The impact of open-border organization culture and employees’ knowledge, attitudes, and rewards with regards to open innovation: an empirical study

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to fill a significant research gap in academic literature pertaining to open innovation (OI). To do so, this paper empirically tests the impact of organizational culture, employees’ knowledge, attitudes and rewards as antecedents and mediators of OI adoption in organizations, facilitating a more thorough understanding by using an empirical multi-level approach. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyzes the results of the “Identification of Industrial Needs for Open Innovation Education in Europe” survey through a quantitative analysis using logistic regression models. This survey includes 528 employees working in 28 different industrial sectors in 37 countries, most of which are in Europe. Findings The results suggest a positive impact of organizational characteristics on the adoption of OI (i.e. including the adoption of outside-in and inside-out OI activities in participating organizations), showing that the openness of an organization’s culture increases its likelihood of adopting an OI paradigm. More importantly, the results highlight the positive mediating effect of employees’ knowledge and rewards on this relationship. Research limitations/implications The data set that was the basis of this paper was generated in European countries, the results of the analysis are limited and appropriate for this region and may vary when applied to other regions of the world. Practical implications The proposed multi-level approach offers new insight into organizational knowledge. It enables the improvement of OI and knowledge management practices in organizations by assisting practitioners and academics in recognizing the relationship between organizational culture; employees’ knowledge, attitudes and rewards; and the adoption of the OI paradigm. Social implications This paper offers a possible explanation on why open-border cultures are more likely to have a successful OI adoption, by relating it to factors that advance in the presence of an open-border culture, such as active participation of OI relative departments in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, and rewarding employees for OI activities. Originality/value This paper presents a new framework which links organizational culture to OI, moving on from merely examining culture in terms of its positive or negative impact on OI adoption. It contributes to research on the OI paradigm and knowledge management by highlighting the significance of antecedents and mediators from a multi-level perspective using multiple units of analysis. Most previous studies focus on a single unit of analysis.

Accident Risk in the Production Sector of EU Countries—Cohort Studies

“…All of the above results may seemingly indicate that, in the so-called “old” EU, the level of worker safety in the production sector is much lower than in this sector in the so-called “new” EU. However, in fact, these results may indicate differences in the approach to safety and accident recording in individual countries due to differences in national and organizational culture [ 25 , 26 ].…”

“…All of the above results may seemingly indicate that, in the so-called "old" EU, the level of worker safety in the production sector is much lower than in this sector in the so-called "new" EU. However, in fact, these results may indicate differences in the approach to safety and accident recording in individual countries due to differences in national and organizational culture [25,26]. The concept of Industry 4.0 [23], promoted and implemented in recent years, announced by the German Chancellor, based on, inter alia, the issue of BigData, assumes that the user/decision maker has virtually unlimited access to all information resources, including those that are related to all accidents at work [27].…”

Open Innovation in the Visegrád Four Countries: A Literature Review

“…Several studies have dealt with the relation between Open Innovation and company culture. According to Alassaf et al (2020), openness of the company culture increases the probability of adoption of the OI concept (including both outside-in and insideout types). Employees′ knowledge and rewards for OI activities also have positive impact.…”

A knowledge management culture in the European higher education system

“…The research by D. Alassaf, M. Dabić, D. Shifrer, and T. Daim draws attention to the fact that an important place in the organization of knowledge management culture in the modern system of higher education is occupied by open inno vations and technologies for their transfer [19] [19].…”

“…The study by D. Alassaf, et al explains the reason why cul tures of open borders are more likely to have a successful im plementation of open innovations and, accordingly, to be more successful in a competitive space [19].…”