Industry and academia alike are increasingly becoming aware of the fact that innovation does not take place in isolated cells or functions within the firm. During the last the years the term open innovation has emphasized the im- portance of internal and external collaboration in order to increase the competi- tiveness of companies. Although the idea of involving internal and external ac- tors in the new product development (NPD) process is not new, the knowledge about the benefits and pitfalls is still limited. This paper aims to contribute to refining the concept of open innovation, by investigating how strategic priori- ties influence the degree of external and internal involvement in the NPD pro- cess, moderated by contextual factors. Results based on analyses of 584 companies from the International Manu- facturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) 2005 indicate that suppliers are heavily in- volved in the NPD process in firms in B2C markets aiming at increasing the in- novation volume. For B2B companies the reverse picture emerges. However, when the aim is to increase the radicality of new products, suppliers and cus- tomers are heavily involved for firms in B2B markets. Further, market uncer- tainty, and to some extent company size, seems to moderate the relationships between strategy and involvement considerably.
['Bjørge Timenes Laugen', 'Astrid Heidemann Lassen']
Collaborative Innovation: Internal and External Involvement in New Product Development