What Makes Open Innovation Processes Better?A Focus on IT Professionals’ Attitudes

Abstract

A recent trend in innovation paradigm is the shift from closed innovation to open innovation principles. This trend is characterized by the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge not only to accelerate internal innovation, but also to expand the markets for external use of innovation. However, the Not-Invented-Here (NIH), and Not-Sold-Here (NSH) or Only-Use-Here (OUH) syndromes are the most common challenges encountered in open innovation processes. Therefore, this study has the following main aims: 1) propose a research model that explains the factors that influence NIH and NSH/OUH attitudes based on motivation theory with perceived organizational fairness and commitment, 2) investigate their impacts on NIH and NSH/OUH attitudes, and 3) provide useful theoretical and practical insights. The proposed research model was empirically tested using survey data collected from information technology (IT) professionals in Korea. One of the major findings indicates that IT professionals’ perceived organizational fairness has a negative effect on NIH attitudes in open innovation process. Theoretical and practical contributions of this study are also discussed.