While open innovation ecosystems allow a firm to harness external sources of value creation, these external ties can also constrain its ability to adapt its innovation strategy to pursue new opportunities. This article looks at how an incumbent firm approached such constraints, and used cognitive artifacts to transform its value chain into a collaborative ecosystem. It examines the case of a 3D printing-enabled shift to mass customization of orthopedic medical implants. The results demonstrate how firms can use artifacts to build a shared understanding across heterogeneous stakeholders as they explore and develop new open innovation models, and how this process can be managed flexibly to avoid adopting a locally (rather than globally) optimal strategy.

开放的创新生态系统使企业可以利用外部价值创造源，但这些外部联系也可能限制其调整创新战略以寻求新机会的能力。本文着眼于一家老牌公司如何应对这些限制，并使用认知工件将其价值链转变为协作型生态系统。它研究了3D打印使骨科医疗植入物向大规模定制转变的情况。结果表明，企业在探索和开发新的开放式创新模型时如何利用人工制品在不同的利益相关者之间建立共识，以及如何灵活地管理此过程以避免采用局部（而不是全球）最佳策略。