Open innovation, product portfolio innovativeness and firm performance: the dual role of new product development capabilities

Abstract

Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon of open innovation (OI), empirical evidence documenting the link between new product development capabilities, OI practices, and new product innovativeness is scarce. Eminent scholars have called for large-scale studies that systematically investigate the OI paradigm. Drawing on the knowledgebased view of the firm, new product development, and NPD capabilities literature streams, we conceptualize a framework in which OI practices are disentangled according to the stage of the new product development process in which they occur (development stage or commercialization stage). We identify two major types of OI practices: development-centric OI ( w h i c h o c c u r s i n t h e d e v e l o p m e n t s t a g e ) a n d commercialization-centric OI (which occurs in the commercialization stage). Specific types of NPD capabilities-R&D, market information management, and launch-are expected to both influence the extent to which each OI practice is implemented and moderate the effect of each OI practice on product portfolio innovativeness and firm performance. The empirical analysis combines primary data from a survey of 239 firms with secondary data on innovation and financial outcomes. Our results support our hypotheses and indicate a need to differentiate among the different kinds of OI practices while elaborating on the complex role played by NPD capabilities in influencing OI practices.

Relationships among open innovation, innovative performance, government support and firm size: Comparing Brazilian firms embracing different levels of radicalism in innovation

“…However, this situation hinders the company's incremental innovation performance. Rubera et al (2016) found that, when complemented by market information and the strong involvement of the R&D department, OI practices positively influence the number of new-to-firm products that firms develop and introduce to markets.…”

“…Several publications seek to demonstrate the main practices that companies operating in different countries and economic sectors adopt in order to operationalize OI (Van de Vrande et al, 2009;Cheng and Huizingh, 2014). Other studies show the influence of relationships between the application of OI practices and firm performance (Burcharth et al, 2014;Greco et al, 2015;Rubera et al, 2016). However, conclusions regarding the nature of the relationship remain uncertain (Cheng and Shiu, 2015).…”

Innovation for and from emerging countries: a closer look at the antecedents of trickle-down and reverse innovation

“…We collect data on new product launches in 51 countries from Mintel GNPD, 4 a database that records launches in the packaged food industry and provides a wide range of detailed information including price, packaging claims, and the date a new product is launched in a country. The prior studies using this database include Calantone et al (2014), Cillo et al (2018), and Rubera et al (2016). Mintel GNPD categorizes launches in five categories: New Product, New Packaging, New Variety, New Formulation, and Re-launch.…”

An empirical investigation of the antecedents and performance outcomes of export innovativeness

“…Innovation requires external learning, including market learning and network learning, and internal learning, including R&D. A firm must acquire information from every possible source in order to develop leading edge innovative products to fulfill the market's needs (Weerawardena, Mort, Liesch, & Knight, 2007). Recent studies have shown that expanding the scope of information from external ideas and technologies, enables firms with high flow of informational exchange to detect future market trends and develop innovations to capitalize on them (Rubera, Chandrasekaran, & Ordanini 2015;Zhou & Li, 2012). For instance, strong channel relationships increase international channel performance through reduced transaction related costs (Zhang, Cavusgil, & Roath, 2003).…”