How firms use inbound Open

Innovation practices over time:

evidence from an exploratory
multiple case study analysis
Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi ,
Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla
School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy. [email protected], daniel.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Firms are increasingly making use of Open Innovation in an attempt to get the most out
of external ideas and knowledge in their innovation processes. The existing research on
Open Innovation documents a broad set of practices that firms may use to implement
inbound Open Innovation, which entail various degrees of integration with the external
partner. There is also empirical evidence showing how firms move from a closed to an open
approach to innovation over time. However, there is limited empirical work that docu-
ments if and how firms that start using open innovation change and evolve the practices
through which inbound open innovation is implemented over time. This paper, relying on
an exploratory analysis of nine case studies, adopts a temporal perspective to examine
how and why firms use different practices for inbound open innovation over time, with
attempts at offering a tentative explanation of the underlying drivers triggering this evolu-
tion. This paper contributes to the scholarly debate on the organisational enablers of Open
Innovation and provides managers involved in open innovation activities with insights into
the factors that may determine changes in their use of different inbound open innovation
practices over time.

1. Introduction topics in innovation research, with a vast number of

papers generated over the years (e.g. Randhawa et

O pen Innovation (OI) has become a dominant ap-

proach in innovation management over the last
10 years (Enkel et al., 2020). It was introduced by
al., 2016; Lopes et al., 2018).
The impact of OI has gone far beyond the aca-
demic realm, becoming a leading paradigm in innova-
Chesbrough (2003) who popularised the idea that tion practise and influencing policymaking (Bogers et
firms can –­and should –­seek out external sources of al., 2018). Scholars have even used it as an approach
ideas and knowledge and look for new paths to mar- to develop research on the topic itself (Bogers et al.,
ket for their technologies in order to maximise their 2017). However, it still needs to be further explored and
returns on their innovation efforts. Open innovation studied in spite of the many years of intensive research
has quickly become one of the most hotly debated that has already gone into it (West and Bogers, 2017).

548 © 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat​ive Commo​ns Attri​bution License, which permits use,
distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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How firms use inbound Open Innovation practices over time

Even the definition of open innovation has become innovations through the App store. It is also true
broader and more inclusive over the years, and today, that firms start using open innovation cautiously, by
OI is typically conceived as ‘a distributed innovation experimenting with different OI practises over time
process based on purposively managed knowledge (Van de Vrande et al., 2009). As such, it is very likely
flows across organisation boundaries’ (Chesbrough that they will evolve their approaches to OI on the
and Bogers, 2014). Different knowledge flows char- basis of the results of these early experiments. That
acterise the two main typologies of OI: inbound and said, there is no research that aims to understand the
outbound. Inbound OI involves firms using external patterns and logics of this kind of temporal evolu-
sources of knowledge, technologies and ideas as an tion. Do firms start from simple approaches, such as
input for their innovation process: these sources could calls for ideas, and then move on to more complex,
include customers, suppliers and anyone that may be capital-­
intensive practises, such as acquisitions?
related to the innovation object (e.g. Chesbrough, What are the drivers and implications of these evo-
2003; Laursen and Salter, 2004; Dodgson et al., lutions? Understanding these patterns will provide
2006). Outbound OI, meanwhile, requires firms to managers with insights and an awareness of the pos-
seek out new paths to market for their technologies sible patterns that their firm could follow over the
(Chesbrough, 2003). Technologies that do not fit the years in its application of open innovation. From an
current firm’s market or business model may still be academic perspective, this study will enhance our
valuable to other firms, segments or markets to which knowledge of the application of OI and its organisa-
they can be transferred (Gassmann and Enkel, 2004; tional determinants. The vast majority of OI research
Piller and Walcher, 2006; Danneels and Frattini, has only focussed on the processes firms go through
2018). Inbound OI is more common and more widely when they shift from closed to open innovation, the
practised compared with outbound OI (e.g. West and organisational choices which enable the implemen-
Bogers, 2014; Cheng et al., 2020), and it represents tation of OI, and the practises used to put OI into
the focus of this paper. action. However, this has largely been done by taking
OI has challenged many firms’ long-­established a cross-­sectional approach, without paying enough
closed approaches to innovation over time. For attention to the temporal dimensions of the adop-
instance, in the 1980s, Apple was a major example tion of OI (Chiaroni et al., 2011; Dąbrowska et al.,
of the closed and vertical approach, in contrast with 2019). This paper aims to contribute to this scholarly
IBM, Intel and Microsoft (Cusumano and Gawer, debate and is based on an exploratory multiple case
2002). Its strategy has since significantly changed, study analysis which sheds light on this peculiar evo-
and the firm has started to practise different kinds of lutionary aspect associated with the adoption of OI.
inbound approaches, such as the acquisition of start-­ In summary, the goal of this study is to understand
ups, partnerships with competitors (Gomes-­Casseres, how and why the adoption of OI practises evolves
2014), and the creation of the app store, which within any given firm over time. The remainder of
enables any developer to advance the innovation of the paper is therefore structured as follows: Section 2
software for the iPhone (Parker et al., 2017). Scholars introduces and classifies the main practises used
have studied this shift, highlighting the major dimen- to implement inbound OI. Section 3 introduces the
sions involved during this process such as networks, methodology. Sections 4 and 5 present the findings
organisational structures, evaluation processes and of the research and discuss them through the lenses
knowledge management systems (Chiaroni et al., of previous research, whilst Section 6 concludes the
2010, 2011). As a result, there is some theoretical and paper with a summary of the main contributions.
empirical knowledge about how a closed approach
to innovation can change into an open one over time
(e.g. Bianchi et al., 2011; Buganza et al., 2011). 2. Theoretical background
Very limited attention has been paid in schol-
arly research to understanding whether, once a firm Inbound OI is recognised as an ‘outside-­ in pro-
has decided to use open innovation, it changes the cess’, which refers to opening up the innovation
practises used to implement OI. Interestingly, this is process to seeking out and making use of external
something that appears to happen in reality. Again, sources of knowledge, typically found in collab-
one example comes from the history of Apple: at the oration with suppliers, customers, universities,
beginning of its open innovation journey, the firm research centres and consultants (Gassmann and
mostly used in-­licencing and acquisitions. It later Enkel, 2004; Cheng et al., 2020). The main advan-
created an innovation platform: the iPhone and the tages of inbound OI relate to a reduction in R&D
iOS system enable anyone to further innovation by costs and the time-­to-­market of innovation projects,
building on existing advances, then distributing these the increased innovativeness of the newly developed

© 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 549
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Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla

products and services (Cheng and Huizingh, 2010) nuance for this practise (Deschamps et al., 2013).
and the opportunity to leverage external knowledge Both alliances and networking may take place
through better external relationships (Marullo et al., across industries (Chesbrough and Schwartz, 2007;
2021). One of the potential drawbacks of inbound OI Enkel and Gassmann, 2010) or involve some form
is a reduction in the firm’s R&D capabilities, as the of competition (Cassiman et al., 2009; Bouncken et
firm focusses more on internalising and assimilating al., 2015).
external knowledge and technologies rather than its Establishing connextions with external knowl-
own in-­house developments. As such, three evident edge in order to implement inbound OI may also
limitations emerge, namely: difficulties in the eval- require directly investing in fresh ideas that are being
uation and assimilation of knowledge developed crafted in the start-­up sphere –­for example through
by third parties (Katila and Ahuja, 2002); potential Corporate Venture Capital investments (Wadhwa
conflicts between different corporate cultures, the et al., 2016) –­or by bringing those ideas in-­house
so-­called ‘culture clash’ (Mortara et al., 2009) and by means of Corporate Incubators (Mortara and
high transaction costs linked with developing rela- Minshall, 2011).
tionships (Laursen and Salter, 2006; Stuermer et al., Establishing a separate business entity with an
2009). A wide array of practises used to implement external partner through a joint venture is another
inbound OI have emerged over time. The most rele- way to implement inbound OI. It incorporates the
vant practises in this regards are described and cate- knowledge of the external partner into the new busi-
gorised in the following sections. ness entity, thus merging it with the capabilities of
the firm (Dittrich and Duysters, 2007; Chesbrough
and Brunswicker, 2013).
2.1. Practises used to implement Finally, the option of completely embedding
inbound OI an external organisation within the firm through
Over the years, several practises for the implementa- an M&A transaction is also considered by many
tion of inbound OI have emerged and are documented scholars to be an inbound OI practise (Mawson and
in the literature (e.g. Chesbrough and Crowther, Brown, 2016).
2006; Lichtenthaler, 2009; Trabucchi et al., 2018).
Six main groups of practises stood out from the lit- 2.2. Varying goals and integration levels
erature review.
The most typical way to implement inbound OI
for inbound OI practises
is to involve external sources –­which may be users, The various inbound practises identified above sug-
suppliers, students or employees, among others –­to gest, on the one hand, that OI can be implemented in
propose ideas for a specific innovation challenge different ways and in particular with different levels
(Dell’Era et al., 2018; Randhawa et al., 2019). This of integration with the external sources of knowledge.
practise also has significant implications in product Indeed, the various practises require different levels
design, by pointing out –­for instance –­the role of of integration with firms’ operational activities, rang-
modularity (Naik et al., 2021). Recent contributions ing from crowdsourcing –­in which the participant
have also underlined the role that radical circles –­ in the call may not have any kind of interaction with
i.e. groups of people taking ‘radical’ positions in the the firm besides submitting their idea –­to an acquisi-
firm –­may have in providing input and knowledge tion, which would change the entire structure of the
to define new directions for innovation (Dell’Era et organisation. We can therefore classify inbound OI
al., 2020). practises in relation to the issue of institutionalising
Inbound OI may also involve in-­ licencing the collaboration between the parties for effective
Intellectual Property (IP), thus relying on pre-­existing implementation of OI. Elmquist et al. (2009) identify
knowledge developed outside the firm’s boundaries two key dimensions that characterise OI compared
that may be relevant to the ongoing innovation pro- with other innovation processes: (i) the locus where
cess (Laursen et al., 2010; Bianchi and Lejarraga, the innovation process is realised and (ii) the degree
2016). of collaboration between the firms. With regards to
Another way to implement inbound OI is to the locus, OI can take place either inside or outside
develop dedicated relationships with external part- the firm’s boundaries, involving various parties along
ners to develop knowledge collaboratively: these the entire value chain. Figure 1 summarises the main
alliances may take various forms. For instance, practises presented above, showing a growing level
joint research alliances, which can involve private of relative integration in the firms’ operations mov-
corporations and/or universities, is one possible ing from left to right.

550 R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 © 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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How firms use inbound Open Innovation practices over time

EĞƚǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ŽƌƉŽƌĂƚĞ sĞŶƚƵƌĞ :ŽŝŶƚ

ƌŽǁĚƐŽƵƌĐŝŶŐ /WͲŝŶ ůŝĐĞŶƐŝŶŐ ĐƋƵŝƐŝƚŝŽŶƐ
ĂŶĚ ůůŝĂŶĐĞƐ ĂƉŝƚĂů ĂŶĚ /ŶĐƵďĂƚŽƌƐ sĞŶƚƵƌĞƐ

>Žǁ >ĞǀĞů ŽĨ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚŝŽŶ ,ŝŐŚ

Figure 1. Levels of integration of various OI practises.

/ŶďŽƵŶĚ K/ ƉƌĂĐƚŝĐĞƐ ŵĂLJ ŚĞůƉ ĨŝƌŵƐ ƚŽ ƵƐĞ ĞdžƚĞƌŶĂů ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ

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ŵĂŬŝŶŐ ŝƚ ƋƵŝĐŬĞƌ Žƌ ƚŽ ƐŽůǀĞ ƉƌŽďůĞŵƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐ͘
ŝŶǀŽůǀĞŵĞŶƚ
'ŽĂů ŽĨ ƚŚĞ

/ŶďŽƵŶĚ K/ ƉƌĂĐƚŝĐĞƐ ŵĂLJ ŚĞůƉ ĨŝƌŵƐ ƚŽ ŝĚĞŶƚŝĨLJ ŶĞǁ ƉŽƐƐŝďůĞ ĚŝƌĞĐƚŝŽŶƐ͕ ŶĞǁ
^ĞŶƐŝŶŐ ŝĚĞĂƐ͕ ƐƚŝŵƵůŝ ĂŶĚ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ ƚŚĂƚ ŵĂLJ ŽƉĞŶ ŶĞǁ ĂǀĞŶƵĞƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƚŝŽŶ
WƌŽĐĞƐƐ͕ ĞǀĞŶ ŵŽǀŝŶŐ ĂǁĂLJ ĨƌŽŵ ƚƌĂĚŝƚŝŽŶĂů ĨŝĞůĚƐ ĂŶĚ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ ĂĐƚŝǀŝƚŝĞƐ͘

Figure 2. Goals of the involvement of external partners.

On the other hand, the literature also shows how by reducing costs or speeding up the process. This
inbound practises can be used for different purposes. second view identifies another peculiarity of inbound
Inbound OI can help firms when they stall following OI practises, namely the possibility of using them as
the early success and fail to move past ordinary activ- a problem-­solving approach, to find solutions to any
ities, providing new stimuli from the outside. A great problems which emerge during the innovation pro-
deal of research has been done from this perspective: cess more quickly or even to tackle radical discon-
openness allows firms to strike up relationships with tinuities (Filiou, 2021). This brief overview presents
individuals, established firms, start-­ups and several the two major goals of involving external resources
other sources of ideas and inspiration (e.g. Chesbrough that firms may pursue through inbound OI: sens-
and Schwartz, 2007; Alberti and Varon Garrido, 2017) ing and solving (Figure 2). In this case, there is no
and, in doing so, exposes them to new trends and tech- direct link with a single practise –­indeed, the same
nological opportunities that may help them to iden- practise may be used for both goals (consider, e.g.
tify new directions for innovation (Del Vecchio et al., crowdsourcing, which can be used to solve a specific
2018; Trabucchi et al., 2018). This means that inbound challenge, as in the case of InnoCentive, but also as
OI practises are often used for sensing goals in order a general call for ideas to draw in external stimuli
to observe what is happening in different fields (e.g. and open up new avenues) –­but rather two different
Herzog, 2008; Grimaldi et al., 2013). types of goals that can be pursued through a variety
Still, this is not the only reason why firms use of inbound OI practises.
inbound OI practises. Opting to use external knowl- This brief overview of the literature suggests that
edge in the innovation process tends to make the firms use various approaches to implement inbound
innovation process more efficient (e.g. Chesbrough OI, each with different characteristics and purposes.
and Crowther, 2006; Enkel et al., 2009), for example Are firms using inbound OI practises for sensing or

© 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 551
 14679310, 2022, 3, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/radm.12500 by NHS Education for Scotland NES, Edinburgh Central Office, Wiley Online Library on [25/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla

solving goals? Are they looking for a high or low organisations that are using OI. The final sample
level of integration of the external partners in their contains nine firms.
operations? This space enables firms to adopt one or The chance to gather rich data from a relatively
more of these practises over time for different rea- small set of companies is coherent with the usage of
sons and in different ways. As highlighted above in multiple case studies that can be meaningfully used
these papers, there are studies documenting the pro- as an inspiration for new ideas (Siggelkow, 2007).
cesses through which the shift from closed to open Indeed, we are using qualitative research to generate
innovation happens over time (e.g. Chiaroni et al., new models that use data as a valuable starting point.
2010; Bianchi et al., 2011; Buganza et al., 2011). The data were mostly collected through direct
Still, there is a dearth of studies in the current liter- interviews conducted between April 2018 and
ature which take an evolutionary perspective, shed- December 2020. All the respondents are innova-
ding light on the evolution of the practises that firms tion managers or professionals with a comparable
adopt for the implementation of inbound OI over job title. The number of interviews was determined
time. Based on these premises, this paper aims to according to the criterion of theoretical saturation
address the following question: how does the adop- –­that is interviews were conducted until the infor-
tion of inbound OI practises evolve over time within mation gathered was considered sufficient and no
any given firm? What are the drivers and implica- further relevant information could be garnered
tions of these evolutions? through additional interviews (Corbin and Strauss,
2008). We used semi-­structured interviews, organ-
ised into three main parts: (i) the firm’s innovation
3. Methodology approach, to understand their innovation strategy
and possible links with the field they work in; (ii) the
In answering our research questions, we aim to enrich factors triggering the use of inbound OI practises, to
the existing knowledge stock with new insights from highlight in particular the needs and goals that led the
real-­world cases, using cases as inspiration for new sampled firms to adopt an open approach to innova-
model development (Eisenhardt, 1989; Siggelkow, tion and finally, (iii) the different types of inbound OI
2007). practises used over time, mainly aiming to uncover
This paper employs an exploratory multiple the rationale that would explain temporal evolution
case study analysis of nine firms operating in dif- in the use of these approaches.
ferent industries and varying in size, market share A total of 20 interviews were conducted, and we
and organisational structure. The research approach have had the opportunity to contact the respondents
is consistent with the goal of the paper, namely to with follow-­up emails to obtain missing details. The
answer a ‘how’ question (Yin, 2013). use of a standard and replicable interview protocol
The selection of the cases is based on the theoret- and the opportunity to conduct a cross-­case analysis
ical framing approach (Yin, 2013): in setting up the has allowed us to increase the external validity of the
multiple case study, we have selected firms that (1) study (Yin, 2013).
have staff dedicated full-­time to innovation and (2) The collected data were analysed in isolation for
have an innovation process that involves openness to each case and later condensed into a case write-­up.
external collaboration. Firms were then filtered with The analysis of the transcribed interviews was car-
the aim of retaining only those that have been imple- ried out through an iterative process consisting of
menting OI practises for years and that are, therefore, three main phases: reading, coding and interpreting
more likely to have experienced an evolution of the (Saldaña, 2015). Following the recommendations of
practises used over time. The sample was created by Corbin and Strauss (2008), we have used an open cod-
sensing through LinkedIn and compiling an initial set ing process (identifying key sentences from the doc-
of 200 firms, 47 of which responded with interest to uments and sorting them into first-­order categories),
our request to participate in the study. Through desk which was then combined into higher-­level catego-
research, we selected the most suitable of these for ries through an axial coding process, thus identifying
the research, relying on two further sampling criteria: the relationships between them and the analysed lit-
(i) clear evidence that the organisation has been using erature. The first two authors went through the cod-
OI practises for more than a decade and (ii) a het- ing process independently and discussed it together,
erogeneity of different industries, so as to take into relying on investigator triangulation (Patton, 2002)
consideration possible evolutionary patterns due to to increase the robustness of the analysis. The coding
context-­specific variables (e.g. Urbinati et al., 2019). tree is shown in Figure 3. The use of multiple sources
As presented in Table 1, given the variety of indus- of evidence to create chains of evidence, along with
tries involved, we are generally dealing with large the ability to ask interviewees to review their case,

552 R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 © 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
 Table 1. Information about the sampled firms
Organisation (dis- Industry Sources Respondents Length of the Revenue Employees R&D % R&D
guised names) interview (Bln) (×1,000) expenditure expenditure
Charmen Pharma Pharmaceutical Three direct interviews + • Research and Innovation 2 hr 10’ 0.45 0.8 0.068 15.0%
follow-­up emails Manager (2)
• Senior Knowledge 1 hr 10’
Transfer Specialist
Energetic Electricity Three direct interviews + • Head of Innovation and 50’ 4 7 0.100 2.5%
follow-­up emails Sustainability
• Head of Start-­up Portfolio 1 hr 40’
(2)
Raw Materials Recycling of raw Two direct interviews • Innovation Manager (2) 1 hr 30’ 0.06 0.9 0.002 3.3%
Inc. materials
Transport & Transportation Two direct interviews • Marketing and Innovation 1 hr 30’ 0.17 0.9 <0.001 0.6%
Logistics Inc. Manager (2)
Jacobsen Pharma Pharmaceutical Three direct interviews + • Innovation Manager 2 hr 43 100 5.800 13.5%
follow-­up emails • Director of External 3 hr
Innovation (2)
Budget Air Airline 1One direct interview + • Head of Innovation 1 hr 15’ 0.7 3.3 0.003 0.4%
follow-­up emails
White Goods Inc. Domestic Two direct interviews + • Digitalisation and Open 3 hr 20’ 1.2 4 0.060 5.0%
appliances follow-­up emails Innovation Manager
Marie Curie Healthcare One direct interview + • Manager, Innovation 50’ 6.4 30 2.900 45.3%
Hospital follow-­up emails Operations
Engineering and Drilling Three direct interviews + • Ex-­VP Strategy and 1 hr 40’ 9.1 32 0.079 0.9%

© 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Drilling Inc. follow-­up emails Innovation
• Innovation Factory 1 hr 10’
Manager
• Corporate Head of 2 hr
Technology Innovation

R&D Management 52, 3, 2022

How firms use inbound Open Innovation practices over time

553
14679310, 2022, 3, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/radm.12500 by NHS Education for Scotland NES, Edinburgh Central Office, Wiley Online Library on [25/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
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Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla

has helped us to increase the construct validity of the to increase critical mass, speed up the new product
research (Yin, 2013). development process and lower innovation risk.
We subsequently asked the interviewees to However, after using integrated approaches to
review their cases, which enabled us to complete the explore the market, the remainder of the development
write-­up and eliminate some of the biases associated process tends towards a higher level of integration in
with retrospective interviews. order to bring external competencies and assets into
Table 1 summarises the sample, highlighting the the firm so as to improve the ongoing process and
heterogeneity of the industries and showing the key take control of it.
respondents involved for each firm; the names have
been anonymised for reasons of confidentiality.
4.2. Energetic
This section is structured as follows: each case
will be introduced in a short paragraph which pro- Energetic is a multinational firm which produces and
vides preliminary information about the firm and its distributes electricity, headquartered in Italy. Their use
industry and also identifies the factors that have led of Open Innovation dates back to 2014; it was mainly
these firms to dynamically change the inbound OI related to the efficiency of the innovation process and
practises they use over time. Subsequently, Table 2 scouting the market in search of technologies and
provides an overview of the results of the cross-­case opportunities to solve innovation-­related problems.
analysis, showing how the various themes presented However, over the last few years, the rise of sustain-
in the coding tree (Figure 1) emerge in the different ability as a compelling trend (‘the overall scope of the
cases. With a view to limiting the length of the paper, firm is no longer investing in fossil fuels and genera-
many quotes are only reported in Appendix 1 in sup- tion but moving all the CAPEX to renewables’ –­Head
plementary information. of Innovation and Sustainability) changed its inbound
OI approach, with it becoming more clearly aimed at
finding new business models to remain valuable and
4. Findings relevant in the future. They started scouting the mar-
ket in order to identify start-­ups and new opportuni-
4.1. Charmen Pharma ties, foster their development, and then absorb those
that showed the greatest potential. The development
Charmen Pharma is an Italian firm operating in the process became extremely agile, centring on external
pharmaceutical industry, mainly developing pre- competencies and leveraging their structures.
scription drugs and over-­ the-­
counter medicines.
Their first approach to Open Innovation was related
to problem solving and was implemented through 4.3. Raw Materials Inc.
the development of ad hoc alliances and partnerships Raw Materials Inc. is a European supplier of upcy-
with suppliers or universities, with the aim of speed- cled raw materials whose goal is to increase the
ing up the development process. quality and value of the raw materials it sells. Over
However, in recent years, the industry has under- the last years, its main focus has been finding new
gone significant changes, requiring a clear shift in applications for its products and spreading knowl-
tactics: ‘Our world is changing very rapidly; an open edge to end-­users in order to encourage the use of
approach to innovation is the strategy a firm has to upcycled materials: ‘We have invested in other
apply to be capable of quickly responding to this markets [that are] completely different from the
continuous, unstoppable growth’ –­(Research and tyre market in order to find new applications [for
Innovation Manager). In parallel with the central our recycled material] and prove it is safe and con-
role that molecules have always played, other kinds venient to use’ (Innovation Manager). The need to
of products or features have also gained relevance as explore new markets pushed the firm to employ OI
a source of competitive advantages, such as medical practises, mainly as a means to search for new ideas,
devices for drug delivery and the digitalisation pro- new possible applications and new opportunities by
cess, with a push towards personalised treatments, exploring the market. The firm –­with a pragmatic
ease of use and the ability to ensure adherence to approach –­shifted from partnerships with universi-
molecular therapy. All these dimensions and product ties to horizontal collaborations with private research
types require skills and technologies that are quite centres and potential end-­users. Externalising R&D
different from those possessed by the firm. allowed the firm to leverage a wide spectrum of
As such, inbound OI became a way to feel out skills, research infrastructures and tools as well as to
the market, sensing for new opportunities in order drastically reduce the innovation risks.

554 R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 © 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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How firms use inbound Open Innovation practices over time

ϭƐƚ ŽƌĚĞƌ ϮŶĚ ŽƌĚĞƌ ŐŐƌĞŐĂƚĞ

ĐŽŶĐĞƉƚƐ ;džĂŵƉůĞƐͿ ƚŚĞŵĞƐ ĚŝŵĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ
͞KƵƌ ǁŽƌůĚ ŝƐ ĐŚĂŶŐŝŶŐ ǀĞƌLJ ƌĂƉŝĚůLJ ĂŶ ŽƉĞŶ ĂƉƉƌŽĂĐŚ ƚŽ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƚŝŽŶ ŝƐ ƚŚĞ ƐƚƌĂƚĞŐLJ Ă ĐŽŵƉĂŶLJ ŚĂƐ ƚŽ ĂƉƉůLJ ƚŽ ďĞ ĐĂƉĂďůĞ ŽĨ
ƋƵŝĐŬůLJ ƌĞƐƉŽŶĚŝŶŐ ƚŽ ƚŚŝƐ ĐŽŶƚŝŶƵŽƵƐ͕ ƵŶƐƚŽƉƉĂďůĞ ŐƌŽǁƚŚ͟ ^ŝŐŶŝĨŝĐĂŶƚ ƐŚŝĨƚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĨŝĞůĚ ZĞĂƐŽŶƐ ƚŽ ƐƚĂƌƚ
ƵƐŝŶŐ ĚŝĨĨĞƌĞŶƚ
/ŶĐƌĞĂƐĞ ĐƌŝƚŝĐĂů ŵĂƐƐ ĂŶĚ ŝŶďŽƵŶĚ K/
͞ΗtĞ ĂƌĞ ĂďůĞ ƚŽ ďƌŝŶŐ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ ŝŶƚŽ ŽƵƌ ƉůĂŶƚƐ Ăƚ Ă ŵƵĐŚ ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ƌĂƚĞ ƚŚĂŶ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉĂƐƚ͘
/Ŷ ƚŚĞ ĞŶĚ ǁĞ ǁŽƵůĚ ĞƐƐĞŶƚŝĂůůLJ ďĞ ƚŚĞ ĐƵƐƚŽŵĞƌ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ŽƌŐĂŶŝnjĂƚŝŽŶ ǁĞ ĨƵŶĚĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ ŽĨ ĐƌĞĂƚŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ŝŶǀĞŶƚŝŽŶ͟͟
ƐƉĞĞĚ ŽĨ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƚŝŽŶ ƉƌĂĐƚŝĐĞƐ

͞DĂŶĂŐŝŶŐ ŽƉĞŶ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƚŝŽŶ͕ LJŽƵ͛ƌĞ ĞƐƐĞŶƚŝĂůůLJ ŵĂŶĂŐŝŶŐ ƌŝƐŬ ͘͘͘ ŚĂǀŝŶŐ ŵŽƌĞ ŽƉƚŝŽŶƐ ŝƐ ĂůǁĂLJƐ ďĞŶĞĨŝĐŝĂů ŝŶ ƚĞƌŵƐ ŽĨ ƌĞĚƵĐŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ
ƌŝƐŬ ŽĨ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƚŝŽŶ͘Η ZŝƐŬ ŵŝƚŝŐĂƚŝŽŶ
ƌŝǀĞƌƐ ƚŽǁĂƌĚƐ Ă
͞tĞ ĂƌĞ ƐƚƌŝǀŝŶŐ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŶƚĂŵŝŶĂƚŝŽŶ ǁŝƚŚ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ŵĞƚŚŽĚŽůŽŐŝĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĚŝƐƌƵƉƚŝǀĞ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐŝĞƐ͕ ƐƵĐĐĞƐƐĨƵůůLJ ƵƐĞĚ ŝŶ >ĞǀĞƌĂŐĞ ďƌŽĂĚĞƌ
ůŽǁĞƌ ůĞǀĞů ŽĨ
ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů ƐĞĐƚŽƌƐ ƚŽ ǁŚŝĐŚ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵƉĂŶLJ ŝƐ ŶŽƚ ƚƌĂĚŝƚŝŽŶĂůůLJ ƌĞůĂƚĞĚ͘͟
ĐŽŵƉĞƚĞŶĐĞƐ
ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚŝŽŶ
͞tĞ ĂƌĞ ƐƚƌŝǀŝŶŐ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŶƚĂŵŝŶĂƚŝŽŶ ǁŝƚŚ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ŵĞƚŚŽĚŽůŽŐŝĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĚŝƐƌƵƉƚŝǀĞ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐŝĞƐ͕ ƐƵĐĐĞƐƐĨƵůůLJ ƵƐĞĚ ŝŶ >ĞǀĞƌĂŐĞ ĞdžƚĞƌŶĂů ĂƐƐĞƚƐ ĂŶĚ
ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů ƐĞĐƚŽƌƐ ƚŽ ǁŚŝĐŚ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵƉĂŶLJ ŝƐ ŶŽƚ ƚƌĂĚŝƚŝŽŶĂůůLJ ƌĞůĂƚĞĚ͘͟ ƐƚƌƵĐƚƵƌĞƐ
͞ΗĨƚĞƌ ƚŚĞ ĨŝƌƐƚ ĞǀĂůƵĂƚŝŽŶ ŽƉĞƌĂƚĞĚ ďLJ ƚŚĞ ŽƉĞŶ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƚŝŽŶ ĚĞƉĂƌƚŵĞŶƚ͕ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵ ďĞĐŽŵĞƐ Ă ƉƌŽũĞĐƚ ŽĨ Ă ƉĂƌƚŝĐƵůĂƌ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ /ŶƚĞƌŶĂůŝnjĞ ƐŽůƵƚŝŽŶƐ Žƌ
ƵŶŝƚ͘dŚĞ ŝĚĞĂ ŝƐ ƚŽ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞ ŽƵƌ ĐŽŵƉĞƚĞŶĐŝĞƐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĂƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ƐƚĂƌƚͲƵƉ Žƌ ƚŚĞ ƐƉŝŶͲŽĨĨ͘ tĞ ĂƌĞ ƋƵŝƚĞ ƐƚƌŽŶŐ ŝŶ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉŝŶŐ
ŵŽůĞĐƵůĞƐ ͘͘ ƐŽ ǁĞ ǁŝůů ƚƌLJ ƚŽ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞ͕ ŶŽƚ ũƵƐƚ ĂďƐŽƌďŝŶŐ͕ ŶŽƚ ũƵƐƚ ďƵLJŝŶŐ ŝŶƚĞůůĞĐƚƵĂů ƉƌŽƉĞƌƚLJ ƌŝŐŚƚƐ͘͟ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐŝĞƐ ƌŝǀĞƌƐ ƚŽǁĂƌĚƐ Ă
ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ůĞǀĞů ŽĨ
͞;/Ĩ ƚŚĞ ƐĐŽƵƚŝŶŐ ĂĐƚŝǀŝƚLJͿ ǀĞƌŝĨLJŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ Ă ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ ĐŽƵůĚ ďĞ ŝŵŵĞĚŝĂƚĞůLJ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĂŶĚ / ĐĂŶ ŐĞƚ ĂŶ ŝŵŵĞĚŝĂƚĞ /ŶƚĞƌŶĂůŝnjĞ /W Žƌ ĂƐƐĞƚƐ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚŝŽŶ
ƌĞƚƵƌŶ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĂƚ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͘ ^Ž ŝŶ ƚŚĂƚ ĐĂƐĞ / ĐĂŶ ŝŶǀĞƐƚ ĚŝƌĞĐƚůLJ ŵŽŶĞLJ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵƉĂŶLJ͟

Figure 3. Coding tree.

4.4. Transport & Logistics Inc. firm started to use inbound OI practises was related
to a solving goal aimed at managing the critical chal-
Transport & Logistics Inc. is an organisation that lenges that arise during the development process.
offers innovative solutions in the transportation field, However, in recent years, the industry they operate in
working in intermodal transportation and integrated has changed dramatically, mainly due to the exponen-
logistics. tial spread of digital technologies: ‘The healthcare
Its innovation model is fully externalised, which is industry is growing incredibly fast, especially from
largely due to the slim margins involved in the indus- a digital perspective. Big firms [are] creating their
try and the lack of facilities and resources needed to own health teams –­just think of Apple or Amazon’
conduct in-­house R&D. –­(Innovation Manager). As a consequence of this
Historically, it has used inbound OI practises in a development, a variety of skills and capabilities that
very simple way, that is by involving external part- had not previously been required became fundamen-
ners to solve specific issues and improve develop- tal in the field. The result was that the firm’s inbound
ment processes. In recent years, however, its field of OI practises shifted towards an approach of scouting
operation has changed significantly: many complex the market by identifying trends and opportunities to
services have emerged as a result of the aggregation increase its critical mass, as well as to speed up the
of new, smaller players, whilst the focus on sustain- development process for new products.
ability has grown massively. ‘Most of the projects Here, too, a low level of integration may suffice
we are dealing with are linked to sustainability’ as a means of completing innovation projects, but –­
–­(Marketing and Innovation Manager), which –­in in the case of products that are strictly related to the
turn –­is linked to the perception held by its custom- firm’s core business (e.g. a new drug molecule) –­a
ers, who increasingly value sustainability, in line higher level of integration with the firm’s operations
with public opinion: ‘Some of our clients are open to (by means of an acquisition, for example) is pre-
guaranteeing us more work under long-­term agree- ferred so that efficiency and control can be guaran-
ments if we implement low-­emission technologies’ –­ teed whilst the firm exploits the acquired technology.
(Marketing and Innovation Manager). Consequently,
they tend to increase the critical mass of their ser-
vices by creating the right conditions for technology
4.6. Budget Air
to develop, for example by entering into long-­term Budget Air is a low-­cost European airline. Its jour-
agreements with a liquified natural gas supplier. A ney with open innovation began with networking.
fully externalised approach such as this consistently The head of Budget Air’s Innovation Lab believes
reduces risks whilst making innovation possible, that networking and unstructured interactions with a
even in a slim-­margin industry. range of different institutions and individuals allowed
the organisation to be exposed to a wider variety of
ideas, innovations and potential partners. However,
4.5. Jacobsen Pharma
this was a relatively new approach for the organi-
Jacobsen Pharma is a British multinational pharma- sation, as historically speaking, collaboration with
ceutical firm. As in the previous case, the reason the external stakeholders during the innovation process

© 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 555
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Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla

was almost entirely limited to technical details as

IP or assets
Internalise part of a solving goal, mainly through ad hoc collab-
Drivers towards a higher level of

oration projects.
Nowadays, this industry –­much like many others,
including some previously mentioned –­perceives the
need to pursue sustainability as a priority: ‘Airlines are
Internalise solutions

one of the most polluting industries in the world, and

or technologies

people are starting to realise that. People are search-

ing for alternative ways to travel, like Hyperloop and
integration

trains, all the other things being built now… these are
our real competitors’ –­(Head of Innovation). This
change is pushing the firm towards a sensing direc-
tion, seeking out any kind of stimuli coming from
assets and structures
Leverage external

outside. After the scouting phase, ideas and projects

are developed collaboratively, involving the external
party (the start-­up, incubator, university or enterprise)
to leverage both their competencies and their facili-
ties, up to the testing and implementation phases. This
Drivers towards a lower level of integration

process is flexible, as collaborations are structured

differently according to the needs of any given proj-
Leverage broader

ect. However, the end goal is to pilot and internalise

competencies

the innovation –­and, if successful, scale it up.

The grey shader positions means that the practice on the column emerged in the interview(s) with the company on the line.

4.7. White Goods Inc.

White Goods Inc. is an Italian home appliance man-
Risk mitigation

ufacturer. Previously, their approach to open innova-

tion was largely similar to the starting point of the
previous cases: it was intended to either solve emerg-
ing challenges or exploit the sorts of skills offered
by partners that they did not have within the firm.
However, this is another case in which the last few
Increase critical mass and
Reasons to start using different inbound OI

years have seen a major change of direction: ‘There

was a big shift from the idea that a white goods manu-
speed of innovation

facturer sells iron or metal to the fact that we sell clean

clothes or clean homes’. This shift in their custom-
Table 2. Drivers towards the use of different inbound OI practises

ers’ standpoint required not only new competencies

and technologies but also a different outlook on the
world. ‘So you’re servitising your business and add-
ing layers to your business, adding services and soft-
ware on top of the metal’ –­(Digitalisation and Open
Significant shift

Innovation Manager). As a consequence, the kinds of

in the field

collaborations undertaken have also changed, turning

practises

into more horizontal partnerships with the goal of

meeting emergent needs and trends in the market and
mitigating the risks involved in pursuing new busi-
Engineering and Drilling Inc.

ness opportunities. In this case, too, the firm feels the

Transport & Logistics Inc.

need to follow a path of vertical integration of exter-

nal competencies. The Innovation Manager has just
Marie Curie Hospital

started an internal discussion to shape this process.

Raw Materials Inc.

White Goods Inc.

Charmen Pharma

Jacobsen Pharma

4.8. Marie Curie Hospital

Budget Air
Energetic

Historically, the Marie Curie Hospital mainly

focussed on searching for the right partner for

556 R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 © 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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How firms use inbound Open Innovation practices over time

an innovation project to address a lack of inter- ‘guided by the concept of “fail fast, fail cheap”’ –­
nal knowledge or skills. In other words, there was (Innovation Factory Manager).
a marked tendency towards a solving goal, solv-
ing internal problems through external knowledge.
4.10. Cross-­case analysis
However, over the last few years, the hospital has
developed an Innovation Hub to devise innovative Table 2 briefly summarises the empirical evidence
solutions for the healthcare industry: ‘The methodol- that emerges from each case, identifying and map-
ogy that we use for Human-­Centred Design projects ping in particular the drivers pushing each firm
is an open-­source approach called Listen, Imagine, towards the use of a particular approach to inbound
Do’ –­(Manager, Innovation Operations). This shift OI. Specifically, the information provided in the
points to a clear move towards a sensing goal, which table refers to the reasons for using different inbound
employs inbound OI practises to incorporate stimuli OI practises and the drivers towards lower and higher
from outside. The firm does not have the facilities levels of integration of the practises used for inbound
to internally scale up and industrialise new products. OI. There is a second table included in the Appendix
The variety of methods of integration is still limited with a selection of quotes for the high-­level codes
and is focussed on medium-­integration modes such that emerged from the analysis of the data.
as networking and joint R&D.

5. Discussion
4.9. Engineering and Drilling Inc.
Engineering and Drilling Inc. is a service firm that In this section, we will discuss the findings of our
operates in the energy and infrastructure sectors, study, focussing first on the paths and drivers under-
especially in drilling operations. As in the previous pinning the temporal evolution of OI practises,
cases, inbound OI practises were mainly included in and then on the organisational implications of this
their innovation process with the aim of solving chal- evolution.
lenges and issues in innovation projects by means of
specific alliances. In recent years, however, some- 5.1. Evolution of inbound OI practises:
thing has changed: ‘Then, the drop in demand for
aggregates caused an oil glut: a surplus of oil prod-
paths and drivers
ucts in the world. In this situation, our firm has only The exploratory empirical analysis on which this
one option: to halve the cost of its projects, other- paper is based allows us to form an idea of the anat-
wise, the break-­even point will be too high to encour- omy of the temporal process by which a given firm
age investments’ –­(Ex-­VP Strategy and Innovation). changes the types of inbound OI practises it employs
The firm’s OI approach therefore had a new goal: to over time.
use technologies and methods from different fields in At the start of their evolutionary process in the
order to increase efficiency. OI has become a sensing adoption of inbound OI, the firms included in the
tool, directed at seeking out new technologies and sample selected and used practises with an interme-
industrial processes outside of the firm, enabling it to diate level of integration, mostly networking and alli-
explore new opportunities and paths. ances (Chesbrough and Schwartz, 2007; Enkel and
Historically, the firm had always had a vast R&D Gassmann, 2010). The main goal underpinning this
team which often collaborated with universities, con- choice was to exploit knowledge from outside the
sultancy firms or industrial partners by creating ad firm’s boundaries (Chesbrough and Bogers, 2014).
hoc partnerships. The evolution in the competitive This type of approach is integrated enough to both
and market scenario has also led to changes from an facilitate the co-­development of the innovation and
organisational perspective: ‘Our intention was to cre- allow the firm to guide the process and reach a fea-
ate a hotbed of disruptive innovation. We assembled a sible solution. This may not be the case when using
cross-­functional team by selecting people within the a practise characterised by a lower level of integra-
firm according to their propensity for innovation and tion such as crowdsourcing. At the same time, the
cooperation and called on them to apply their experi- intermediate approach also enables the firm to easily
ence, knowledge, skills and –­above all –­creativity’ –­ return to its previous (closed) approach to innovation,
(Innovation Factory Manager). In a new setting such should the process fail to lead to the expected results.
as this, everyone involved is driven to search for solu- The case analysis highlights additional aspects:
tions outside the boundaries of the organisation and at first, firms mainly tend to open the boundaries of
to engage in light collaborations aimed at leveraging their innovation process up to external partners in
external competencies and developing innovation order to solve specific, clearly-­defined innovation

© 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 557
 14679310, 2022, 3, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/radm.12500 by NHS Education for Scotland NES, Edinburgh Central Office, Wiley Online Library on [25/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla

problems (Chesbrough and Crowthe, 2006; Enkel The direction of the final patterns of the tempo-
et al., 2009). Their aim is to improve their process, ral evolution process, which pass through 3a or 3b,
accelerating development and tackling emergent seems to be largely explained by the distance between
challenges by leveraging their partners’ knowledge the firm’s knowledge base and the technology being
(Figure 4, point 1). integrated. When the technology to be integrated is
However, all the firms in our sample clearly show close to the firm’s core competencies –­for example,
a tendency towards also embracing different types of in the case of the development of a new molecule for
practises over the years. a pharma firm –­the firm can rely on its own in-­house
A second evolutionary step in the way our sam- product development capabilities and processes. It
pled firms have adopted different inbound OI prac- subsequently tends to internalise the technology in
tises relates to significant changes taking place in the order to consolidate its background and exploit the
sectors in which these firms operate, such as shifts results more efficiently.
towards sustainability, servitisation and digitalisation. Our study is a contribution to the academic dis-
The resulting need to access knowledge bases that course on the temporal processes underpinning the
are far removed from their core competencies pushes adoption of OI over time. Despite the efforts of exist-
the firms to adopt boundary-­spanning practises char- ing research undertaken from this perspective to dis-
acterised by a sensing goal (Lopez-­Vega et al., 2016). entangle the process through which firms shift from
According to our observations, the ability to closed to open innovation (e.g. Chiaroni et al., 2010,
access different kinds of competencies, technologies 2011; Bianchi et al., 2011; Buganza et al., 2011), this
and business models also leads firms to change the study is one of the first to document the changes in
extent to which the practises they use are integrated how OI is adopted after the critical shift from closed
into their operations, moving towards practises with to open innovation has taken place.
a lower integration level such as crowdsourcing and Interestingly, our exploratory analysis suggests
technology scouting (Figure 4, movement towards that this temporal evolution and adaptation of the
point 2). practises used to implement inbound OI –­whilst
Our case analysis highlights three main driv- common to all the firms in our sample –­can take
ers that push firms to move from point 1 to point 2 different forms and follow different patterns: a tes-
(Figure 4): (i) the opportunity to mitigate innovation tament to the complex and varied nature of OI (West
risks, (ii) the opportunity to leverage external, more and Bogers, 2014; Randhawa et al., 2016).
unfamiliar competencies and (iii) the option of rely- Of course, the model in Figure 4 does not aim to
ing on external facilities or tools. be prescriptive; rather, it is a descriptive representa-
In many cases, the evolutions of inbound OI prac- tion of the exploratory results of this study.
tises stop here, whilst other cases tell a longer storey.
In particular, in sectors characterised by higher 5.2. Organisational implications of the
R&D intensity, such as pharmaceuticals, firms tend
to continue by returning to very high integration lev- evolution of inbound OI practises
els (e.g. acquisitions) and internalising the acquired Although it is not the main focus of our study, this
knowledge, shifting back to a solving goal (Figure 4, paper suggests that the evolutionary process that
point 3a). In particular, our data show that when –­ leads firms towards the adoption of different inbound
through practises used for sensing –­the firm identi- OI approaches requires the activation of differ-
fies a new opportunity that is highly consistent with ent enabling organisational variables. In particu-
and close to its core business, it tends to rely on prac- lar, two actions that the firms in our samples have
tises with a high integration level to regain control of taken to support the transformation process repre-
it, like in the case of Charmen Pharma. Indeed, the sented in Figure 4 are (i) relying on Open Innovation
main drivers that guide the transition from 2 to 3a Intermediaries (OIIs) and (ii) changing the culture of
(Figure 4) are as follows: a desire to acquire a higher the organisation.
degree of control over the innovation process, a need When the firms in our sample moved from solving
to integrate new solutions or technologies into the to sensing goals, they needed to bolster their scouting
firm and a desire to internalise specific competencies. capabilities, and this is often achieved by partnering
Other firms tend to move towards highly inte- with OIIs. According to our key respondent from
grated practises, with the sole aim of exploiting the Energetic, for instance: ‘For scouting, we started
results of the sensing goal (Figure 4, point 3b). The using different channels: we have our people who
main driver in this case is a desire to exploit assets scout technologies, and we have also hubs which are
and IP whilst also relying on the firm’s established managed in partnership with external institutions like
NPD and innovation processes. Technology Transfer Offices, Incubators or Venture

558 R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 © 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
 14679310, 2022, 3, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/radm.12500 by NHS Education for Scotland NES, Edinburgh Central Office, Wiley Online Library on [25/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
How firms use inbound Open Innovation practices over time

Capitals. We use crowdsourcing platforms and now towards innovation at all levels of the organisation.
also have our own innovation platform which we Our respondent at Charmen Pharma says that ‘the
use to launch our challenges’ –­(Head of Start-­up call for ideas is becoming a tool for innovation inside
Portfolio). In the second stage of the evolutionary the firm’. In explaining the shift to a sensing goal,
process, specifically the integration phase, firms often the respondent at Budget Air says: ‘We are trying to
lack the necessary facilities to test and implement organise some challenges and introduce tools so that
some of the knowledge, contributions and solutions employees can share their ideas and get some time
obtained externally. As a result, they once again rely to work on their ideas. Also –­in terms of a top-­down
on intermediaries to help them find assets and part- approach –­we are inviting people in to give inspira-
ners capable of furthering the innovation project they tional talks’ –­(Research and Innovation Manager).
are working on. Again, our respondent at Energetic This reveals how the shift towards a different
says: ‘We do not have, within our organisation, lab- kind of innovation goal in the spectrum of OI, and
oratories for testing innovative technologies, but we the ensuing use of different inbound OI practises,
can test some new technologies directly on-­site, in may go hand in hand with a change in the culture and
our plant. The appeal of some Open Innovation facil- mindset of the organisation. In order to allow the OI
itators is that they can supplement any competencies practises to flourish and have a tangible impact on the
and facilities we may not have when we are integrat- firm’s innovation process, employees need to own, be
ing an innovative technology’ –­(Head of Start-­up involved with and be engaged in the innovation pro-
Portfolio). cess (Trabucchi et al., 2020), especially at large firms,
This evidence suggests that innovation intermedi- which may be more resistant to change (Remneland
aries –­a phenomenon that has been widely studied Wikhamn, 2020). This also means creating a culture
in the OI literature (e.g. Alexander and Martin, 2013; of experimentation that can embrace failure as a pos-
Janssen et al., 2014) –­can play a key role in support- sible way of learning how to face innovation chal-
ing firms at different stages in the temporal evolution lenges. Indeed, our respondent at Engineering and
in the use of inbound OI over time by providing dif- Drilling Inc. says: ‘We encourage people to generate
ferent contributions. OIIs in particular can help firms the highest possible number of ideas, even if only
pursuing both sensing and solving goals (Lopez-­Vega 3% of them end up being put into practice. We also
et al., 2016) as well as supporting the integration pro- celebrate failure’ –­(Corporate Head of Technology
cess for innovative technologies (Howells, 2006). Innovation). This argument resonates with both the
The second organisational implication refers emergence of agile practises outside the software
to the cultural dimension of OI. As a firm moves world and the need to have an innovation mindset
towards low-­ integration practises with a sensing spread within the organisation (Bäcklander, 2019;
goal, employees are asked to contribute themselves Pellizzoni et al., 2019). There is a strong link between
(for example through calls for ideas) or, at the very the need for agile approaches and the concept of risk
least, to embrace ideas coming from outside the firm, management which often emerged during the inter-
thus requiring the development of a mindset oriented views. Indeed, the probability of moving towards less
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Figure 4. Evolution over time. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

© 2021 The Authors. R&D Management published by RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. R&D Management 52, 3, 2022 559
 14679310, 2022, 3, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/radm.12500 by NHS Education for Scotland NES, Edinburgh Central Office, Wiley Online Library on [25/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Giordano Pinarello, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini and Vito Manfredi Latilla

integrated inbound OI practises is largely reliant on atory study, and as such its results cannot be sta-
a firm’s ability to mitigate the risks that characterise tistically generalised to fit the populations of any
the innovation process, for instance by testing ideas firms or markets. However, they cast light on an
and projects on the market with users (e.g. Trabucchi interesting phenomenon with thought-­ provoking
et al., 2018) or by leveraging pre-­existing knowledge implications for future theoretical and empirical
(Laursen et al., 2010; Bianchi and Lejarraga, 2016). discussion on OI. As such, one interesting avenue
However, this process might prove challenging for for future research could be conducting further
firms that are confronted with a set of different culture empirical research –­in different industries and
clashes (Mortara et al., 2009). Similarly, firms express perhaps employing confirmatory research designs
a willingness to integrate specific competencies into –­in order to verify whether the findings of this
their own organisations, thus still moving towards paper can be generalised beyond the sample of our
more highly integrated practises. The end goal is to multiple-­case study and/or modified and expanded.
have them as a fully fledged part of the organisation. Secondly, another limitation is related to the unit
of analysis: we analysed the use of inbound OI at
6. Conclusion a macro-­organisational level, without taking into
account the role of individuals. Future studies may
This study has contributed to our understanding of explore the micro-­foundations of the various prac-
how firms adopt inbound OI, focussing in particular tises. Similarly, we mainly explored internal factors
on the temporal process by which firms evolve the as driving forces present throughout the evolution,
inbound OI practises they use over time. whereas external factors influencing the evolution
From a theoretical perspective, this research pro- may be relevant for future studies (such as the actual
vides a sound contribution to the ongoing academic availability of external knowledge or technological
discussion around OI. The vast body of literature on opportunities). One last comment on the decision
OI has documented the use of different practises to to focus on inbound practises: outbound practises
implement inbound OI and has shown that the shift are less widespread and therefore less interesting to
from closed to open innovation is often an articulated look at from an evolutionary perspective within the
process which takes place over time (e.g. Chiaroni et same firm; however, future studies may explore if
al., 2010; Bianchi et al., 2011; Buganza et al., 2011). and how our findings change as we move into the
Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no stud- outbound spectrum of OI practises.
ies have focussed on the evolution in the adoption of
OI practises within the same firm. This paper devel-
ops and offers an inductive framework that addresses Acknowledgements
this limitation, explaining the underlying drivers
and patterns of this evolutionary pattern (West and The authors would like to thank Sophie De Santana
Bogers, 2014; Randhawa et al., 2016). Snowden for the great contribution in the early
From a managerial perspective, the contribution phases of this research. Open Access Funding provided
of this study is twofold. First of all, we have provided by Politecnico di Milano within the CRUI-CARE
evidence to innovation managers that the process of Agreement. [Correction added on 10 June 2022, after
adopting inbound OI practises is non-­linear or time first online publication: CRUI funding statement has
independent. Once inbound OI has been introduced been added.]
into a firm as an approach, innovation managers need
to dynamically consider how to make it evolve over Author’s contribution
time, as using the same practise for the same goal will
not yield results indefinitely. Secondly, practitioners All the authors contributed to the research and paper
need to be aware of the wider picture of the various development.
practises (e.g. as regards integration levels and the
different goals they might pursue) so that they can Conflict of interest
be ready to shift to a different practise when needed.
Finally, the drivers and the implications that have The authors have no conflict of interest.
emerged from the study may help managers to verify
the coherence of the practises they are using with the References
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SMEs: trends, motives and management challenges.
Technology Management, Creativity and Innovation
Technovation, 29(6–­7), 423–­437.
Wadhwa, A., Phelps, C., and Kotha, S. (2016) Corporate
Management, Technology Analysis and Strategic
venture capital portfolios and firm innovation. Journal Management, and European Journal of Innovation
of Business Venturing, 31, 95–­112. Management; he is also a reviewer for many of these
West, J. and Bogers, M. (2014) Leveraging external journals.
sources of innovation: a review of research on Open Federico Frattini is a Full Professor of Strategic
Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management,
Management and Innovation at the School of
31, 814–­831.
Management of Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He
West, J. and Bogers, M. (2017) Open innovation: current
status and research opportunities. Innovation, 19, 43–­50.
is Dean of the MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate
Yin, R.K. (2013) Case Study Research: Design and School of Business.
Methods. Washington, DC: Sage Publications. His research area is innovation and technology man-
Giordano Pinearello has 20 years of experience in agement. On these topics, he has written more than
Innovation Management, Management Consulting 200 books and papers published in conference pro-
and Open Innovation projects. More than 20 pa- ceedings and leading international journals such as
pers, patents and congress talks. He spent the first Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Academy of
10 years of his carrier working for leading manage- Management Perspectives, California Management
ment consulting companies. Since 2009 Founding Review, Journal of Product Innovation Management
partner and CEO of BlueThink, a company fo- and many others. In 2013, he was nominated among
cused on Product Innovation, Product Design and the top 50 authors of innovation and technology man-
Open Innovation. The BlueThink business model agement worldwide by IAMOT, the International
has been taken as a reference in different reports Association for Management of Technology.
about Collaborative Innovation, Open Innovation Vito Manfredi Latilla holds a PhD in Management
and Technology Leverage, such as Collaborative Engineering from the Department of Management
and Open Organizational Setups and Management Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. His research
Practices (Business Innovation Observatory of the areas are business strategy and innovation manage-
European Commission) and Finding Applications for ment. He is an independent consultant for various
Technologies Beyond the Core Business (MITSloan SMEs in Italy. Vito worked also for 6 years in the
Management Review). He is a member of the operating division of Saipem, a leading international
Extended Faculty of MIP (Politecnico di Milano), contractor in the Oil&Gas industry. Previously,
teaching in Open Innovation, Innovative Project Vito graduated in 2008 in Management at Bocconi
Management and Collaborative Innovation courses. University, Milan.
Daniel Trabucchi is an Assistant Professor at the
School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, Supporting Information
where he also serves as a senior researcher in the
LEADIN’Lab, the Laboratory for LEAdership, Additional supporting information may be found in the on-
Design and INnovation. His research interests are line version of this article at the publisher’s web site:

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