Open innovation actions and innovation performance: A literature review of European empirical evidence
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the recurrences in the empirical evidences that link open innovation (OI) actions and innovation performance in European countries. It provides managers with useful strategic suggestions, emphasizes the limitations of the state of the art, and recommends future directions of research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors systematically reviewed empirical articles linking OI actions and innovation performance in European countries, published on peer reviewed journals from January 2003 until May 2013. The authors organized the evidences according to a novel taxonomy grounded in the literature.
Findings
The paper shows an increasing interest in the research of empirical evidence regarding OI and innovation performance. Nonetheless, evidence of the role played by outbound OI activities are extremely rare. The authors found that process innovations are more likely to benefit from coupled OI activities rather than inbound activities. Moreover, the effect of coupled depth actions on both product and process innovation performance was always positive in the reviewed articles. The authors also discuss how scholars measure innovation performance, pointing out the criticalities.
Research limitations/implications
The paper allows analysing the empirical evidences found in the literature, emphasizing the limitations of the state of the art and recommending future directions of research.
Practical implications
The systematization of the empirical evidences found in the European literature provides managers with useful strategic suggestions to improve their organizations’ innovation performances.
Originality/value
The paper contains a complete and extensive analysis of empirical OI literature with respect to European countries. The articles and their findings are organized according to a novel taxonomy useful to identify evidences and recurrences in a synoptic manner.
Keywords
Citation
Greco, M., Grimaldi, M. and Cricelli, L. (2015), "Open innovation actions and innovation performance: A literature review of European empirical evidence", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 150-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-07-2013-0074
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited