Technology aggressiveness, open innovation and innovation performance: evidences by a structural- equation-model approach

Purpose – Still little is known about the determinants of the openness degree. Examples of investigated determinants are firm-specific or environmental/external factors. However, the role exerted by some of them remains unclear. In particular, it is still debated the influence by the so-called “technology aggressiveness”. As a matter of fact, evidences on the relationships between the technology aggressiveness and openness are in fact conflicting. The aim of this study is thus to shed further light on the relationship between technology aggressiveness and openness degree in order to give a more conclusive evidence to the debate. Design/methodology/approach – We elaborate a structural equation model which enriches the state-of-the-art by explicitly testing the interplay among technology aggressiveness, openness (innovatively measured in terms of partner intensity, phases intensity, and variety) and innovative performance. Our study relies on data from more than 400 firms by a survey research developed in Finland, Italy and Sweden. Originality/value – Findings shows that openness, if measured as partner intensity and phase intensity, fully mediates the relationship between technology aggressiveness and innovative performance, by suggesting that the effectiveness of a firm’s technology aggressive behaviour is strongly related to the intensification of collaboration with the partners along the innovation funnel. Conversely, openness variety seems to play an opposite role and is differently influenced by partner and phase intensity. This result likely emphasises the cost-side of an open behaviour becoming harder to manage, and thus costly, when involving too many different partners, phases and contents. Practical implications – If one hand firms, which adopt a technology aggressive strategy, are recommended to deeply open their innovation process in order to foster innovation performance. However, due to the fact that a high openness variety could generate some downside, managers should be very careful in the management of different phases, sources and contents. So that a call to find adequate strategies for effectively managing the collaboration process in order to avoid waste of resources and efforts clearly emerges.