Open innovation with scientific partners and patenting: the moderating role of the internal context for innovation

Purpose – This paper aims at investigating how the degree of openness, in a depth conception (Laursen and Salter, 2006) and with scientific partners is associated to innovation performance, measured through the number of patent application. Moreover, we provide a detailed and contextual analysis which assigns to a multifaceted setting for innovation a crucial role in shaping the relationship between the degree of openness with scientific partners and the patenting. The context for innovation is defined through four internal factors that are indicated as possible moderators: the innovation strategy, the drivers and the intellectual capital, in its human and social components. Design/methodology/approach – We relied on a survey developed in 2012 in Finland and Sweden on 263 firms. We focused on the manufacturing industry and we considered statistical units with no fewer than 10 employees. Data was collected by means of questionnaires addressed to people knowledgeable about OI (R&D managers or similar). The items of the questionnaire, built as perceptive 7 point Likert scales, defined the degree of openness (depth) and the context for innovation. As concerns patents, we used Thomson Innovation to download patent stocks from 2011 to 2016 coherently with data collection of the survey. A structural equation model was applied to test the supposed relationships, controlling for firm size and country. Originality/value – With respect to previous research, the contribution of the study is a more fine-grained investigation of the direct and interactive association that links the degree of openness to scientific partners and the patenting. The peculiar nature of the scientific partners and the studied context for innovation have proven to be critical to understand more in depth the association between openness and patenting. We also deepen the analysis of Zobel et al. (2016) who only analyse if the firms have or do not have patents, by providing evidence for how the number of patents is associated with openness and the internal context. Practical implications – The findings of the study provide a helpful template for managers to decide on the firms’ use of patents when collaboration is with scientific partners. The template proposes four internal contextual variables to be considered, two at the strategic and two at the organisational level.