ABSTRACT

Research on open innovation mostly focuses on company level aspects of this phenomenon and predominantly investigates open innovation in large firms. Individuals and especially leaders play a vital role in the successful implementation of open innovation. However, research on this important issue has only recently begun to flourish, with research showing the vast occurence of open innovation activities among small and medium-sized companies and the vital role entrepreneurs play for open innovation. In this research, we connect the fields of open innovation and entrepreneurship and employ dynamics capability literature to focus on factors on the individual level (entrepreneurs’ openness and network closeness), which affect innovation performance and strategic growth intentions of companies through absorptive capacity. We conceptualise a theoretical model and test it on entrepreneurs samples from two countries (Slovenia and United States) by means of structural equation modelling. The results suggest that entrepreneurial openness is an important antecedent of absorptive capacity and that too much focus on maintaining the same business contacts (network closeness) prevents the company from absorbing trends from outside the company and network. We also show that absorptive capacity is positively related to innovation performance and strategic growth intentions. We discuss the implications for theory and practice.

摘要

开放式创新研究主要集中于这种现象的公司层面，主要研究大型企业的开放式创新。个人，尤其是领导者在成功实施开放式创新中起着至关重要的作用。但是，有关这一重要问题的研究直到最近才开始蓬勃发展，研究表明，中小型公司中广泛开展开放式创新活动，而企业家在开放式创新中起着至关重要的作用。在这项研究中，我们将开放式创新和企业家精神的领域联系起来，并使用动力学能力文献关注个人层面的因素（企业家的开放性和网络亲密性），这些因素会通过吸收能力影响公司的创新绩效和战略增长意图。我们将理论模型概念化，并通过结构方程模型对来自两个国家（斯洛文尼亚和美国）的企业家样本进行测试。结果表明，企业家的开放性是吸收能力的重要先决条件，过于注重保持相同的业务联系（网络紧密性）会阻止公司吸收公司和网络外部的趋势。我们还表明，吸收能力与创新绩效和战略增长意图成正相关。我们讨论了对理论和实践的启示。结果表明，企业家的开放性是吸收能力的重要先决条件，过于注重保持相同的业务联系（网络紧密性）会阻止公司吸收公司和网络外部的趋势。我们还表明，吸收能力与创新绩效和战略增长意图成正相关。我们讨论了对理论和实践的启示。结果表明，企业家的开放性是吸收能力的重要先决条件，过于注重保持相同的业务联系（网络紧密性）会阻止公司吸收公司和网络外部的趋势。我们还表明，吸收能力与创新绩效和战略增长意图成正相关。我们讨论了对理论和实践的启示。