Value Creation and Value Capture in Open Innovation

Abstract

Open innovation has attracted a significant amount of attention from scholars and practitioners. Prior research on open innovation has mainly focused on collaborative inventing. However, understanding the processes and outcomes of joint inventing is not sufficient for understanding sustained open‐innovation activities and the competitive advantages of the actors involved in open innovation. Instead, an understanding of value creation and value capture is paramount for advancing our understanding of sustained open‐innovation activities. Open innovation requires collaboration among distributed but interdependent actors who rely on each other’s capabilities for value creation and capture. Value in open innovation is driven not only by actors’ value creation but also by their ability to capture value. While value creation and value capture are discussed in the open‐innovation literature, the advancement of this stream of research is hindered by conceptual ambiguity, especially in relation to the concept of value capture. This article adopts a value perspective on open innovation, offers consistent conceptualizations of value creation and value capture, and outlines potential avenues for further research at the interface of open innovation, value creation, and value capture.

Value Creation and Value Capture Alignment in Business Model Innovation: A Process View on Outcome‐Based Business Models

“…Indeed, none of the above‐mentioned studies has done so from the perspective of business model innovation, underplaying important dynamics between value creation and value capture—vital components that undergo significant revision in the shift to outcome‐based service provision. In particular, the dominant focus in these prior studies seems to be on understanding how to create value rather than how to capture it (Chesbrough et al, ). By applying the business model innovation perspective, this study extends the servitization literature by emphasizing the value capture perspective and developing novel insights into the key activities, phases, and requirements for value creation and value capture along the business model innovation process (Sjödin et al, ).…”

“…To summarize our perspective on this theoretical background, we argue that the research community's understanding of how business model innovation processes unfold is still limited and in need of further insightful research. Specifically, there is a dearth of studies addressing the alignment between value creation and value capture in business model innovation (Chesbrough et al, ; Saebi and Foss, ). We argue that the context of outcome‐based services is particularly relevant to study such processes and may provide important insights into the literature on servitization and business model innovation.…”

“…From the perspective of the business model literature, there is also an important knowledge gap concerning the design and implementation of valuecreation and value-capture processes across organizational boundaries (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Saebi and Foss, 2015). For instance, the existing research on open business models has mostly concentrated on value-creating processes, directing less attention to complementary value capture processes (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Desyllas and Sako, 2013).…”

“…From the perspective of the business model literature, there is also an important knowledge gap concerning the design and implementation of valuecreation and value-capture processes across organizational boundaries (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Saebi and Foss, 2015). For instance, the existing research on open business models has mostly concentrated on value-creating processes, directing less attention to complementary value capture processes (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Desyllas and Sako, 2013). Moreover, scholars have recently called for increased focus on the alignment between value creation and value capture processes in interorganizational relationships (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Ritter and Lettl, 2018;Sjödin, Parida, Kohtamäki, and Wincent, 2020).…”

“…For instance, the existing research on open business models has mostly concentrated on value-creating processes, directing less attention to complementary value capture processes (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Desyllas and Sako, 2013). Moreover, scholars have recently called for increased focus on the alignment between value creation and value capture processes in interorganizational relationships (Chesbrough et al, 2018;Ritter and Lettl, 2018;Sjödin, Parida, Kohtamäki, and Wincent, 2020). Alignment essentially concerns the "appropriateness" of the various elements/processes (i.e., creation and capture) in relation to each other (Chorn, 1991), and while it is often mentioned, this concept is seldom studied in detail in the business model innovation context (Kranich and Wald, 2018;Ritter and Lettl, 2018).…”