The organizational determinants of open innovation: a literature framework and future research directions

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the organizational determinants of open innovation (OI). A review of 154 publications taken from management and innovation journals makes us identify four dimensions of ‘resource-related’ organizational factors that can determine OI: resource investment (what or how many resources are being invested), organizational structure (where resources are being attributed), human capital (who or what individual-level characteristics are) and the attitudes of individuals (how resources are being treated). We also identify core theoretical lenses and propose moderating and mediating mechanisms that can explain the relationship between the dimensions and OI. Based on this, we generate a literature framework and propose that the effects of organizational factors on the implementation of OI can be achieved by influencing firms’ dynamic abilities, and that these effects vary across costs-related contingencies. We also suggest several directions for addressing relevant unexplored questions within the framework.