This study addresses one of the most basic research questions investigated in the Open Innovation (OI) literature: how open are firms? This question has remained partially unanswered given the challenges encountered by empirical research in assessing the relevance of specific OI practices within the OI model, as well as the types of activities perceived by managers as OI benefits or concerns. To provide an answer to this question, we suggest a framework using Item Response Theory to improve over current measures of firms' openness and test it on a sample of 383 technology‐based SMEs. Our theoretical model conceives openness as an instance of how firms make decisions regarding the adoption of different OI practices based on their evaluation of OI benefits and concerns. Focusing on the relationship between firm‐level differences in terms of openness and the types of OI practices adopted by these firms, we show that significantly different levels of ‘OI maturity’ are required to broaden the scope of external partnerships and to shift from non‐pecuniary OI modes (relation‐based approaches) toward pecuniary (transaction‐based) practices. Our results have relevant implications for the OI literature and provide new managerial insight into OI adoption.

中文翻译：

---

“开放”的多种阴影：项目响应理论在开放式创新研究中的应用

这项研究解决了开放式创新（OI）文献中调查的最基本的研究问题之一：公司的开放程度如何？鉴于经验研究在评估OI模型中特定OI做法的相关性以及管理人员认为OI受益或关注的活动类型方面遇到的挑战，这个问题仍未得到部分答案。为了回答这个问题，我们提出了一个使用项目响应理论的框架，以改进当前企业开放度的衡量标准，并以383个基于技术的中小企业为样本进行测试。我们的理论模型将开放性视为企业如何基于对OI利益和担忧的评估来决定采用不同OI做法的实例。着眼于公司级别的开放性差异与这些公司采用的OI行为类型之间的关系，我们表明，为了扩大外部合作伙伴关系的范围并从非面向金钱（基于事务）实践的金钱OI模式（基于关系的方法）。我们的结果对OI文献具有重要意义，并为OI采用提供了新的管理见解。