Navigating Inbound Open Innovation and Demand–Pull Attention
Lindstaedt, Hagen Tietze, Marco
Lindstaedt, Hagen
Tietze, Marco
Publication Type
Conference Proceeding
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2017-08
Journal
Book
Academy of Management Proceedings
Publication Volume
2017
Publication Issue
1
Publication Begin page
15609
Publication End page
15609
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
This study sheds light on the interdependencies between concepts of inbound open innovation and demand-pull attention while aiming for radical product innovations. We suggest a holistic framework and specify four sources of open innovation, i.e., collaboration with suppliers and customers/consumers, as well as competitors and external research institutions. While inbound open innovation concepts serve as a source of external knowledge in terms of a resource, demand-pull attention shows an ex ante alignment with market characteristics and needs as opposed to pushing resources towards markets. Based on a large German longitudinal panel consisting of 1,365 firm-year observations from 2003–2013, we conceptualize measurement of open innovation sources’ intensities, demand-pull dimensions’ attention, and radical product innovation using computer-aided text analysis of annual reports. Our analyses suggest that radical product innovation activities are positively driven by collaboration with competitors and external research institutions as well as by attention towards market environment and market demand orientation. However, the positive effect of openness diminishes for those companies being strongly pull- oriented, demanding for a closer look into interaction effects and the role of transaction and organizational costs of knowledge absorptive innovation processes and interfaces.