Toward a dynamic perspective on open innovation: A longitudinal assessment of the adoption of internal and external innovation strategies in the Netherlands

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a more dynamic perspective on open innovation by conducting a longitudinal analysis of the adoption of open innovation strategies. In order to do so, we rely on three comparable waves of the Dutch Community Innovation Survey, which were conducted in 1996, 2000 and 2004. The contributions of this study are twofold. First, this study is to our knowledge the first one to explicitly provide large-scale evidence of a paradigm shift from a closed to an open innovation model is taking place. At the same time, we provide evidence that this paradigm shift tends to occur in shocks instead of manifesting itself as a continuous process over time. Moreover, we show that the timing of these shocks differs across industries. Second, this study supports the assumption that internal and external innovation strategies are complements instead of substitutes. © 2009 Imperial College Press.