SMEs that rely on external partnerships and networks to remain competitive in foreign markets (Chabbouh and Boujelbene, 2020;Gao et al., 2020). Thus, a thorough understanding of the role of OI in SMEs' internationalization is imperative (Simba et al., 2024;Zahoor et al., 2022). ...
Purpose
Open innovation (OI) significantly impacts the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by connecting them with external resources and accelerating their innovation processes. This study aims to systematically evaluate and synthesize existing knowledge on the role of OI in the internationalization of SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a systematic literature review method, this study critically evaluates 35 articles published between 2003 and 2023, synthesizing existing research from theoretical, contextual, characteristic and methodological perspectives.
Findings
This study identifies theoretical, methodological, characteristics and contextual research gaps and further proposes a research agenda for expanding knowledge in the field. Additionally, it provides an overview of the antecedents of OI adoption, SMEs internationalization outcomes and the influencing mechanisms of OI on SMEs internationalization found in the literature, thereby establishing a foundational knowledge base for future scholars and practitioners in this field.
Originality/value
This review contributes to the existing literature by consolidating current knowledge on the topic and advancing the understanding of the intersection between OI and the internationalization of SMEs.
... Bibliometric analysis, benefits from the technology-enabled automated analysis of quantitative measures (e.g., citations and co-occurrences), tend to be more extensive in coverage (e.g., high hundreds to thousands of articles) than other types of reviews (e.g., systematic literature review, meta-analysis). It has also been widely argued and proven to be more effective in presenting a full sketch of a specific scientific field (Donthu et al., 2021;Gao et al., 2020;Goyal & Kumar, 2021). ...
... Researchers have repeatedly pointed out that the most cited publications are usually the seminal publications or publications that can provide rich and/or trustworthy information needed to do research in a particular scientific field (Gao et al., 2020). Accordingly, it has been argued that it is valuable for researchers especially those new to a particular scientific field to identify the most cited publications in that scientific field because these publications may be good starting points for them to quickly build up the knowledge needed to do research in that scientific field (Kumar et al., 2022). ...
Smartphone addiction has been widely recognized as a notable global public health issue. Researchers have already conducted numerous researches to look into various aspects of smartphone addiction such as risk/protective factors, negative consequences, prevalence, and intervention strategies. Despite the existence of these researches, they remain fragmented in the existing literature, which make it challenging for researchers to have an integrative view of smartphone addiction literature. Addressing this research gap, this study conducts bibliometric analysis on the 924 publications extracted from Scopus. More specifically, through the use of various performance indicators (e.g., total number of citations/publications and citation per publication), this study has identified the publication trend, most influential/productive journals, authors, and publications. Furthermore, through co-word analysis conducted on the title and abstract of publications, this study has also identified and briefly elaborated on the research themes in the existing literature of smartphone addiction (i.e., protective/risk factors, neurobiological mechanisms, and intervention; prevalence and negative consequences; scale development and psychometric properties). Taken together, this study provides researchers especially those new to the field of smartphone addiction a one-stop platform to gain an aggregative view of smartphone addiction literature.
... It covers more than 13,610 journals across all disciplines (Singh et al. 2021;Falagas et al. 2008). To find most relevant articles in the field, we used a search string based on Gao et al. (2020). Additionally, in recognition of the first article in this domain written by Chesbrough (2003a, b), we refined our search to encompass articles from 2003 to 2023 (Gao et al. 2020;Kovacs et al. 2015). ...
... To find most relevant articles in the field, we used a search string based on Gao et al. (2020). Additionally, in recognition of the first article in this domain written by Chesbrough (2003a, b), we refined our search to encompass articles from 2003 to 2023 (Gao et al. 2020;Kovacs et al. 2015). The detailed search criteria and keywords employed are presented in Table 1. ...
In this study, we conduct a panoramic analysis of two decades of open innovation (OI), leveraging topic modeling with machine learning to map out ten critical OI pathways and their associated failure mechanisms on the micro, meso, and macro levels. Open innovation has revolutionized organizational innovation, collaboration, and competition. However, it presents complexities that require a multifaceted approach to research. Our findings, informed by interpretative thematic analysis, reveal distinct scholarly debates and three primary controversies within the OI research landscape, pointing to the need for future research to integrate these diverse narratives. By providing a comprehensive synthesis of the OI field’s evolution and current state, along with an analysis of its underlying failure mechanisms, we aim to guide strategic decision-making in OI practice, and enrich the academic discourse on its operational and strategic dimensions. Finally, we highlight several potential avenues for future research that emerge from our synthesis of the literature.
... In practice, firms' portfolios of research, development, and innovation (RDI) projects are often very heterogeneous, including projects that differ in the degree of openness [27]. Since projects with different degree of openness require different capabilities and management [27], [35], [36], understanding the determinants of openness decisions at the RDI project level is recognized as a critical knowledge gap both academically and practically [37], [38]. The determinants of openness decisions in RDI projects remain largely unexplored in both mature and high-growth emerging industries. ...
... Interestingly, since different project phases may require collaboration with different partners [74] scholars also see value in exploring whether it is possible to have different degrees of openness in different project phases [34]. Even though conceptual background for project-level open innovation has been established we need more empirical research on different open RDI projects to enrich the understanding of management of specific challenges that various project attributes may raise [10], [38], [60]. ...
The debate surrounding firms' choice between open and closed innovation models persists, necessitating empirical insights into openness as a continuum. This study examines determinants of openness at the project level, focusing on research, development, and innovation (RDI) projects within mature industries in Norway. Based on in-depth interviews with 32 employees involved in 24 RDI projects across 12 top-performing firms, we identify two key criteria influencing project openness: knowledge type and degree of relatedness to the firm's core product. These criteria dictate the choice of innovation model employed in RDI projects. Our findings contribute to understanding openness in innovation processes and offer a framework that serves as a practical guide for industrial managers.
... To summarize previous works, many bibliometric analyses (Kovacs et al., 2015;Randhawa et al., 2016;Lopes and de Carvalho, 2018;Odriozola-Fern andez et al., 2019;Gao et al., 2020) and systematic review of the literature (SRL) (Hossain, 2015;Spender et al., 2017;Torchia and Calabr o, 2019;Sikandar and Abdul Kohar, 2022) were published on the topic of OI. For example, Kovacs et al. (2015) using bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis attempted to identify the foundations of OI research including OI research themes, benchmark OI research to related fields and fertile areas for future research. ...
... Odriozola-Fern andez et al. (2019) used bibliometric analysis on articles retrieved only from Web of Science (WoS) database to provide a comprehensive overview of OI research in SMEs. Gao et al. (2020) used bibliometric analysis and content analysis on articles extracted only from WoS to identify the theoretical foundation and the evolution of the OI paradigm. ...
Purpose
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are currently showing an increasingly open innovation (OI) approach. Public policies supporting the adoption of OI by SMEs are becoming a priority for policymakers. Therefore, the aim of this article is to contribute to the literature by mapping scholars' policy recommendations for implementing OI among SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature (SRL) on the topic to achieve this purpose. A total of 99 academic articles were selected from the Web of Science and Scopus databases to suggest the main scholars' policy recommendations to implement OI among SMEs.
Findings
Results indicated that scholars' policy recommendations for OI adoption in SMEs can be organized into: research and development (R&D), networking, collaboration, knowledge and intellectual property rights (IPR), ecosystem, managerial capabilities, funding and incentives and sustainability policies.
Research limitations/implications
Only relevant articles about this topic have been included due to the reliance on the interpretations of the authors. The analysis of the literature revealed that the authors did not always distinguish policies dedicated to SMEs and those dedicated to large companies. Moreover, policies are not matched according to each OI dimensions (e.g. inbound, outbound and coupled OI).
Originality/value
The article uses a systematic literature review method that combines qualitative and quantitative analyses. This method contributes to theoretical development of OI policies dedicated, in particular to SMEs. This paper also provides policymakers and researchers with insights on the scope of OI policies that could support economic growth.
... Existing studies mainly focus on single cooperative partners, but there is a lack of research on the mechanisms of multiple partners working together and more microlevel studies are needed concentrating on individual, group, or project levels [56]. One of the collaboration strategies organizations can implement to respond to customer needs quickly and efficiently, is to create a pool of partners. ...
... For most of the complex ICT solutions mobile operators rely on partners since they don't possess all relevant capabilities and resources for developing and exploiting PSS to customers. Existing research on collaborative servitization emphasize the need for more practical, micro level studies to understand collaborative practices [2,17,56]. Some analogies were found with previous studies [38][39][40] that suggested different approaches to servitization depending on phase: idea generation, development and go to market phase. ...
There is a growing interest in the subject of product-service system (PSS) and collaborative servitization in academia and practice. However, the focus is on exploring the growth of manufacturing companies without specifically analyzing the growth of service companies in applying PSS. There are companies, especially in the telco industry, that expand their service business to complex bundles of products and services. The paper investigates PSS in the service company and the role of collaboration in different PSS development phases: idea generation, development and go to market phase. The study adopted case-based research conducted in international Telco organization. The research demonstrates how a company creates and commercializes integrated packets of products and services, it identifies partners company works with and the benefits and challenges of their cooperation. The study addresses collaboration with customers and identifies five different customer profiles according to their openness to participate in the development of PSS. The study highlights the importance of (1) collaboration models, (2) customer involvement, and (3) strategic focus in successful application of collaborative servitization. The findings complement the literature for collaborative servitization and offer concrete input for companies in terms of how to better organize business, profit from collaboration models and gain market advantage.
... This ''paradox'' phenomenon always occurs throughout the process of knowledge search and innovation. Inevitably, enterprises face many competitive knowledge search activities such as width and depth (Laursen & Salter, 2006), market and technology (Sidhu et al., 2007), interactive and non-interactive (Roper et al., 2017), and local and boundary-spanning (Gao et al., 2020). Due to the scarcity of innovation resources and limited attention, different types of knowledge search activities are independent and contradictory (Andriopoulos & Lewis, 2009). ...
... The existing literature has generally recognized the strategic significance of knowledge search for innovation performance (Katila & Ahuja, 2002;Laursen & Salter, 2006;Ye et al., 2023), especially under the circumstance of open innovation (Chesbrough & Bogers, 2014;Gao et al., 2020;Saura et al., 2023;D. Zhang et al., 2017). ...
As an effective means of acquiring knowledge resources, knowledge search is an important driving force for enterprises to obtain competitive advantages. Based on ambidextrous theory, organizational search theory and knowledge base theory, this study constructs a theoretical framework for the effect of ambidextrous knowledge search on technological innovation performance. And empirically tests the mediating mechanism of knowledge base with the data of knowledge-intensive enterprises. The results show that both exploratory and exploitative search have positive effects on technological innovation performance, and significantly, the positive impact of exploratory searches was higher than that of exploitative searches. Moreover, the balance and combination of knowledge search have a significant positive impact on technological innovation performance respectively. However, the effect of combination is stronger when two search dimensions are considered at the same time. There is a mediating effect between ambidextrous knowledge search and technological innovation performance. Specifically speaking, knowledge base plays a complete mediating role for ambidextrous balance whereas a partial mediating role for ambidextrous combination. The conclusions reveal the mechanism of ambidextrous knowledge search, which can provide a certain theoretical guidance for enterprises to search external knowledge and improve innovation practice.
... Afterward, Bogers et al. [24] introduced new layers to the OI model, expanding the traditional analysis at the organizational level to a multiple-level OI analysis. In the last decades, several articles systematically categorized the literature about OI [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]. Among these, a seminal article is [25], which provides a novel conceptual model for OI. ...
... A key novelty lies in bringing down the dichotomy between OI and closed innovation, considering the opening as a continuum. Additionally, Gao et al. [28] proposed a more comprehensive and structural framework for the OI. The framework considers different types of innovation processes according to three different steps for knowledge sharing and transfer (i.e., acquisition, integration, and commercialization of innovations). ...
A growing body of literature surrounds Open Innovation (OI) initiatives and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. However, despite the growing interest by academics, practitioners, and policymakers in both domains, the link between the two remains underinvestigated from an empirical point of view. This article addresses this gap in knowledge by leveraging 16 semistructured interviews with practitioners involved in both the I4.0 context and OI initiatives. This article provides two main contributions. First, it identifies a series of I4.0 technologies (e.g., Big Data, advanced manufacturing) enabling OI initiatives (e.g., crowdfunding, cocreation). Second, it identifies and examines the benefits and challenges of adopting such I4.0 technologies. The benefits include improved data management, reduced time to market, improved production phase, and increased client satisfaction. The challenges include the lack of capabilities, resistance to change, and security issues. The exploratory nature of this study triggers exciting future research opportunities about OI initiatives and I4.0 technologies.
... Using a purple circle for this type of literature (or authors, journals, and institutions) to highlight the key points, nodes whose betweenness centrality exceeds 0.1 are called key nodes, which may lead to breakthrough discoveries. Nodes between groups will attract more attention because they are more likely to lead to new trends (Gao et al. 2020). ...
... Keywords contain the core information of an article (Wang and Su 2020a). Keyword analysis can identify valuable information in each document and reveal research hotspots in a particular field (Gao et al. 2020). Due to the suddenness of the epidemic, research on the COVID-19 and environment is still in the development stage. ...
... The study of co-authorship underscores the robust social connections among researchers from different backgrounds [18]. Furthermore, it illustrates the results of collaborations and offers insights into the determinants affecting the level of co-authorship [71]. Table 7 presents the top 10 countries based on the total link strength of the co-authorship analysis. ...
This study investigates the integration of artificial intelligence in higher education, aiming to identify trends, key contributors, highly cited papers, collaboration, and thematic areas in research published between (2016–2025) for future research direction. A bibliometric and content analysis was employed, combining quantitative descriptive methods and network analysis with qualitative content analysis of the most-cited articles. Data was extracted from Scopus, yielding 276 refined documents after excluding duplicates, editorials, and notes. Analytical techniques included co-word analysis, citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, and bibliographic coupling, supported by VOSviewer for visualization. Key findings include Symbiosis International Deemed University and Bucharest University of Economic Studies as leading affiliations, with China, India, and the UK as top contributing countries. The most significant journals are Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems and Education and Information Technologies, while authors like Crawford and Păun contribute. Co-authorship analysis highlights strong collaboration among developed countries, while co-word analysis reveals themes like adaptive learning, predictive analytics, and ChatGPT. Bibliometric coupling identifies influential works, including studies by Chatterjee and Bhattacharjee, emphasizing AI adoption. Content analysis underscores the transformative potential of AI in enhancing learning, administrative efficiency, and Innovation. This study provides managerial and practical recommendations for students, universities, and policymakers. This study has several limitations that future studies will consider.
... The keywords in the articles represent the core idea and scope of an author's research. The identification of research hotspots in a given field of study can be aided by co-word analysis, which bases its findings on the co-occurrence of terms [69]. The terms utilised in a co-word analysis are derived from "author keywords," "article titles," and "abstracts," and where those sources are not available, from "article texts" [19,36,58,109]. ...
The study provides a comprehensive and structured analysis of the research progression in the Agri-food supply chain (AFSC), identifying key themes, trends, and future research directions. By utilising a mixed-method approach that combines bibliometric, network, and content analyses of 1037 articles from the Scopus database, this study fills a critical gap in the literature, where such an integrative analysis has been lacking. Bibliometric tools such as BibExcel, Gephi, Biblioshiny, and VOSviewer are employed to present a broad descriptive, analytical, and graphical overview of the AFSC research landscape. The present study is the first of its kind to offer a holistic mapping of the AFSC domain, highlighting five major research themes: (1) sustainability and environment, (2) risks and resilience, (3) food loss and wastage, (4) design and decision-making, and (5) Industry 4.0 technologies. The findings contribute to the theoretical foundation of AFSC research, providing a roadmap for future studies. Practically, the study offers insights that can assist policymakers and industry practitioners in developing strategies to enhance the sustainability and resilience of AFSCs. Moreover, the study proposes three key areas for future research: the role of Agri 4.0, IoT, and smart farming in AFSC; strategies to reduce food loss and wastage; and approaches to mitigate risks and increase resilience in AFSCs.
... The base map in this context includes over 10,000 cited journals from the Web of Science (WoS) database, while the overlay map is derived from the data of the cited literature. By comparing these maps, insights can be gained into the relationships between research topics and their data sources [37][38][39]. Thus, dual-map overlays offer a broader perspective on the evolution of content at the discipline level. ...
Objectives
Macrophages play a critical role in various diseases, including cancer, where their involvement is characterized by a dual nature. There is a growing focus on tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in cancer research due to their complex interactions with tumor biology. With the expanding body of research in this area, a retrospective analysis of published articles is warranted to gain insights into evolving trends. This bibliometric study aims to assist researchers in identifying key areas of interest and emerging directions within the field of TAM research.
Methods
A bibliometric analysis was performed using the Bibliometrix Package in R Software and CiteSpace software.
Results
The volume of research on TAMs continues to increase, with this study identifying major contributors to the field. The focus of research has shifted from traditional methods, such as flow cytometry and histological techniques, toward single-cell omics approaches, which offer unbiased insights into TAM heterogeneity. Current areas of interest include biomarkers, immune therapies, TAM states, tumor microenvironments, macrophage-targeted agents, and the response of TAMs to therapeutic interventions. These topics are anticipated to remain prominent in the near future.
Conclusion
The study provides an overview of annual publication trends, influential papers, key journals, frequently used keywords, leading authors, and contributing institutions. It also highlights the interdisciplinary evolution of TAM-related research and the connections between these areas of study.
... Academics and business managers have shown a great interest in open innovation jobs (Obradović et al., 2021). Henry Chesbrough coined "open innovation" (Gao et al., 2020). According to Tang et al. (2021), open innovation has two modalities. ...
Open innovation has garnered considerable attention from scholars over the last decade, particularly in low technology-intensive sectors, including the food business. This sector significantly influences the gross domestic product of developed and emerging nations and plays a crucial role in creating jobs. Our study used a quantitative structural equation method on 1,384 Colombian food enterprises. The findings suggest that employing the incoming open innovation strategy, enhanced by absorptive ability, promotes product innovation development in food firms. Empirical evidence demonstrates that absorptive capacity partially mediates the link between incoming open innovation and product innovation. Food firms should enhance their engagement with customers, suppliers, competitors, colleges, and consultants to expand their knowledge base. They also improve their absorptive ability, enabling them to introduce solutions that meet customer needs in a more competitive landscape.
... The significance of this study is often evaluated based on the quantity of references, many of which have considerable local and worldwide significance. Citation counts are a vital metric of scholarly influence, indicating the frequency with which other academics use a country's research output as a basis for further study and application (Gao et al., 2020). This effect highlights a country's research quality and capacity to establish trends and direct best practices in the larger realm of innovation management in SMEs. ...
This Study aims to provide an overview of the most recent scientific studies about innovation management in small and medium-sized enterprises. This review evaluates innovation management's intellectual structure and knowledge progress in SME studies. Bibliometric analysis is used to quantitatively examine the bibliographic data gathered from the Scopus database and examine and evaluate 2647 research documents. To obtain the results, bibliometric analysis was conducted using Excel and VOS viewer software. In addition, this Study discusses how the IM literature in SMEs has evolved between 2000 and 2024. The publications increased significantly from 2019 to 2024, and the leading and influential journals, affiliations, authors, and countries were identified. Innovation, SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises, knowledge management, and Time are popular research and collaboration trends in the extant literature. Reflecting on the arguments in the previous literature, several research gaps and further suggestions are acknowledged for future studies.
... In this ranking, you can see an interesting discussion that reveals that the most productive authors and universities are located in the United States. These innovations provide more accurate and fair assessments of academic performance, so researchers can analyze early-stage studies and incorporate a broader range of literature into their analyses, resulting in more comprehensive bibliometric assessments (Álvarez et al., 2019;Bornmann, 2020;Gao et al., 2020). ...
The present research develops a bibliometric analysis of innovation in the social economy, the study provides a comprehensive vision of the current state of the field and highlights the most relevant publications, authors, sources and research topics, taking as its general objective to analyze the behavior and advances in the literature about innovation in the social economy through a bibliometric analysis, in this way Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) were considered as data sources, forming a database of 304 registered articles, of which 111 belong to Scopus and 193 Web of Science (WoS). In the processing and representation of data, the Bibliometrix and VoSviewer programs were used, which highlights information on trends, citation analysis, H index, analysis of co-occurrences, keywords, affiliations on innovation research in the social economy. The growing scientific production underlines the growing importance of the social economy as a driver of sustainable economic development. Geographic distribution, thematic trends, and identification of influential contributors contribute to future research and practical efforts within this field.
... In addition, Bibliometric analysis is also conducted to present the review more thoroughly (Paul and Bhukya, 2021). These methods comprise citation analysis, bibliography coupling, and co-citation analysis (Gao et al., 2020;Ye et al., 2020). This method relies on statistical and quantitative assessments, which helps to decrease subjective bias and lead the researchers to the most relevant studies (Di Vaio et al., 2023;Dohale et al., 2020;Rodríguez-López et al., 2020). ...
Scholarly investigations into blockchain-based currencies are progressively acknowledging the transformative capacity of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in addressing the issues related to digital payments. However, this emerging field of study is presently dispersed and fragmented from the user's behavioral perspective. This paper extends the existing literature by establishing an in-depth conceptual boundary using a standard review protocol. It comprehensively analyses the 78 papers published till December 2023 to identify key research gaps. It identifies the primary contextual dimension, bibliometric information, and key clusters of concepts exhibited in the existing literature using inductive analysis techniques, Excel, R-Studio, and Vosviewer software. Furthermore, this paper also aims to suggest a future research agenda based on the TCCM approach, which will serve as a valuable resource for making informed decisions regarding CBDC development and adoption.
... The keywords used by authors in their works serve as a representation of the major theme and scope of their study. Co-word analysis, which examines the cooccurrence of terms, may be used to discover prominent areas of research within a certain field of study [46]. ...
In the last twenty years, the discussion around biological control has sparked more attention towards investments in the correlation between the economy and agriculture. Consequently, the notion of pest management in agriculture has acquired impetus. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed and extensive overview of the existing information in the literature about the biological management of pests that affect citrus crops. To do this, a methodical bibliometric study is conducted on a set of 793 peer-reviewed publications in SCOPUS, using keywords, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling analyses. Consequently, the biological management of citrus pests was founded by establishing four basic research topics: (1) Addressing the difficulties and approaches to combat Asian Citrus Psyllid, (2) Implementing biological pest management to control mites in citrus, (3) Gaining insights into Huanglongbing by studying the dynamics of Asian Citrus Psyllid, and (4) Managing nematodes and fungus for effective citrus pest control. In addition, the findings indicated that the most recent study topics in the specific literature are categorized into six distinct areas, namely: (1) Integrated Pest Management in Citrus Orchards: Entomopathogenic Nematodes, Fungi, and Essential Oils. (2) Citrus Pest Management: Lessons from Predators and Parasitoids, (3) Integrated Approaches for Managing Diaphorina citri and Citrus Greening Disease, (4) Novel Microbial Biocontrol for Controlling Citrus Fruit Decay and Postharvest Pathogens, (5) Citrus Orchard Mite Management: Integrated Strategies, and (6) Global Strategies for Controlling Citrus Leafminer and Arthropod Pests. The provided map of research on biological control of citrus pests serves the dual purpose of assisting scientists in advancing their research and aiding practitioners, as well as local and national authorities, in effectively applying biological pest management in agriculture.
... This makes them more adaptable and helps them improve performance and provide high-quality services. This enhances open innovation processes, as open innovation processes, which include aspects of internal innovation and external innovation, refer to an essential feature: openness to the external environment that links external knowledge with the internal knowledge of companies (Gao et al., 2020). It is assumed that companies should use external ideas, information, and knowledge as well as internal ideas, information, and knowledge to reach markets and provide distinguished services to customers (West & Bogers, 2017) (Bogers et al., 2018a). ...
... Despite the growing body of research on OI, a deeper understanding of its role in business ecosystem development remains elusive (Ferreira & Teixeira, 2019). Gao et al. (2020) further highlighted gaps in existing research and proposed directions for future OI studies. These include conducting empirical studies in diverse contexts to enhance the external validity of OI research, incorporating additional theoretical perspectives for novel insights, shifting the research focus from a firm-centric perspective to encompass macro-and micro-level analyses, and investigating collaborative innovation with stakeholders-an underexplored perspective with promising potential for deeper research. ...
... Baden and colleagues suggest a transition to hybrid content analysis with the possibility of automatic classification of objects under the researcher's control [27]. Specialized software such as CiteSpace [28], MAXQDA [21], or ATLAS.ti [29] is increasingly being used for content analysis. ...
Quantitative content analysis was employed to examine 63 strategies for the socioeconomic development of regions and municipalities within Russian Baltic territories. The aim was to assess the extent to which the ‘Baltic agenda’ – themes specific to this area – manifest themselves in the documents. Strategies developed between 2010 and 2023 and in force as of February 2024 were analysed. Indices of manifestation (IM) were calculated based on the number of mentions of 77 marker words. The formula for IM calculation includes the absolute number of mentions of words, adjusted for their significance, which was determined by their frequency of use and location within the text of the strategy. The IM was computed for three interrelated directions: Baltic, European and global. The maximum values of IM are characteristic of the strategy of the Kaliningrad region, which, in addition to objective factors, is due to the unusual voluminosity of the document. At the municipal level, the most impressive performances on this measure are seen in municipalities of the Kaliningrad region (Kaliningrad, Zelenogradsk, Gusev, Slavsk, Baltiysk and Bagrationovsk), Vyborg in the Leningrad region and Pskov. For Kaliningrad and Vyborg, two strategy versions were examined, making it possible to observe changes in the volume and focus on Baltic issues: the strategies are becoming shorter, with diminishing attention given to the Baltic agenda. A map diagram was drawn to illustrate the division of municipal strategies into five groups for each direction. Spatial differentiation is evident: the average IM value for the documents of the inner band of the Russian Baltic area is 2.7 times that for strategies of the outer band.
... Additionally, studies that analyze OI in both SMEs and large companies have been guided by systematic reviews and bibliometric analysis using data from Web of Science (e.g. de Paulo et al., 2017;Lopes & de Carvalho, 2018;Fernandes et al., 2019;Gao et al., 2020), and from Scopus (e.g. Md Khudzari et al., 2018;Baas et al., 2020;Sikandar & Abdul, 2022). ...
Nowadays open innovation is becoming a business strategy that is gaining more and more attention from the scientific and business community. However, although the term open innovation was introduced in 2006, little is known about the relationship between open innovation and market orientation, since there are relatively few studies published in the literature that have been oriented in its analysis and discussion. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to fill this gap in the literature and explore the link that exists between open innovation and market orientation, through a research framework that consists of 4 measurement scales, 24 items, 1 hypothesis and an extensive review of the literature. Likewise, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 300 small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in the automotive industry in Mexico, analyzing the data set using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models. The results obtained suggest that open innovation has significant positive effects on the market orientation of companies that make up the manufacturing industry.
... In recent years, bibliometric analysis, a quantitative technique and potent statistical tool for handling a large number of publications and scientific literature mapping has been employed more and more in a variety of academic domains, including open innovation and sustainable development (Du et al., 2021;Gao et al., 2020). The present study employed VOS viewer version 1.6.16 ...
Background: This study compares flood management strategies in Malawi and the Netherlands, emphasizing their respective advantages and disadvantages. The Netherlands is renowned globally for its flood defense, prioritizing prevention, stakeholder involvement, and nature-based solutions through sophisticated infrastructure and proactive approaches. However, future challenges may arise from economic expansion and climate change pressures. In contrast, Malawi, despite having fewer resources, is making strides with its National Resilience Strategy, focusing on risk mitigation, sustainable agriculture, and early warning systems to combat flooding and hunger vulnerabilities. Yet, it faces significant issues with financing, management, and the long-term sustainability of community-based projects. Methods: This study utilized bibliometric analysis and a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), employing a comparative approach to evaluate Malawian and Dutch public policies on flooding disasters. The aim was to identify similarities and differences in their approaches to flood risk management. Findings: The Netherlands’ proactive flood management strategy, characterized by advanced infrastructure and integrated policy frameworks, is a model for high-capacity settings. Its emphasis on nature-based solutions and stakeholder engagement further strengthens its resilience. Malawi's approach, while resource-constrained, shows promise through its National Resilience Strategy, which targets risk reduction, sustainable agricultural practices, and robust early warning systems. Nevertheless, Malawi continues to grapple with financing, effective management, and the sustainability of its flood risk mitigation initiatives. Conclusion: The experiences of the Netherlands and Malawi illustrate the need for continuous policy adaptation and the challenges of managing flood risks in diverse socioeconomic contexts. This research clarifies the relative benefits of different flood control strategies and emphasizes the importance of tailored approaches to address the complexities of flood dangers. Both countries demonstrate the ongoing need for regulatory reform to enhance flood risk mitigation efforts. Novelty/Originality of this Study: This study uniquely compares the flood risk management policies of Malawi and the Netherlands, highlighting the differences between a developing nation's reactive, community-focused approach and a developed country's proactive, infrastructure-intensive strategy. By analyzing their respective strengths and weaknesses, it identifies potential improvements and opportunities for both nations to enhance their flood management and resilience.
... Notably, these keywords have been increasingly associated with OI since 2020. Gao, Ding, & Wu [70] argued that while OI has historically been predominant in specialized disciplines and innovation-centric journals, there has been a discernible shift toward fostering a more open ecosystem by exerting influence across diverse disciplinary boundaries. This study also identifies notable research gaps within open innovation and consumers, particularly regarding sustainability, as evidenced by the limited scholarly output derived from keywords in the post-2021 period. ...
Mapping the Landscape of Open Innovation in Consumer Research: Insights and Directions from Bibliometrics examines how publications in the fields of consumer behavior research (Cons) and open innovation (OI) have developed over time. Terms that frequently appear together are explored to elucidate potential future research directions and thematic areas that influence academic writing. Bibliometric maps are created using VOSviewer v1.6.19, and 184 publications are analyzed using high-quality metadata and citation information from the Scopus database. The findings highlight patterns in publications, networks of citations, dynamics in collaboration, and future directions for Open Innovation and Consumer research. Co-word analysis is applied to extract data, and publication density analysis is used to identify popular terms. Eighty-two authors are represented in the dataset, and author collaborations are highlighted through co-citation analysis. The study concludes by outlining potential directions for future research based on component-based, keyword, and publication analyses.
... Facilitating comprehension of the distribution and connections among primary research themes related to NEE was achieved through the application of co-occurrence analysis. This analytical method allows for the exploration of internal relationships within a specific academic subject (Gao et al., 2020). By establishing a minimum occurrence threshold of 15, a total of 3821 keywords were detected, out of which 27 managed to meet the established minimum requirement. ...
The significance of naturalist environmental education (NEE) which primarily focuses on human-nature relationships lies in its ability to mitigate detrimental influences on environmental quality and foster environmental awareness, thereby averting adverse ecological consequences. Through a bibliometric examination of the literature using Scopus, this research attempted to chart and evaluate the intellectual production associated with NEE. The findings are based on a statistical analysis of 1553 documents using the VOSviewer software. Results indicate there has been a significant increase in global scholarly focus on NEE and the pattern of publications trend follows a four-stage progression. "Social Sciences" has the greatest number of relevant articles. Keywords including education literacy and sustainable development are of utmost importance. There is clear evidence of global scientific collaboration among developed countries. It's crucial for scholars to prioritize interdisciplinary collaboration within NEE, and enhance adult environmental literacy on developing countries.
... Furthermore, the Nigerian business environment is characterized by unique socio-economic, political, and cultural dynamics, which influence the practice of corporate governance and stakeholder engagement (Groenewald, 2020). Rapid technological advancements, evolving consumer preferences, and increasing scrutiny from regulators and civil society further compound these challenges, necessitating continuous adaptation and innovation by enterprises (Gao, 2020). ...
This paper provides an in-depth analysis of corporate governance and stakeholder engagement practices within Nigerian enterprises, highlighting current trends and proposing future directions for improvement. In Nigeria, as in many emerging economies, effective corporate governance and stakeholder engagement are critical for sustainable business success, investor confidence, and overall economic development. The review begins by outlining the regulatory framework governing corporate governance in Nigeria, emphasizing the role of legislation, regulatory bodies, and corporate governance codes in shaping organizational practices. It identifies key stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, communities, and government entities, and underscores the importance of engaging with each group to ensure transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct. The paper evaluates current corporate governance practices in Nigerian enterprises, emphasizing strengths such as board composition, financial reporting, and compliance mechanisms, while also addressing weaknesses such as board independence, executive compensation, and risk management frameworks. It explores the impact of cultural, social, and economic factors on governance dynamics, acknowledging the need for context-specific approaches tailored to Nigeria's unique business environment. Investing in stakeholder engagement initiatives that prioritize dialogue, collaboration and shared value creation, aligning business objectives with societal needs and expectations. Incorporating technology-driven solutions to facilitate real-time communication and feedback loops with stakeholders, leveraging digital platforms for transparent and responsive engagement. Overall, this paper underscores the importance of effective corporate governance and stakeholder engagement in driving long-term value creation and sustainable development in Nigerian enterprises. By embracing best practices and embracing stakeholder-centric approaches, organizations can foster trust, resilience, and prosperity in an increasingly complex and interconnected global landscape.
... Citations are one of the most significant indicators of the importance of a paper in a field . Highly cited publications reveal the intellectual basis and research frontiers of the field of research (Gao et al., 2020). The bibliometric analysis shows 651 publications with 1721 academic connections established between them. ...
... Further analysis of their research interests, as evident on Google Scholar and Scholars' homepages, reveals a focus on sustainability transitions, climate and energy policy, and innovation systems. In summary, the scarcity of collaboration among scholars working on IIs persists, mirroring the findings of Gao et al. (2020) in their bibliometric research on open innovation, a closely related field to IIs, centered around innovation-driven domains. ...
Innovation intermediaries (IIs) have gained more attention in both industry and academia since they are recognized as crucial actors that can facilitate the innovation process. This paper presents a systemic review of the academic research on IIs and suggests future research directions. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 556 documents from the Web of Science with Bibliometrix. The results show that IIs have experienced a surge of publications over the past three decades, with the UK and the US leading in productivity and influence. Although research on IIs occurs globally, cross-national collaboration is lacking, especially between authors of developed and developing countries. Our keyword co-occurrence analysis identified three major research clusters represented by innovation performance, knowledge networks, and technology transfer, which are also reflected in different stages of thematic evolution. Furthermore, we conducted a content analysis of the most influential articles across multiple disciplines and different time slices to identify the key discipline interests and provide a comprehensive picture of research themes over the years. We conclude by suggesting four potential avenues for future research. Our work provides an essential overview for understanding this critical field and serves as a valuable resource for policymakers and practitioners interested in IIs.
This study investigates the evolving landscape of digital transformation for sustainable business operations through a bibliometric and content analysis, aiming to uncover key technologies, challenges, and research opportunities in this interdisciplinary field. Utilizing data from the Scopus database from 2016 to 2025, the research employs descriptive and network analysis methods using VOSviewer to explore publication trends, top contributors, co-authorship networks, and thematic clusters. The findings reveal a significant increase in academic interest, particularly from 2020 onwards, driven by integrating digital tools such as artificial intelligence, big data, IoT, and blockchain in advancing sustainability goals. Notably, China, Italy, and the United Kingdom are identified as leading contributors, while institutions from developed and emerging economies demonstrate active involvement. Co-word analysis highlights dominant themes like digital transformation, sustainability, Industry 4.0, circular economy, and green innovation. The study also shows that digitally enabled sustainable practices enhance operational efficiency, supply chain transparency, and stakeholder trust. Based on content analysis of highly cited articles, the research suggests that digital transformation improves corporate performance and addresses environmental and social challenges. Recommendations include prioritizing cross-sectoral collaboration, developing integrated digital-sustainability frameworks, and fostering digital capacity-building in developing regions. However, the study is limited by its reliance on the Scopus database, potential language bias due to English-only sources, and the exclusion of grey literature, which may overlook regional or non-traditional contributions. Future research should extend the analysis to other databases, include non-English literature, and explore the long-term impact of digital transformation on sustainability outcomes across diverse organizational contexts.
Introduction
The impacts of plastic pollution on soil ecosystems have emerged as a significant global environmental concern. The progress in understanding how plastic pollution affects soil microbial communities and ecological functions is essential for addressing this issue effectively.
Methods
A bibliometric analysis was conducted on the literature from the Web of Science Core Collection database to offer valuable insights into the dynamics and trends in this field.
Results
To date, the effects of plastic residues on soil enzymatic activities, microbial biomass, respiration rate, community diversity and functions have been examined, whereas the effects of plastic pollution on soil microbes are still controversial.
Discussion
To include a comprehensive examination of the combined effects of plastic residue properties (Type, element composition, size and age), soil properties (soil texture, pH) at environmentally relevant concentrations with various exposure durations under field conditions in future studies is crucial for a holistic understanding of the impact of plastic pollution on soil ecosystems. Risk assessment of plastic pollution, particularly for nanoplasctics, from the perspective of soil food web and ecosystem multifunctioning is also needed. By addressing critical knowledge gaps, scholars can play a pivotal role in developing strategies to mitigate the ecological risks posed by plastic pollution on soil microorganisms.
Open innovation (OI) is a pivotal driver in fostering the practical implementation of circular economy (CE). Based on 42 case studies identified through a systematic search, the present study seeks to understand how OI strategies are currently integrated within companies' circular business models (CBMs). The content analysis of the cases, interpreted through a strategy matrix, emphasises a prevalent inclination among companies towards collaborative and network‐based OI strategies. These strategies exhibit high depth and breadth of knowledge search, indicating companies' tendency to engage with numerous knowledge sources in deep partnership. Moreover, the findings underscore that the companies tend to favour OI strategies rooted in the depth of knowledge search rather than breadth in developing CBMs. In addition to contributing to the existing CE knowledge, the findings of this study offer empirical insights for managers, practitioners and policymakers, aiming to effectively integrate OI strategies into CBMs.
ناقشت الدراسة الحالية دور التكنولوجيا المتقدمة في الإبداع المفتوح، والهدف الرئيسي منها هو إظهار المدى الذي يصل إليه استخدام التكنولوجيا المتقدمة والحديثة في تعزيز عمليات الابداع المفتوح (الداخل والخارج) في القطاع الصحي العراقي. فقد حاولت الدراسة الإجابة على تساؤل مفاده: ما مدى وحجم تأثير التكنولوجيا المتقدمة في الابداع المفتوح؟ وللإجابة عن هذا السؤال تم استخدام المنهج الكمي (الوصفي والتحليلي). حيث تم اقتراح نموذج قياس واختبار أربع فرضيات. تم إجراء مسح، واستخدام استبيان لجمع بيانات الدراسة من المشاركين. والبالغ عددهم (341) طبيب. حُللت البيانات والمعلومات المجموعة من الميدان باستخدام أسلوب نمذجة المعادلات الهيكلية SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) وأساليب إحصائية أخرى التي نفذت باستخدام برمجيات (AMOS وSPSS وSmartPLS V.3.3.9)، كشفت نتائج الدراسة أن التكنولوجيا المتقدمة لها تأثير ايجابي ومعنوي على عمليات الابداع المفتوح في قطاع الصحة في نينوى في كلا الاتجاهين (الداخل والخارج). وتقترح الدراسة ضرورة استثمار قدرات التكنولوجيا الموجودة لدى الوحدات الصحية بشكل أمثل، في تسيير المهام الصحية بشكلٍ عام ومهام الابداع بشكلٍ خاص. فضلا عن ضرورة حوكمة التكنولوجيا المستخدمة عبر الانترنت في الوحدات الصحية.
Open innovation is one of those catchwords that has been capturing the imaginaries of our societies, pointing out transformative designs. “Open innovation” is being viewed as “the next word” in innovation studies and management practices. Bibliometric reviews have been revealing that open innovation has spawned special issues, numerous books, and hundreds of papers devoted to proposing this (allegedly) newpolicy framework. With this bibliographical essay, we give a qualitative review that understands open innovation and the reach of its literature: i.e., the presumptions in place and how an entrepreneurial and management bias marks it, benefiting from announced technological trajectories currently amplified by the digital age and the alleged opportunities of the 4.0 industry.
Social enterprise (SE) studies are gaining ground as an emerging research domain owing to the duality characterizing their business models for tapping the triple bottom line (TBL) principle, which is a framework measuring the three pillars of sustainability: people, planet, and profit. This rising attention to SE has led to scattering in the research structure and knowledge spillover. Although publications have attempted to regroup this domain, extant analyses lack scientific coverage. By reforming previously adopted research approaches and redesigning metadata retrieval constraints, this study revisits, dissects, and synthesizes relevant SE-related studies to identify the current dominance, recent developments, and future directions of SE studies. Through a bibliometric review that combines descriptive, network, and content analyses, our findings reveal ten avenues worth pursuing, categorized under the research scope, research trajectory, and analytical dimensions. Finally, this study presents practical implications that support the institutionalization of SEs that holistically meet the TBL principle.
The development of a scientific discipline is partly determined by the growth of its literature. Bibliometrics constitute a set of mathematical and statistical techniques employed to explore, organize, and quantitatively analyze large pools of scientific literature. In this study, 11,433 papers published between 1974 and 2015 are collected and analyzed by applying life-cycle analysis, bibliometrics and text mining in order to provide a full thematic overview of the application of fuzzy theory in operations management. Top countries (i.e. the most productive, influential and collaborative countries), most frequently cited journals, and key research topics are identified by employing bibliometric techniques. Finally, the articles’ common research themes and methodologies are determined by combining text mining with experts’ input. Results show that the application of fuzzy theory in operations management is still in its infancy, and hence suitable for future research. This study serves as a guide for researchers to identify the hidden patterns, key actors, topics, and methods in this area.
Despite citation counts from Google Scholar (GS), Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus being widely consulted by researchers and sometimes used in research evaluations, there is no recent or systematic evidence about the differences between them. In response, this paper investigates 2,448,055 citations to 2299 English-language highly-cited documents from 252 GS subject categories published in 2006, comparing GS, the WoS Core Collection, and Scopus. GS consistently found the largest percentage of citations across all areas (93%-96%), far ahead of Scopus (35%-77%) and WoS (27%-73%). GS found nearly all the WoS (95%) and Scopus (92%) citations. Most citations found only by GS were from non-journal sources (48%-65%), including theses, books, conference papers, and unpublished materials. Many were non-English (19%-38%), and they tended to be much less cited than citing sources that were also in Scopus or WoS. Despite the many unique GS citing sources, Spearman correlations between citation counts in GS and WoS or Scopus are high (0.78-0.99). They are lower in the Humanities, and lower between GS and WoS than between GS and Scopus. The results suggest that in all areas GS citation data is essentially a superset of WoS and Scopus, with substantial extra coverage.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify and improve the framework assessing the evolution and importance of the technological, human, social and financial resources of an Indian research-based spin-off (RBSO) throughout its four stages of development by Vohora et al. (2004).
Design/methodology/approach – The open innovation (OI) phenomenon is spreading among public organizations. One of the OI practices used by the public research centers to market their technologies is to set up new business entities called RBSOs. Many studies have focused on spin-offs but there are still some gaps. To overcome the existing limitations, the authors built a framework which they tested on three previous case studies.
Findings – The results obtained show how a parent organization and its incubator can play fundamental roles in creating and developing a successful RBSO. This is done by supplying managerial staff and providing access to skills, funds and other material and immaterial resources.
Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study are related to the sectoral and geopolitical factors of the single case analyzed. For this reason, the observations that emerge should be supported by other empirical analyses.
Originality/value – The findings of this study can offer a better understanding of the spin-off life to managers, researchers, public organizations and government agencies. They can learn how to improve policies and practices of technology transfer and strengthen the national industrial system.
In recent decades, two emergent phenomena have jointly transformed the nature and pursuit of entrepreneurship across industries and sectors: open innovation and platformization. Open innovation involves a shift towards more open and distributed models of innovation, while platformization refers to the increasing importance of digital platforms as a venue for value creation and delivery. Together, OI and platforms have created numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs and their firms—from serving as an input for innovation for established firms to participating as complementors on existing platforms. While these entrepreneurial opportunities (and conditions) have manifested themselves in rich and varied ways, our understanding of these new forms of entrepreneurship has lagged behind. In this essay—and in this Special Issue—our objective is to bring a sharper focus on the important research issues and questions that frame open innovation, platforms and entrepreneurship.
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Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face the inherent tension of depending on external partners to complement their internal innovation activities while having limited resources to manage such open innovation processes. Given the importance of collaborative efforts between multiple stakeholders, we address the open innovation challenges from the SME perspective at the business-ecosystem level. We present an inductive case study of a particular regional ecosystem and focus on the inter-organizational collaboration between SMEs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem. With this focus, we explore how SMEs perceive, organize, and manage open innovation through strong collaborative ties with other ecosystem members. We identify a particular set of challenges for the SMEs due to the misalignment between their business model and that of their ecosystem. Specific findings include the link between innovation type expressed by diverging understandings of the notion of innovation across the ecosystem and the innovation form (here, open innovation), which should be organized and managed on multiple levels of analysis (SME, inter-organizational, and ecosystem). These findings highlight specific attention points for managing and developing open innovation in a regional business ecosystem, and they contribute both to the business-ecosystem literature as well as open innovation literature.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of leadership styles (paternalistic, authentic and democratic) with relationship-based employee governance and open service innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 422 medical professionals working in the Malaysian healthcare sector.
Findings
Results of several statistical analyses showed that the three leadership styles positively influence relationship-based employee governance and open service innovation. Results also confirmed the mediating role of relationship-based employee governance in the relationships between the three leadership styles and open service innovation.
Research limitations/implications
This research used a cross-sectional study design; use of a longitudinal research design in future research can provide a better interpretation of the underlying causality. A policy insight can be drawn from this research to generate awareness about effective leadership styles and the role of relationship-based employee governance in the successful implementation of open service innovation in the Malaysian healthcare sector.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to leadership, open innovation, and organizational governance literature by highlighting how leadership styles affect relationship-based employee governance and open innovation. It also offers policy insights to practitioners in the Malaysian healthcare sector on how to enhance open service innovation outcomes.
Open innovation implies that geographical proximity is irrelevant. However, we posit that any potential innovation outcome depends on the spatial constraints on openness. In this paper, we add a geographical proximity dimension to open innovation by analysing how a domestic and international open innovation approach affects innovation outcomes. In particular, we hypothesise that domestic open innovation has positive effects on new-to-the-firm product innovation, due to easily accessible resources. We further posit that, through international open innovation, SMEs can access new and advanced knowledge which is not available locally, leading to more novel innovations. However, we expect that the relationship between openness, both domestic and international, and innovation is conditional on R&D activities. Our empirical analysis based on the Cyprus Community Innovation Survey supports these hypotheses. Our results underline the critical role of the spatial aspect on open innovation in SMEs, something which has remained surprisingly absent from the literature.
The present study was conducted in Semnan Science and Technology Park and aimed to analyze the relationship among intellectual property rights, open innovation, and organizational performance of 30 New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs). Senior managers, middle managers, and business owners were considered as appropriate respondents for study. A total of 140 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents, and 126 filled questionnaires were returned. The research method used in this study is descriptive-correlation and the analysis was carried out utilizing Structural Equation Modeling. The factors analysis and the findings show that intellectual property rights have a significant positive relationship with open innovation. Further, open innovation has a significant positive relationship with organizational performance. Moreover, no significant relationship between intellectual property rights and organizational performance was established. But, intellectual property rights affect organizational performance positively, through open innovation acting as a mediator.
Open innovation is now a widely used concept in academia, business, and policy making. This article describes the state of open innovation at the intersection of research, practice, and policy. It discusses some key trends (e.g., digital transformation), challenges (e.g., uncertainty), and potential solutions (e.g., EU funding programs) in the context of open innovation and innovation policy. With this background, the authors introduce select papers published in this Special Section of California Management Review that were originally presented at the second annual World Open Innovation Conference, held in Santa Clara, California, in December of 2015.
Online Open Innovation (OI) platforms like Challenge.gov are used to post public sector problem statements, collect and evaluate ideas submitted by citizens with the goal to increase government innovation. Using quantitative data extracted from contests posted to Challenge.gov and qualitative interviews with thirty-six public managers in fourteen federal departments contribute to the discovery and analysis of intra-, inter, and extra-organizational factors that drive or hinder the implementation of OI in the public sector. The analysis shows that system-inherent barriers hinder public sector organizations to adopt this procedural and technological innovation. However, when the mandate of the innovation policy aligns with the mission of the organization, it opens opportunities for change in innovation acquisition and standard operating procedures.
Firms that engage in distant search activities seek to leverage on external knowledge to innovate. The firms' ability to acquire new knowledge depends on strong search practices and the corresponding absorptive capacity where the latter predefine firms' ability to span out of its core competences area, to follow the open innovation processes. Absorptive capacity is often seen as a precondition for the open innovation success. This research focuses on the cases of open innovation when the absorptive capacity is absent internally and is taken in charge by an open innovation intermediary that is capable to develop the potential absorptive capacity for the firm.
The success of open innovation as a new paradigm to enhance innovation development has brought public authorities to incentivize firms to collaborate with external organisations. Such incentive is often provided in the form of public subsidies to research and development activities. Some studies observed that public subsidies are generally successful in pursuing the goal of promoting open innovation. Nevertheless, as the number of partners increases, the positive effect of collaboration on innovation performance is likely to decrease due to over-search and over-collaboration issues. In this perspective, a mere increase of the firms' propensity to collaborate should not satisfy public authorities, which instead should carefully monitor how public subsidies can improve the efficiency of such collaborations. This article advances the literature about the relationship between public subsidies and open innovation by assessing how funds provided by local, national and European authorities are associated with open innovation efficiency. By analysing an extensive sample of 43,230 European firms, this study confirms that the three typologies of public subsidies are associated with collaboration in beneficiaries. Furthermore, the study shows that local and national subsidies are also associated with open innovation efficiency, whereas European subsidies are not statistically significantly associated with it. This study provides theoretical and policy implications. In a theoretical perspective, it introduces the concept of open innovation efficiency, it analyses its public policy drivers and presents several recommendations for future research. In a policy perspective, it suggests explanations for the results obtained and advises policy initiatives to foster open innovation efficiency.
Purpose: We present a systematic review of the literature concerning major aspects of science mapping to serve two primary purposes: First, to demonstrate the use of a science mapping approach to perform the review so that researchers may apply the procedure to the review of a scientific domain of their own interest, and second, to identify major areas of research activities concerning science mapping, intellectual milestones in the development of key specialties, evolutionary stages of major specialties involved, and the dynamics of transitions from one specialty to another.
http://www.jdis.org/10.1515/jdis-2017-0006
Interest in open innovation (OI) as a field of research has grown exponentially since the phrase was coined by Chesbrough in his 2003 book, with numerous articles, special issues, books, and conference sessions. Various reviews of the literature have summarized prior work, offered new frameworks, and identified opportunities for future research. Here we summarize these opportunities, which include more research on outbound OI, the role of open innovation in services, and network forms of collaboration such as consortia, communities, ecosystems, and platforms. Research should also examine the use of OI by small, new, and not-for-profit organizations, as well as the linkage of individual actions and motivations to open innovation. Other opportunities include better measuring the costs, benefits, antecedents, mediators and moderators of the effects of OI on performance, and understanding why and how OI is rejected, abandoned, or fails. Finally, we consider how OI can be better linked to prior theoretical research, including topics such as absorptive capacity, user innovation, resources, dynamic capabilities, business models, and the definition of the firm.
This paper provides an overview of the main perspectives and themes emerging in research on open innovation (OI). The paper is the result of a collaborative process among several OI scholars – having a common basis in the recurrent Professional Development Workshop on ‘Researching Open Innovation’ at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. In this paper, we present opportunities for future research on OI, organised at different levels of analysis. We discuss some of the contingencies at these different levels, and argue that future research needs to study OI – originally an organisational-level phenomenon – across multiple levels of analysis. While our integrative framework allows comparing, contrasting and integrating various perspectives at different levels of analysis, further theorising will be needed to advance OI research. On this basis, we propose some new research categories as well as questions for future research – particularly those that span across research domains that have so far developed in isolation.
There are many examples of successful open innovation communities that have helped organizations to improve their innovativeness and solve innovation-related issues. But not all implementations have been successful. This article describes one such case, even though innovation was part of the organization’s culture. We identify the chal- lenges faced and the reasons the initiative failed. Based on our analysis, we provide guidelines and a framework for assessing the likely success of implementing online open innovation communities.
This paper examines the dynamics of entrepreneurial acquisitions undertaken by UK high growth small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While entrepreneurial acquisitions are increasingly deployed by SMEs, little is known about their antecedents, motivational drivers and organisational outcomes. Drawing on detailed case study evidence from Scotland, the key factor found to be driving these acquisitions was the desire to augment and exploit technological complementarities between the acquiring and acquired firms. Acquisition can therefore be conceptualised as an advanced stage of the outside-in ‘open innovation’ strategies proactively used within these innovative SMEs. Firms executing this strategy typically have an acute propensity for risk, a desire for close customer engagement, effective business models and strong external orientation. The work suggests that greater attention should be paid within M&A theory to the dynamics of these types of smaller scale entrepreneurial acquisitions.
The literature on open innovation (OI) is characterised by studies based both on large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Among all, one of the less explored issues in SMEs is what impedes them to adopt OI. Thus, this paper has the threefold objective to identify which factors hinder the adoption of OI in SMEs, to investigate if different behaviours exist among SMEs in relation to these factors, and to understand if the same factors effectively influence the level of adoption of OI. Based on a survey on 157 Italian SMEs, we identified four main barriers (namely, ‘knowledge’, ‘collaboration’, ‘organisational’, and ‘financial and strategic’) and three profiles of firms, different in terms of innovativeness of the industries they belong to (knowledge intensive, medium-innovative, and less innovative) and hampering factors perceived (‘knowledge’, ‘financial and strategic’, and ‘collaboration’ and ‘organisational’ barriers). Moreover, we found that some of these factors effectively impede the adoption of the paradigm.
This article aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive comparison of the coverage of the three major bibliometric databases: Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science. Based on a sample of 146 senior academics in five broad disciplinary areas, we therefore provide both a longitudinal and a cross-disciplinary comparison of the three databases. Our longitudinal comparison of eight data points between 2013 and 2015 shows a consistent and reasonably stable quarterly growth for both publications and citations across the three databases. This suggests that all three databases provide sufficient stability of coverage to be used for more detailed cross-disciplinary comparisons. Our cross-disciplinary comparison of the three databases includes four key research metrics (publications, citations, h-index, and hI, annual, an annualised individual h-index) and five major disciplines (Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, Sciences and Life Sciences). We show that both the data source and the specific metrics used change the conclusions that can be drawn from cross-disciplinary comparisons.
Integrating insights from the strategic goal literature and the knowledge‐based view of the firm, this study proposes that the pursuit of social and economic strategic goals by commercial firms affects their innovation performance through different knowledge‐sourcing activities. The strategic goals, knowledge‐sourcing practices, and innovation performance of 1257 Belgian firms are investigated. Results show that both social and economic strategic goals are associated with the use of external information sources, but only the pursuit of social goals inspires firms to engage in external collaboration. No evidence is found of an inherent conflict between social and economic strategic goals. Instead, the two types of goals are independent of each other, i.e., an emphasis on social goals does not preclude an emphasis on economic goals and vice versa. Moreover, firms' external knowledge sourcing and innovation performance benefit most when strongly held social goals align with strongly held economic goals. These findings offer new insight into the nature and the effects of goal multiplicity among commercial firms. They open up a new perspective on the potential positive effects of the joint pursuit of social and economic strategic goals instead of seeing them as inherently conflicting, as past research has typically done. We illustrate how social strategic goals can deliver unique benefits to a firm, independently of and in addition to economic strategic goals. Our findings also contribute to the open innovation literature by revealing strategic goals as a driver of firms' knowledge‐sourcing practices. Our findings suggest that solely emphasizing economic goals may be one reason why firms struggle to implement open innovation practices and do not reap their full benefits. The practical implications of our research are discussed.
It is widely agreed that humanity faces major sustainability challenges that require immediate action. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are the most recent political call for action in this direction. In this study, we examine what role entrepreneurship in Germany plays in achieving the German SDGs. Thus, we pick up the discussion on sustainable entrepreneurship as a lever for change and search for empirical evidence that entrepreneurs in Germany identify and develop opportunities along the entire SDG spectrum. For our study, we examined a total of 193 venture competitions in Germany, collected data on a total of 588 rewarded ventures and used a semi-automated content analysis process to allocate those ventures to the main 17 SDGs based on their business activities. With our work offer a scalable and repeatable approach to map SDG related activity of new ventures, and we provide a detailed analysis of Germany's entrepreneurship landscape along the 17 SDGs. We found a very heterogeneous distribution of entrepreneurial activities along the goals, but also significant correlations between multiple goals that are frequently addressed jointly. Contrasting entrepreneurial activity along the SDGs with the national overall SDG performance of Germany we identified multiple SDGs that are rarely addressed by entrepreneurs despite strong needs for improvements. The identified patterns constitute a starting point for additional research on the potential of SDG related entrepreneurship and they direct policy makers and entrepreneurs where they can make the largest contribution to the SDGs.
Purpose
The open innovation (OI) paradigm suggests that firms should use inflows and outflows of knowledge in order to accelerate innovation and leverage markets. Literature examining how firms are adopting OI practices is rich; notwithstanding, little research has addressed this topic from the perspective of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the relevance of SMEs in worldwide economies, the purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of research on OI in SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 112 academic articles were selected from the Web of Science database. Following a bibliometric analysis, the most relevant authors, journals, institutions and countries are presented. Additionally, the main areas these articles cover are summarized.
Findings
Results are consistent in that the most prolific authors are affiliated with the universities leading the ranking of institutions. However, it is remarkable that top authors in this field do not possess a large number of publications on OI in SMEs, but combine this research topic with other related ones. At the country level, European countries are on the top together with South Korea.
Research limitations/implications
Despite following a rigorous method, other relevant documents not included in the selected databases might have been ignored.
Practical implications
This paper outlines the main topics of interest within this area: impact of OI on firm performance and on organizations’ structure, OI as a mechanism to hasten new product development, the analysis of the inbound/outbound dimensions of OI, and legal issues related to intellectual property right management when OI is implemented.
Originality/value
The study uses a combination of bibliometric indicators with a literature review.
There is widespread agreement that open innovation (OI) is strongly influenced by external partner heterogeneity. While previous studies have examined partner heterogeneity using quantitative analysis, the implications of a weighted assignment using an external partner heterogeneity index have received less attention. The purpose of this study is to develop a modified partner heterogeneity model. Specifically, using a questionnaire survey of Chinese firms, we develop a new method to measure partner organisational heterogeneity (POH). Then, the moderating factors of an industry's technological environment, termed the technological regime, are introduced. The empirical analysis shows that the technological regime is positively correlated with POH and OI performance. Hence, an advanced technological regime improves POH and OI performance by incorporating external resources and increasing innovation potential.
Open innovation has attracted a significant amount of attention from scholars and practitioners. Prior research on open innovation has mainly focused on collaborative inventing. However, understanding the processes and outcomes of joint inventing is not sufficient for understanding sustained open‐innovation activities and the competitive advantages of the actors involved in open innovation. Instead, an understanding of value creation and value capture is paramount for advancing our understanding of sustained open‐innovation activities. Open innovation requires collaboration among distributed but interdependent actors who rely on each other's capabilities in value co‐creation. Value co‐creation in open innovation is driven not only by actors’ value creation but also by their ability to capture value. While value creation and value capture are discussed in the open‐innovation literature, the advancement of this stream of research is hindered by conceptual ambiguity, especially in relation to the concept of value capture. This article adopts a value perspective on open innovation, offers consistent conceptualizations of value creation and value capture, and outlines potential avenues for further research at the interface of open innovation, value creation, and value capture.
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Reverse Logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain Management (RL&CLSCM) are universally recognised as two environmentally friendly practices that could help in greening conventional supply chains. The popularity of these fields of research has led to the evolution of a vast number of publications in the literature. Various journals have so far contributed to the advancement of the field, with the International Journal of Production of Research (IJPR) being one of the most prominent contributed journals. To celebrate the 55th volume anniversary of IJPR, this review study aims to investigate the studies in the area of RL&CLSCM published in IJPR. The paper presents a thorough
bibliometric and content analysis of 94 studies that were published in IJPR from 2000 until July 2017. The studies initially underwent a rigorous bibliometric and mapping analysis that helped to identify their characteristics. Subsequently, the contents of the sample papers were evaluated thoroughly. The content analysis led to a classification of the papers into two main categories and sub-categories, and then to a rigorous identification of the papers’ attributes. The bibliometric and content analysis
disclosed several research gaps that remain to be addressed in IJPR.
Researchers have used several constructs to explain the success and failure of organizations' open innovation initiatives. Building upon the resource-based view of the firm, we develop a model to explain how leadership interacts with absorptive capacity and organizational learning culture to influence open innovation outcomes. The model is tested empirically using data sourced from managers working in diverse sectors in India. Results reveal that empowering leadership leads to enhanced open innovation outcomes through the intervention of organizational learning culture. Results, however, do not confirm a significant impact of the interaction of organizational culture and absorptive capacity on open innovation. A discussion of these findings along with implications for theory and practice is presented.
Keywords: Open innovation; Leadership; Absorptive capacity; Organizational learning culture; India
Cities of the future have to be ‘smart’. In this regard, the open innovation model seems to provide efficient support for the involvement of private firms in public collaborations, by ensuring that there is efficiency and affordability in the delivery of new and ‘smart’ city services. This inquiry aims to fill a gap in the main field of research: only a very few studies have tried to analyse the challenges encountered, and the strategies followed, by firms developing open innovation strategies with public partners in Smart City Projects (SCPs). In trying to fill this gap, exploratory and qualitative analysis was performed on the decision-making processes of multinational companies participating in SCPs. This study uses a multiple-case research method, based on 21 in-depth semi-structured interviews with the smart city managers of seven large multinational companies. With reference to and in line with these cases, interesting predictions emerge relating to public–private collaborations and the creation of different forms of explorative and exploitative project alliances in cities. In particular, companies that develop alliances with public partners consider the open innovation model to be a testbed for future technologies and the development of products and services, by supporting positive knowledge spill-overs that reduce the technological gap between the private and the public sector and − at the same time − stimulating the development of a smart city ecosystem when firms are looking for the cross-fertilization of ideas. The research sheds light on public–private partnerships and the open innovation approach in a new and complex context, that of the smart city, reframing managerial debates concerning innovation-driven collaborations between the private and the public sector.
Openness has increasingly become a trend in innovation management. This study aims to propose a contingent conceptual framework for open innovation that reflects the evolution of this concept based on the academic literature. Besides, it aims to analyze how open innovation can affect firm and innovation performance. Additionally, it identifies the key contingent variables that affect the relationship between open innovation and performance. To accomplish these objectives, the research design is a systematic literature review, merging bibliometrics, content analysis and mind maps. The bibliometrics was applied to investigate the key references and topics. For the content analysis, a detail-coding schema was developed. Then, a mind map approach was applied towards a contingent conceptual model. Finally, a methodological triangulation was applied for understanding in-depth the insights of these research methods applied. As a result, a contingent conceptual model of open innovation has been developed. In this model, the open innovation construct is an independent variable classified as inbound or outbound, and the dependent variables are firm performance and innovation performance. Moreover, contingent variables (control and moderator) were identified, highlighting the moderate effect of knowledge flow. Finally, open innovation antecedents and enablers were identified.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how the adoption of an open innovation (OI) strategy, that is acquiring externally developed knowledge, influences the innovation performance of firms and how this relationship is moderated by the recruitment of highly educated employees and the implementation of employee training activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an analysis based on the results of the 2010-2012 Italian Innovation Survey and considered only manufacturing firms. Accordingly, the econometric analysis was based on 2,836 firm-observations.
Findings
The study reveals that acquiring externally developed knowledge positively affects the innovation performance of firms. Additionally, while the moderation effect due to recruiting highly educated employees is not statistically significant, the implementation of training activities negatively moderates the investigated relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The present research confirms the positive effects of the adoption of OI strategies on the innovation performance of firms and, additionally, shows that implementing employee training activities may negatively influence the abovementioned relationship.
Practical implications
The present study suggests that firms acquiring externally developed knowledge should be careful in performing employee training activities, since they may hinder the positive effects of adopting OI strategies.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the OI literature, by showing the positive effects of the acquisition of externally developed knowledge on the innovation performance of firms and by analysing the moderating role of human resources management practices, which is an aspect scantly discussed in the literature.
The use of external knowledge for innovation (i.e., inbound or outside-in open innovation) has received substantial attention in the innovation literature. However, the “human side” of open innovation is still poorly understood. We consider the role of employee characteristics with respect to predicting firm-level openness. Drawing on the human capital, learning and creativity literatures, we theorize that knowledge diversity of the firm’s employees is positively associated with employees’ ability to identify and absorb external knowledge, which aggregates to increased firm-level openness—that is, firms’ use of external knowledge in their pursuit of innovation. Based on a combination of three data sources, namely, two survey data sources and register data, we find support for our hypothesis that employees’ educational diversity is positively associated with firm-level openness. However, we find no direct association between employees’ work history diversity and firm-level openness but rather—as also hypothesized—a conditional relationship based on educational background, which implies that diverse work history only has a positive impact at higher levels of educational diversity. To reduce endogeneity concerns, we undertake a series of robustness checks.
Research Summary: Open innovation is about firms harnessing knowledge flows across firm boundaries, but limited research has examined the nature and antecedents of these flows for start‐up firms, as well as the interdependence of inbound and outbound flows. From a new sample of start‐up firms making 3D printers, we show how their degree of openness for inbound and outbound knowledge flows relates to the firms’ initial capabilities and founding intentions. From this, we suggest that the patterns of openness are influenced more by initial factor endowments than a firm‐specific process of emergent strategy development.
Managerial Summary: Innovative firms often face trade‐offs between open and proprietary strategies, particularly in industries and segments where online communities and other collaborations provide a pool of shared knowledge for the entire industry. This study illuminates these trade‐offs by comparing the choices made by the founders of 3D printer manufacturers. For products based on modular systems, it shows the range of choices that firms have on their degree of inbound openness (using external technology) and outbound openness (sharing their own technology)—as well as the interdependencies of these choices. Finally, it points to long‐term implications of early entrepreneurial decisions: firms that leverage external technology can enter markets more quickly, but their innovation options will be limited unless they have capabilities for proprietary innovation.
This study uses contract theory to analyse the relationship between open collaborative innovation strategies and digital platforms. We argue that a collaborative mechanism and governance of the platform affect how operations are run and impact firm ambidexterity. We also explain how the twofold revealing strategy, both selective and free occurs via the platform and how governance positively impacts the coordination mechanism. A case study analysis on TIM OPEN draws a ground-breaking framework for future investigations. The analysis suggests that the combination of digital platform and collaborative innovation can facilitate the creative process and be a driver of operational synergies. Results confirm that the adoption of digital platforms for collaborative innovations reduces transaction costs.
With increasingly severe environmental regulations, a pressing issue has been the need for firms to develop efficient strategies to achieve environmental protection and high productivity. Several environmental experts argue that firms can respond to environmental regulations through innovation; however, the question of how to innovate is unanswered in the environmental literature. Therefore, this study focuses on the open innovation strategy approach to respond to environmental regulations and maintain high productivity by incorporating the idea of innovation management. We first divide open innovation strategy into two modes of external technology acquisition: foreign and domestic. Next, we examine these modes' mediation effects on environmental regulations and productivity. In addition, we test the moderating effect of internal R&D on the relationship between external technology acquisition and productivity. Using data on 35 Chinese industrial sectors from 2001 to 2010, the empirical findings show that foreign technology significantly and positively mediates the link between environmental regulations and productivity, while domestic technology does not. Internal R&D investment, as an absorptive capacity, positively moderates the effect of foreign technology; however, it negatively moderates the effect of domestic technology on productivity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Purpose
Focusing on some relevant constructs defined by the open innovation (OI) literature (i.e. determinants of openness; openness choices operationalized in terms of collaboration depth with scientific and business partners; organizational and social context; innovation performance in terms of novelty and efficiency), this paper investigates the relationships among such constructs. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse two types of relationships: between some contextual factors and firms’ openness choices; and among openness choices, a set of organizational-managerial and social factors, and OI performance outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors carried out a theory testing survey, involving four European countries (Finland, Italy, Sweden and the UK). The authors applied descriptive statistics and a series of regressions.
Findings
The authors analysed the impact exerted by external and internal variables on the collaboration depth with scientific and business partners: technological trends are relevant to move firms towards external collaborations, with both types of partners; efficiency goals pursued in collaborations are related to the collaboration depth with both types of partners, while an aggressive innovation strategy is positively related only to scientific-partner depth. Besides, collaboration depths with both partners are positively related to the both sides of innovation performance (i.e. novelty and efficiency), but the organizational-managerial and social contexts emerge as relevant mediator variables. Organizational-managerial and external relational social capital exert a beneficial role on the both types of innovation performance, while internal relational social capital benefits only novelty.
Research limitations/implications
The work shows important limitations such as the low level of the explanatory values in the regression models. Therefore, the results must be considered as preliminary explorative insights that may be useful to encourage further studies.
Practical implications
This work serves to raise managers’ awareness on the opportunity of developing organizational-managerial mechanisms, as well as on the importance of social capital to profit from collaborations.
Originality/value
Although during the last decade many researchers have claimed that we are in the era of OI, empirical works, which provide both a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of the phenomenon, are still few. Moreover, the specific action of the context (managerial, organizational and social) as possible mediator of the performance outcomes of openness is empirically under-studied. The authors’ work attempts to fulfil these gaps.
Crowdsourcing initiatives are increasingly spreading among organisations aiming at outsourcing the development of solutions to internal innovation problems to external problem solvers. However, while knowledge about crowdsourcing is growing, a complete understanding of the underlying dynamics of these initiatives is still lacking. This study aims at elucidating this topic by investigating the influence exerted by the interplay between the characteristics of innovation problems, individuals developing solutions (problem solvers), and crowdsourcing platforms on the related problem solving performance. Specifically, we use NK fitness landscapes to simulate the search for solutions conducted by problem solvers in several scenarios, depending on the decomposability and accuracy of delineation of the innovation problems, the degree of bounded rationality of the solvers, and the cooperation policies of the crowdsourcing platforms. Our findings contribute to the development of the theory on search for solutions in crowdsourcing initiatives, by revealing the characteristics of problem solvers and the types of platforms that maximise the performance of the problem solving process, as the quality of the best solution provided and the time required to elaborate on it, according to specific innovation problems. Furthermore, our findings promote the formulation of guidelines for organisations using crowdsourcing to solve their innovation problems, and for the crowdsourcing platforms’ managers.
This paper presents the results of a content analysis on a comprehensive and systematically generated sample containing 132 survey papers on machine scheduling problems in production (MSPP). The paper identifies the main attributes of MSPP by analysing these surveys and proposes a classification scheme for MSPP consisting of seven main groups with several subgroups. The reliability of the results of the content analysis is examined in a sensitivity analysis. A close analysis of the results unveils several research gaps in the literature and enables us to propose promising avenues for future research.
There is a common agreement that innovation is driven by the people that form the heart of any company's innovation activity. Still, people perform innovation in a special institutional environment characterized by rules and regulations that might support or impede innovation. The open innovation paradigm expects companies to engage in external relationships for innovation; however companies often neglect the actual internal openness of employees, which is an absolute must before partnering with external partners. The article finds that company innovation culture comes in five main forms: closed innovation (driven by internal capabilities); doing, using, interacting (ad hoc processes, no link to knowledge providers); outsourcing innovation capabilities; extramural innovation, no matching internal culture/procedures and proactive innovation (match of internal and external openness). The empirical analysis shows that the closed innovation behavior is by far the most widespread among Russian companies whereas proactive innovation behavior remains an exception in the overall sample.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how knowledge search (KS) affects open innovation performance (OIP) in consideration of appropriability hazard in an emerging market context.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors identify two types of appropriability hazard related to KS activities in the improvement of OIP: partner-related and market-related hazards, and construct a model of KS to the OIP with the government-enterprise relationship and market focus (MF) as moderating factors of the analysis framework, using the hierarchical regression analysis based on a survey sample of 258 Chinese companies.
Findings
The authors find that KS has a stronger positive relationship with OIP in international market-focused enterprises compared with domestic market-focused enterprises. In addition, using a configuration approach, the authors find that KS is more positively related to OIP when enterprises have an international MF and a good relationship with the government, but less in other MF government and enterprises relationship configurations.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to previous research work by identifying two types of appropriability hazard related to KS activities in emerging market countries: partner-related and market-related hazards. The authors argue that a positive relationship between KS and OIP is more likely to occur if these appropriability hazards can be mitigated by export MF and a good relationship with the government which has not been demonstrated in previous research.
Tracing the trajectory of scientific fields has been recognized by informaticians, nonetheless, little effort has been dedicated to understanding the evolution of the fast-moving research field of transport, quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper identifies intellectual turning points and emerging trends in the area of transport. Using bibliometric methods, co-keyword networks, journal co-citation networks, highly cited categories, and country and institute networks are detected, visualized and discussed. To conduct this analysis, all publications (35,712) in 23 top journals in the field of transport are extracted from the Institute for Scientific Information (Web of Science). The output of this article could be a valuable source for academics and practitioners working in the field of transport planning and those who work in the areas having a strong relationship with transport issues including mathematicians, economics, operation research, management and geography.
This paper investigates the impact of publicly funded university–industry collaboration on UK firms’ R&D effort. We test the hypotheses that project participation has a positive effect on firms’ R&D expenditure per employee and on their share of R&D employment. The paper exploits a novel source of data made up of a set of U–I projects funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council between 1997 and 2007 and firm-level data available through the UK Office for National Statistics. We employ propensity score matching to select an appropriate control group of untreated firms on the basis of the probability that they participate to U–I partnerships. We then estimate the impact of participation on firms’ R&D effort in two points in time via ordinary least squares regression. The results show a positive and significant impact on the share of R&D employment two years after the end of projects. This is also confirmed by a robustness check. A positive effect on R&D expenditure per employee is found both at the end of the project and two years later. These findings are highly relevant for policy, given that U–I collaboration is among the most frequent policy instruments put in place by local and national policy-makers to foster pre-competitive research and firms’ R&D activities.
Research question: This study conceptualizes and tests the impact of a coopetition-based open innovation approach on organizational performance of nonprofit sports clubs. In particular, it examines the effect of collaborations with competitors (i.e. coopetition) on the organizational performance of clubs via both use of outside knowledge and the adoption of new services, processes, and business models (i.e. organizational-level innovations).
Research methods: A statewide online survey with 292 members of the board of directors of nonprofit sports clubs was conducted in Germany (Saarland). The survey used valid and reliable scales and considered self-reported financial stability and membership development as organizational performance indicators. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the mediation model.
Results and findings: The proposed coopetition-based open innovation model has a good model fit. Engagement in coopetition has a positive effect on organizational performance via two sequential mediators: use of outside knowledge and innovation implementation. In addition, use of outside knowledge has a direct positive effect on organizational performance.
Implications: Nonprofit sports clubs should take advantage of collaborations with competitors and exploit external knowledge to the best of their abilities. The adoption of new services, processes, and business models on the organizational level helps nonprofit sports clubs stay competitive in an increasingly contested sports services market. The study provides both theoretical and managerial implications that help sports clubs innovate and increase organizational performance.
Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to pursue a comprehensive review of the progress of open innovation literature.
Design/methodology/approach
– Using a wide range of literature sources, altogether 293 articles relevant to the study’s objective were identified for statistical analysis. Moreover, contributory articles published from 2003 to June 2015 were included for content analysis.
Findings
– The study contributes in two ways. First, based on content analysis of the selected contributory articles, the authors shed light on the overall development of the open innovation literature and highlight the findings of significant studies. Second, the authors provide a detailed picture of the progress of open innovation literature by analyzing the comprehensive set of articles. Total yearly publication activity was calculated, and publication activity in different disciplines was addressed. The study unveils most influential articles, authors and journals that have discussed open innovation. The geographical locations of influential articles and authors are revealed. Additionally, frequently used keywords are listed.
Originality/value
– The authors present a new framework of open innovation research, highlight the progress of existing research and suggest avenues for future research.
Through an objective, systematic, and comprehensive review of the literature on open innovation (OI), this article identifies gaps in existing research, and provides recommendations on how hitherto unused or underused organizational, management, and marketing theories can be applied to advance the field. This study adopts a novel approach by combining two complementary bibliometric methods of co-citation analysis and text mining of 321 journal articles on OI that enables a robust empirical analysis of the intellectual streams and key concepts underpinning OI. Results reveal that researchers do not sufficiently draw on theoretical perspectives external to the field to examine multiple facets of OI. Research also seems confined to innovation-specific journals with its focus restricted to a select few OI issues, thereby exerting limited influence on the wider business community. This study reveals three distinct areas within OI research: (1) firm-centric aspects of OI, (2) management of OI networks, and (3) role of users and communities in OI. Thus far, studies have predominantly investigated the firm-centric aspects of OI, with a particular focus on the role of knowledge, technology, and R&D from the innovating firm's perspective, while the other two areas remain relatively under-researched. Further gaps in the literature emerge that present avenues for future research, namely to: (1) develop a more comprehensive understanding of OI by including diverse perspectives (users, networks, and communities), (2) direct increased attention to OI strategy formulation and implementation, and (3) enhance focus on customer co-creation and conceptualize “open service innovation.” Marketing (e.g., service-dominant logic), organizational behavior (e.g., communities of practice), and management (e.g., dynamic capabilities) offer suitable theoretical lenses and/or concepts to address these gaps.
This paper provides an objective, systematic and integrated review of the Western academic literature on adventure tourism to discover the theoretical foundations and key themes underlying the field by combining three complementary approaches of bibliometric analysis, content analysis and a quantitative systematic review. Some 114 publications on adventure tourism were identified that revealed three broad areas of foci with adventure tourism research: (1) adventure tourism experience, (2) destination planning and development, and (3) adventure tourism operators. Adventure tourism has an intellectual tradition from multiple disciplines, such as the social psychology of sport and recreation. There is an under-representation of studies examining non-Western tourists in their own geographic contexts or non-Western tourists in Western geographic contexts. Our findings pave ways for developing a more robust framework and holistic understanding of the adventure tourism field.
Firms increasingly acquire technological knowledge from external sources to improve their innovation performance. This strategic approach is known as inbound open innovation. The existing empirical evidence regarding the impact of inbound open innovation on performance, however, is ambiguous. The equivocal results are due to moderating factors that influence a firm's ability to acquire technological knowledge from external sources and to transform it into innovation outputs. This paper focuses on a relevant yet overlooked category of moderating factors: organization of research and development ( R & D ). It explores two organizational mechanisms: one informal and external‐oriented (involvement of external consultants in R & D activities) and one formalized and internal‐oriented (existence of a dedicated R & D unit), in the acquisition of technological knowledge through R & D outsourcing, a particular contractual form for inbound open innovation.
Drawing on a capabilities perspective and using a longitudinal dataset of 841 S panish manufacturing firms observed over the period 1999–2007, this paper provides a fine‐grained analysis of the moderating effects of the two organizational mechanisms. The involvement of external consultants in R & D activities strengthens the impact of inbound open innovation on innovation performance by increasing marginal benefits of acquiring external technological knowledge through R & D outsourcing. Moreover, it reduces the level of inbound open innovation to which the highest innovation performance corresponds. Instead, the existence of a dedicated R & D unit makes the firm less sensitive to changes in the level of inbound open innovation, by reducing marginal benefits of acquiring external technological knowledge through R & D outsourcing, and increases the level of inbound open innovation to which the highest innovation performance corresponds.
The results regarding the role of informal and formalized R & D organizational mechanisms contribute to research on open innovation and absorptive capacity, and also inform managers as to what organizational mechanism is recommended to acquire external technological knowledge, depending on the objectives that the firm pursues.