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From the organisational perspective, the authors know that management, including innovation management, becomes less “organised” by bureaucracy and administrative tools, and much more impacted by organisational capabilities, competences and hidden, “soft” routines, bringing innovation and creativity to the core of organisation. The purpose of this paper is to focus on competency sets for open innovation (OI) and is to provide recommendations for OI competency development in companies, linked to the core OI processes.

The research is exploratory and aims at theory-based practical indication combining deductive identification of competency clusters and inductive model development. Thus, the authors apply quantitative methods to data collection and analysis. The authors conducted an extensive literature review on competence challenges with regard to execution of OI, and empirical data analysis based on a large-scale structured industrial survey in Europe (N=264), leading to the development of competency sets for companies. SPSS tools are applied for empirical tests.

The authors develop a generic OI competency model applicable across industries, combined with organisational implications for sustaining OI management capabilities. The research clusters competencies based on the empirical analysis, which addresses the various challenges of OI, leading to recommendations for competency management in an OI context.

The data were collected from one key informant per company. Although the authors made efforts to ensure that this was a senior manager responsible for innovation, the authors cannot exclude some bias in the way that OI activities and related competencies are perceived. Exploratory nature of the research, which calls for a more systematic investigation of the OI activity modes and the OI competencies resulting competency model. In particular, the competencies could be tested on an inter-professional sample of employees with involvement in and/or responsibility for innovation, development, and HR management, as well as on leaders of innovating companies. Third, although significant in size for the analyses undertaken, the sample is not large enough to enable a more fine-tuned analysis of regional differences across Europe in the way that OI is managed through the development and implementation of competencies.

The research contributes to the OI management field with an outlined OI competency profile that can be implemented flexibly and tailored to individual firm’s needs. It brings indications for both further theory building and practice of innovation organisation, especially with regard to human resource development and organisational capability building for OI.

The social implications of the paper result from the contribution to innovation management competency development in OI regimes, which is an important tool for designing contemporary educational programmes, contributes to OI management sophistication in business which is especially important during the economy slowdown and search for new sources of growth and productivity, and supports firms productive engagement in OI ecosystems and collective technology upgrading towards higher societal benefits and stakeholder involvement.

An empirically grounded OI competency model is proposed with an implication to support human resource development for OI. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no prior attempt to build such a model. The distinguished feature of the research is its extensive European coverage of 35 countries and multinational scope. The empirical validation strategy makes the research extremely relevant for management decisions related to human factors related OI capability development in organisations.

This study aims to investigate the effects of open innovation (OI) and big data analytics (BDA) on reflective knowledge exchange (RKE) within the context of complex collaborative networks. Specifically, it considers the relationships between sourcing knowledge from an external environment, transferring knowledge to an external environment and adopting solutions that are useful to appropriate returns from innovation.

This study analyzes the connection between the number of patent applications and the amount of OI, as well as the association between the number of patent applications and the use of BDA. Data from firms in the 27 European Union countries were retrieved from the Eurostat database for the period 2014–2019 and were investigated using an ordinary least squares regression analysis.

Because of its twofold lens based on both knowledge management and OI, this study sheds light on OI collaboration modes and highlights the crucial role they could play in innovation. In particular, the results suggest that OI collaboration modes have a strong effect on innovation performance, stimulating the search for RKE.

This study furthers a deeper understanding of RKE, which is shown to be an important mechanism that incentivizes firms to increase their efforts in the innovation process. Further, RKE supports firms in taking full advantage of the innovative knowledge they generate within their inter-organizational network.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of firms’ features on innovation performance in Industry 4.0, focusing on the concepts of breadth and depth of openness in the innovation process.

Using data gathered from 96 firms active in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in Italy, a Poisson regression analysis is conducted to investigate the relationship between the openness of firms’ innovation processes at the level of knowledge sources and their innovation performance in I4.0.

The results highlight the relationship between the level of openness and innovative performance in I4.0. In particular, the breadth of the openness of the innovation process of enterprises is curvilinearly related to innovation in I4.0, taking an inverted U-shape.

Managers of firms operating in I4.0 should consider openness as a strategic response to the knowledge requirements and risks associated with the innovation process in complex technologies.

Through the questionnaires administered mainly to highly qualified individuals, an original and unique database has been created with information on the openness of the innovative process and the innovation performances in I4.0.

This study aims to examine direct effects of qualified team gatekeepers on absorptive capacity (AC), and the mediating roles of combinative capabilities – knowledge integration capability (KIC) and interteam coordination.

A social networking analysis was used to analyze a unique data set collected from all members of 32 Japanese research and development (R&D) teams to identify key individuals who perform daily gatekeeping functions. This study analyzed the data through partial least squares structural equation modeling with higher-order latent variables. Finally, cross-validation tests were used with holdout samples to test the model’s predictive validity.

Qualified gatekeepers directly contribute to teams’ realized AC but not to their potential AC. Furthermore, qualified gatekeepers can improve their teams’ capability to absorb and exploit external knowledge by facilitating their capability to consolidate knowledge, that is, its KIC and interteam coordination.

Unlike prior research that asks top managers to identify team gatekeepers, this study used social network analysis to identify these vital individuals. This study provides a new framework indicating how qualified gatekeepers impact the AC of R&D teams through the examination of both the direct and indirect paths of gatekeeping abilities, two combinative capabilities as mediators and team AC.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how organisational activities that formally provide employees with work autonomy explain the performance of open innovation (OI).

The study reports the results of mediation analyses conducted on the basis of survey data from 307 firms.

The economic benefits of both inbound and outbound OI are fully captured only if firms provide employees with time, freedom and independence. The results show that employee autonomy fully mediates the relationship between openness and innovation sales, while the adoption of inbound OI is positively associated with the introduction of new products.

The opening of innovation induces managers to provide employees with discretion, as OI requires high levels of flexibility and experimentation.

The paper addresses theoretically and empirically the role of job design in the implementation of OI, while also distinguishing between the effects of inbound and outbound practices on innovation performance.

This paper examines the innovation behavior of family-owned firms versus non-family-owned firms. The role of internal family governance and the influence of external stimuli (competition) on innovation are also considered.

The data of 20,995 family and non-family firms across 38 countries are derived from the World Bank Enterprise Survey during the period 2019–2020. Probit models are used to examine the impact of family ownership, family governance, and competition on innovation outcomes.

Family firms are more likely to make R&D investments, acquire external knowledge, engage in product innovation (including innovations that are new to the market) and process innovation, relative to non-family firms. However, a high propensity of family member involvement in top management positions can reduce innovation. Competition has a negative impact on innovation outcomes for both family and non-family firms, but it has a positive moderating effect on the innovation activities of family firms where a higher level of family member involvement in management is present.

This paper provides novel insights into family firm innovation dynamics by identifying family firms as more innovative than non-family firms for all types of indicators, debunking the idea that family firms are conservative, reluctant to change, and averse to the risks in innovation activities. However, too much family involvement in decision making may stifle some innovation activities in family firms, except in cases where the operating environment is highly competitive; this provides new insights into the ownership-management dynamic of family firms.

We address the following research questions: (1) Is the innovation trajectory of the acquirer affected by previous acquisitions? (2) In which direction knowledge recombination from the acquisition is pushed further? (3) Is the technological acquisition more a means for knowledge exploration and radical innovation or, on the contrary, a way for consolidating previous technological specialization?

The nature of this study is exploratory; therefore, we opted for an inductive approach based on the L'Oréal case study analysis. Data were triangulated from different sources: (a) the L'Oréal website and press releases collected in the 2009–2015 period; (b) journal articles and books on the global cosmetics industry and the insightful work of Jones (2010); (c) the Questel Orbit database containing data on patents; and (d) the Zephyr – Bureau van Dijk database containing information on the acquisitions of firms.

Empirical evidence from a patent data analysis reveals a paradoxical path. On the one hand, acquisitions enable the company to explore new technological spaces; on the other hand, they allow it to reinforce a preexisting technological trajectory, even when the knowledge base of the target is distant from that of the acquirer. Thus, in our case study, the absorption and recombination of knowledge from a variety of domains support specialization more than diversification technology strategies.

We add to innovation management literature a new perspective, by offering a detailed analysis, through patent data, of the knowledge recombination process, led by technological acquisitions.

The authors’ contention in this paper is that the expression of subsidiary strategy in IB literature has become fragmented and incomplete. Therefore, this study aims to propose a rethink on how IB scholarship approaches the important issue of subsidiary strategy by holistically examining the discrete and integrated set of activities, choices and decisions that constitute the subsidiary strategy process for, in this context, assuming a competence-creating role within the multinational enterprise (MNE).

A conceptual model is designed to illustrate the holistic process of subsidiary strategy from assigned to assumed role and how a subsidiary can navigate a pathway to elevated performance and survival.

The paper identifies the key integrated elements that constitute a holistic strategic process that can enhance a subsidiary’s standing within the MNE and maximise its survival prospects.

Particular focus is placed on subsidiaries that strategise to advance their internal corporate role to competence creator via upgraded knowledge capabilities.

This paper offers a roadmap for IB scholars to contribute to a future discourse around the subsidiary strategy process for assuming a competence-creating role.

Regarding the premises of open innovation (OI) in terms of knowledge sources, this paper aims to discuss how to manage the existing sources of knowledge in supply chains.

An integrative review was developed focusing on studies related to supply chain and OI, seeking to understand the relationships between them, supporting the innovative discussion.

The SIPOC-OI was proposed as a tool to support the management of knowledge sources present in the supply chain, promoting efficiency to the company and improving its innovative capacity.

The conceptual proposal should be empirically verified to understand the management tool's obstacles and benefits for a company's innovation performance. Additionally, it would be useful to understand the results of this proposal in the relationships between agents of the chain, as well as the direction (inbound, outbound or coupled). Additionally, relevant points were highlighted as future agendas.

The point of view based on OI treats the collaboration's aspects and its benefits to agents, which becomes an essential factor in improving the entire chain's integration and performance.

The analysis of the flow of knowledge in supply chains from an OI perspective is an innovation in theory. Besides, the multidisciplinary proposal is expressed in the framework developed as it is based on a tool from engineering. Supply chain competencies/mindset is important to develop OI as well as is the contrary – there is a mutual practical and theoretical relevance between the integration of the concepts.

This paper reviews the literature, foundational works and current trends related to the adoption of open innovation (OI) practices in the food industry, with a particular focus on the food value chain, using a bibliometric and content analysis approach.

This study is based on 84 published documents in the field of food OI obtained using the Scopus database. First, a bibliometric analysis was conducted using a bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis approach to understand the common themes and key clusters of food OI research. It further highlighted authors, countries, journals, years of publication and subject areas to comprehend the scope of the established literature. Second, a content analysis was undertaken to examine the titles and abstracts of the documents to explore the intersection of OI and the food value chain.

This study provides an integrated framework of the intersection of OI and the food value chain, including information about under-researched and emerging areas in the field of food innovation. It also highlights the critical challenges associated with OI food research and practices.

Practitioners can use the findings to uncover areas with limited open innovation adoption in the food value chain. They can identify extended research areas to explore the food value chain using an open innovation perspective, in different contexts within the food and beverage (F&B) industry. The framework can also be used for conducting comparative studies of current food innovation trends across different contexts within the F&B industry.

By adopting a multi-step approach involving a computer-assisted bibliometric examination complemented by a manual review undertaken through the lens of the food value chain, this literature review provides fresh and unique insights into past and present research on OI in the food industry and paves the way for future studies by laying out specific research avenues.