TITLE:
Sequential Coherence: A Novel Determinant of Open Innovation Performance
AUTHORS:
Shanta R. Yapa, R. Senathiraja, Jurgen Poesche, Ilkka Kauranen
KEYWORDS:
Open Innovation, Innovation Performance, Knowledge Flow, Boundary Conditions, Sequential Coherence
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.9 No.9,
September
5,
2019
ABSTRACT: Despite its popularity as a strategy to accelerate innovations there is evidence
that open innovation does not always increase innovation performance. Extant
literature provides inconsistent and inconclusive arguments in respect of
the relationship between open innovation practices and innovation performance.
Existing theories mostly have an internal focus and fall short of explaining
why some firms succeed in open innovation initiatives and why others
fail. Open innovation is about knowledge flows. We argue that boundary
conditions matter in innovation performance and sequential coherence can
explain why some succeed while others fail in open innovation. A qualitative
inquiry we made reveals that sequential coherence that facilitates the knowledge
transfer at boundary level influences innovation performance in open
innovation initiatives. Sequential coherence is measured through the push
and the pull effects by willingness and ability of the participants of teacher
firm and the preparedness and ability of the participants from the student
firm respectively. We trust that our findings bridge a gap in open innovation
literature. These initial findings could be generalized through a quantitative
study with larger samples. Managerial implications of the finding is that ability
to scan the entire chain of knowledge flow across boundaries and taking
corrective measures for any bottlenecks or hindrances observed can bring
better results from open innovation initiatives. Further, sequential coherence
leads to multiple research opportunities in furthering our knowledge in open
innovation.