The Influence of Internal Barriers on Open Innovation

Despite providing us with a good understanding of how firms use certain mechanisms to benefit from open innovation strategies, current research provides only limited insights into how barriers internal to the firm may hamper knowledge transfer and limit effective utilization of external knowledge sources.

The Influence of Internal Barriers on Open Innovation proposes a dynamic perspective that addresses this gap and aims at stimulating this discussion in two ways. First, by looking at how the way firms structure their internal (innovation) activities may (unintentionally) create barriers to the incorporation of external knowledge. Second, by reflecting on how internal barriers might be coupled to firm decisions aimed at the optimization of innovation processes, like the balance between exploration and exploitation strategies.

The chapters of this book provide detailed conceptualization and investigation of organizational characteristics and practices that influence internal barriers to open innovation. The diverse set of studies described in the chapters of this book will help open innovation scholars to better understand the challenges that firms face when dealing with internal barriers that affect their external knowledge search and knowledge sourcing.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Industry and Innovation.

Pedro de Faria is Professor of Innovation Management at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). His research has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies and Research Policy.

Florian Noseleit is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Groningen. His research has been published in journals like Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, and Journal of Regional Science.

Bart Los is Professor of the Economics of Technological Progress and Structural Change at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). He published innovation-related research in journals like Research Policy, Journal of Evolutionary Economics and Regional Studies.