Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Leveraging on Projects to Strategically Organize Open Innovation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Project-Based Knowledge in Organizing Open Innovation

  • 1077 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter proposes a project-based view of open innovation in contexts where knowledge is dispersed and the locus of innovation does not reside inside a single organization. After a review of studies on the organization of innovative labor and the role of new product development projects, the chapter discusses how innovative projects could be conceived as a strategic site where the organization of the external network of knowledge sources takes place. It analyzes the main factors explaining firms’ propensity to design open innovation project-by-project. Adopting a contingency approach, it reviews recent research on the project features affecting inbound choices in innovative organizations and on the relation between project choices and the knowledge base of the firm. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the chapters of the book and how they address some key theoretical and empirical open issues.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abernathy, W.J., Clark, K.B., (1985). Innovation: Mapping the winds of creative destruction. Research Policy 14(1): 3–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arora, A., Gambardella, A., (1994). Evaluating Technological Information and Utilizing it. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 24(1): 91–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arora, A., Gambardella, A., Rullani, E., (1997). Division of labour and the locus of inventive activity. Journal of Management and Governance 1(1): 123–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bahemia, H., Squire, B., (2010). A contingent perspective of open innovation in new product development projects. International Journal of Innovation Management 14(4): 603–627.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, R., (2010). Taking stock of temporary organizational forms : A systematic review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews 12(4): 466–486.

    Google Scholar 

  • Battistella, C., Nonino F., (2012). Exploring the impact of motivations on the attraction of innovation roles in open innovation web-based platforms. Production Planning and Control 24(2–3) 226–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonesso, S., Comacchio, A., Pizzi, C., (2011). Technology sourcing decisions in exploratory projects. Technovation 31(10–11): 573–585.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosch-Sijtsema, P.M., Postma, T.J.B.M., (2009). Cooperative innovation projects: Capabilities and Governance Mechanisms. Journal of Product Innovation Management 26(1): 58–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brusoni, S., Prencipe, A., Pavitt, K., (2001). Knowledge specialization, organization coupling, and the boundaries of the firm: Why do firms know more than they make? Administrative Science Quarterly 46(4): 597–625.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brusoni, S., Prencipe, A., Salter, A., (1998). Mapping and measuring innovation in project-based firms, CoPS Working Paper No. 46, SPRU, University of Sussex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carson, S.J., Madhok, A., Wu, T., (2006). Uncertainty, opportunism, and governance: The effects of volatility and ambiguity on formal and relational contracting. Academy of Management Journal 49(5): 1058–1077.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassiman, B., Di Guardo, M.C., Valentini, G., (2010). Organizing links with science: Cooperate or contract? A project-level analysis. Research Policy 39(7): 882–892.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cattani, G., Ferriani, S., Frederiksen, L., Täube, F., (2011). Project-based organizing and strategic management. Howard House, Wagon Lake, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarti, A.K., Hauschildt, J., (1989). The division of labour in innovation management, R&D management 19(2): 161–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chesbrough, H.W., (2003). Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chesbrough, H.W., (2006). Open business models: How to thrive in the new innovation landscape. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiaroni, D., Chiesa, V., Frattini, F., (2010). Unravelling the process from closed to open innovation: Evidence from mature, asset intensive industries. R&D Management 40(3): 222–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiaroni, D., Chiesa, V., Frattini, F., (2011). The open innovation journey: How firms dynamically implement the emerging innovation management paradigm. Technovation 31(1): 34–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christiansen, J.K., Gasparin, M., Varnes, C.J., (2013). Improving design with open innovation a flexible management technology. Research-Technology Management 56(2): 36–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, K.B., (1995). The Product Development Challenge: Competing Through Speed, Quality, and Creativity, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, W.M., Levinthal, D.A., (1990). Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly 35(1): 128–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colombo, M.G., (2003). Alliance form: a test of the contractual and competence perspectives. Strategic Management Journal 24(12): 1209–1229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dittrich, K., Duysters, G., (2007). Networking as a means to strategy change: The case of open innovation in mobile telephony, The Journal of Product Innovation Management 24(6): 510–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elmquist, M., Fredberg, T., Ollila, S., (2009). Exploring the field of open innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management 12(3): 326–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foss, N.J., Husted, K., Michailova, S., (2010). Governing knowledge sharing in organizations: Levels of analysis, governance mechanisms, and research directions. Journal of Management Studies 47(3): 455–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, H.K., Gino, F., Staats, B.R., (2012). Dynamically integrating knowledge in teams: Transforming resources into performance. Academy of Management Journal 55(4): 998–1022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gassmann, O., Enkel, E., Chesbrough, H., (2010). The future of open innovation. R&D Management 40(3): 213–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gassmann, O., Zeschky, M., (2008). Opening up the solution space: The role of analogical thinking for breakthrough product innovation. Creativity and Innovation Management 17(2): 97–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gemünden H.G., Killen C., Kock A., (2013). Implementing and Informing Innovation Strategies through Project Portfolio Management. Creativity and Innovation Management 22(1): 103–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffin K., Koners, U., (2011). Tacit knowledge, lessons learnt, and new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28(2): 300–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandori, A., Kogut, B., (2002). Dialogue on organization and knowledge. Organization Science 13(3): 224–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, R.M., Baden-Fuller, C., (2004). A knowledge accessing theory of strategic alliances. Journal of Management Studies 41(1): 61–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grönlund, J., Sjödin, D.R., Frishammar, J., (2010). Open Innovation and the Stage-Gate Process: A revised model for new product development. California Management Review 52(3): 106–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulati, R., Puranam, P., Thusman, M., (2012). Meta-organization design: rethinking design interorganizational and community contexts. Strategic Management Journal 33(6): 571–586.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulati, R, Kletter, D., (2005). Shrinking core-expanding periphery: the relational architecture of high performing organizations. California Management Review 47(1): 77–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagedoorn, J., (2002). Inter-firm R&D partnerships: An overview of major trends and patterns since 1960. Research Policy 31(4): 477–492.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagedoorn, J., Lorenz-Orlean, S., van Kranenburg, H., (2008). Inter-firm technology transfer: partnership-embedded licensing or standard licensing agreements? Industrial and Corporate Change 18(3): 529–550.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanisch, B., Wald, A., (2012). A bibliometric view on the use of contingency theory in project management research. Project Management Journal 43(3): 4–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobday, M., (2000). The project-based organization: An ideal form for managing complex products and systems? Research Policy 29(7–8): 871–893.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howells, J., (2006). Intermediation and the role of intermediaries in innovation. Research Policy 35(5): 715–728.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, K.N., Tidd, J., (2012). Open versus closed new service development: The influences of project novelty. Technovation 32(11): 600–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, Y., Chung, H., Lin, C.H., (2009). R&D sourcing strategies: Determinants and consequences. Technovation 29(3): 155–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huizing, E.K.R.E., (2011). Open innovation: State of the art and future perspectives. Technovation 31(1): 2–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jurgens, U., (1999). Anticipating problems with manufacturing during product development process, in Comacchio A., Volpato G., Camuffo A., (eds) Automation in automotive industries. Recent developments, Berlin: Springer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knudsen, M.P., Mortensen, T.B., (2011). Some immediate-but negative-effects of openness on product development performance. Technovation 31(1): 54–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kogut, B., Zander, U., (1992). Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organization Science 3(3): 383–397.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakhani, K.R., Tushman, M.L., (2012). Open Innovation and Organizational Boundaries: The Impact of Task Decomposition and Knowledge Distribution on the Locus of Innovation, HBS Working Paper 12–057.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langlois, R.N., Robertson, P.L., (1992). Networks and innovation in a modular system: Lessons from the microcomputer and stereo component industries. Research Policy 21(4): 297–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laursen, K., Salter, A., (2006). Open for innovation: The role of openness in explaining innovation performance among U.K. manufacturing firms. Strategic Management Journal 27(2): 131–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leiponen, A., Helfat, C.E., (2010). Innovation objectives, knowledge sources, and the benefits of breadth. Strategic Management Journal 31(2): 224–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenfle, S., (2008). Exploration and project management. International Journal of Project Management 26(5): 469–478.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, A.Y., Massini, S., Peeters, C., (2011). Microfoundations of internal and external absorptive capacity routines. Organization Science 22(1): 81–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCormack, A., Verganti, R., Jansiti, M., (2001). Developing products on “Internet Time”: The anatomy of a flexible development process. Management Science 47(1): 133–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mol, M.J., (2005). Does being R&D intensive still discourage outsourcing? Evidence from Dutch manufacturing. Research Policy 34(4): 571–582.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortara, L., Minshall, T., (2011). How do large multinational companies implement open innovation? Technovation 31(10–11): 586–597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nilsen, E.R., (2013). Organizing for learning and knowledge creation are we too afraid to kill it? Projects as a learning space. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 6(2): 293–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom, B., Haverbeke, W.V., Duysters, G., Gilsing, V., van den Oord, A., (2007). Optimal cognitive distance and absorptive capacity. Research Policy 36(7): 1016–1034.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxley, J., (1997). Appropriability hazards and governance in strategic alliances: A transaction cost approach. Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization 13(2): 387–409.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W., Koput, K.W., Smith-Doerr, L., (1996). Interorganizational collaboration and the locus of innovation: Networks of learning in biotechnology. Administrative Science Quarterly 41(1): 116–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W., White, D.R., Koput, K.W., Owen-Smith, J., (2004). Network dynamics and field evolution: The growth of inter-organizational collaboration in the life sciences. American Journal of Sociology 110(4): 1132–1205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prencipe, A., (2000). Breadth and depth of technological capabilities in CoPS: The case of the aircraft engine control system. Research Policy 29 (7–8): 895–911.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prencipe, A., (2003). Corporate Strategy and Systems Integration Capabilities Managing Networks in Complex Systems Industries, in Prencipe, A., Davies, A., Hobday, M. (eds). The Business of Systems Integration. (pp. 114–132) Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rass, M., Dumbach, M., Danzinger, F., Bullinger, A.C., Moeslein, K.M., (2013). Open innovation and firm performance: The mediating role of social capital. Creativity and Innovation Management 22(2): 177–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reich, B.H., Gemino, A., Sauer, C., (2012). Knowledge management and project-based knowledge in it projects: A model and preliminary empirical results. International Journal of Project Management 30(6): 663–674.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roijakkers, N., Hagedoorn, J., (2006). Inter-firm R&D partnering in pharmaceutical biotechnology since 1975: Trends, patterns, and networks. Research Policy 35(3): 431–446.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothaermel, F.T., Deeds, D.L., (2004). Exploration and exploitation alliances in biotechnology: A system of new product development. Strategic Management Journal 25(3): 201–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salge, T.O., Farchi, T., Barrett, M.I., Dopson, S., (2013). When does search openness really matter? A contingency study of health-care innovation projects. The Journal of Product Innovation Management 30(4): 659–676.

    Google Scholar 

  • Söderlund, J., Vaagaasar, A.L., Andersen, E.S., (2008). Relating, reflecting and routinizing: Developing project competence in cooperation with others. International Journal of Project Management 26(5): 517–526.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takeishi, A., Fujimoto, T., (2003). Modularization in the car industry: interlinked multiple hierarchies of product, production, and supplier systems, in Prencipe, A., Davies, A. Hobday, M. (eds). The Business of Systems Integration. (pp 254–278). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tidd, J., Bessant, J., Pavitt, K., (2005). Managing innovation integrating technological, market and organizational change. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tranekjer, T.L., Søndergaard, H.A., (2013). Sources of innovation, their combinations and strengths—benefits at the NPD project level. International Journal of Technology Management 61(3–4): 205–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trombini, G., Comacchio, A., (2012). Cooperative Markets for Ideas: When does Technology Licensing Combine with R&D Partnerships?, DRUID Conference, Copenhagen Business school, Copenhagen; Denmark, 19–21 June 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsai, K-H., (2009). Collaborative networks and product innovation performance: Toward a contingency perspective. Research Policy 38(5): 765–778.

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Vrande, V., de Jong J.P.J., Vanhaverbeke, W., de Rochemon, M., (2009). Open innovation in SMEs: Trends, motives and management challenges. Technovation 29(6–7): 423–437.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Hippel, E., (2005). Democratizing Innovation: The Evolving Phenomenon of User Innovation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Zedtwitz, M., Gassmann, O., (2002). Market versus technology drive in R&D internationalization: four different patterns of managing research and development. Research Policy 31(4): 569–588.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, J., Salter, A., Vanhaverbeke, W., Chesbrough, H., (2014). Open innovation: The next decade. Research Policy 43(5): 805–811.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheelwright, S.C., Clark, K.B., (1995). Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development, in Clark, K.B., Wheelwright, S.C., (eds) The Product Development Challenge: Competing Through Speed, Quality, and Creativity. (pp. 187–208). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, J., Baden-Fuller, C., Mangematin, V., (2007). Technological knowledge base, R&D organization structure and alliance formation: Evidence from the biopharmaceutical industry. Research Policy 36(4): 515–528.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venezia, San Giobbe Cannaregio, 873, 30121, Venezia, Italy

    Sara Bonesso & Anna Comacchio

Authors
  1. Sara Bonesso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anna Comacchio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Bonesso .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Venezia, Italy

    Sara Bonesso

  2. Venezia, Italy

    Anna Comacchio

  3. Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Venezia, Italy

    Claudio Pizzi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bonesso, S., Comacchio, A. (2014). Leveraging on Projects to Strategically Organize Open Innovation. In: Bonesso, S., Comacchio, A., Pizzi, C. (eds) Project-Based Knowledge in Organizing Open Innovation. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6509-5_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6509-5_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-6508-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6509-5

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation