Purpose

This paper aims to explore the role and meaning of openness for the purpose of enhancing the understanding of collaborative innovation from an industrial network perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical framework is based on the Industrial Network Approach, and the concepts of activity links, resource ties and actor bonds are used as a starting point for capturing the content and dynamics of the interaction. The empirical part consists of five case studies: two historical and three contemporary cases dealing with collaborative innovation projects. The cases are analyzed with regard to openness in business relationships and their connections in the network.

Findings

The main contribution is a conceptualization of openness in business relationships and relationship connections. The paper describes various forms and contents of openness – and closeness. It is postulated that the concept of openness can be used as an analytical tool for digging deeper into relationship and network-related issues of relevance to firms’ behavior in the context of collaborative innovation. Openness, as it is defined in this paper, is also put forward as an explanation of why (or why not) collaborative innovation projects become successful.

Originality/value

The conceptualization of openness differs from openness as it is commonly described in the open innovation literature. There, openness is the opposite of closeness, that is, a pattern where the innovation activities take place internally within the company. In this paper, openness, instead, has to do with how firms interact with other network actors in the context of collaborative innovation.

中文翻译：

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开放在工业网络协同创新中的作用：历史和当代案例

目的

本文旨在探讨开放的作用和意义，以期从产业网络的角度增强对协同创新的理解。

设计/方法/方法

该理论框架基于工业网络方法，并以活动链接、资源联系和参与者纽带的概念作为捕捉交互内容和动态的起点。实证部分包括五个案例研究：两个历史案例和三个当代案例，涉及协作创新项目。这些案例分析了业务关系的开放性及其在网络中的联系。

发现

主要贡献是商业关系和关系连接的开放性概念化。这篇论文描述了开放和封闭的各种形式和内容。据推测，开放性的概念可以用作深入挖掘与协作创新背景下企业行为相关的关系和网络相关问题的分析工具。正如本文所定义的那样，开放性也被提出来解释为什么（或为什么）协作创新项目会成功。

原创性/价值

开放的概念不同于开放创新文献中通常描述的开放。在那里，开放性与封闭性相反，即创新活动发生在公司内部的一种模式。在本文中，开放性与企业如何在协作创新的背景下与其他网络参与者互动有关。