Open Innovation Strategies and Appropriability in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Evidences and Implications in the Brazilian Context

Sprakel, Eurico; Machado, Andre

doi:10.15728/bbr.2021.18.1.4

Eurico Sprakel

Universidade Federal da Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6751-141X

Andre Machado

Universidade Federal da Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0589-896X

sprakel@uol.com.br agcmachado@gmail.com

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The authors declares that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTION

Author 1 - Defining The Research Problem; Review of Literature; Methodological Procedures; Data collection; Data Analysis and Interpretation; Writing Text; Reviewing Text. Author 2 - Defining The Research Problem; Data Analysis and Interpretation; Writing Text; Reviewing Text.

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Figure 1
Dendrogram and Elbow Chart. Source: Researchdata (2018).

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Figure 2
Non-hierarchical clustering (k-means). Source: Research data (2018).

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Table 1
Descriptive indicators for the studied dimensions

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Table 2
Correlations between the main constructs

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Table 3
Clustering Results - K-means method with 4 centroids

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Construct Item Description References Openness AB1 Business clients Laursen; Salter, (2006, 2014); Cui et al., (2015); Uduma, Wali and Wright, (2015); Laihonen et al., (2015); Greco, Grimaldi & Cricelli (2016); Freel & Robson (2017) AB2 Individual clients or users AB3 Competitors AB4 Suppliers AB5 Consulting firms AB6 Business laboratories or private research institutes AB7 Universities or other higher education institutions AB8 Public sector and public research institutes AB9 Technical assistance and professional training centers AB10 Testing and certification institutions AB11 Business associations Appropriation (Formal and Informal) AF1 Registering industrial property (example: patents, trademarks, designs etc.). Cheng & Huizingh (2014); Aloini et al. (2015); Baldwin & Henkel (2015); Spithoven, Teirlinck (2015); Laihonen et al. (2015); Zobel, Lokshin & Hagedoorn (2017); Freel and Robson (2017); AF2 Registering computer software copyright and licensing out free of charge. AF3 Registering computer software copyright and selling rights. AF4 Licensing other types of copyrights. AI1 Adopting non-disclosure practices (confidentiality) over knowledge and innovations. AI2 Adopting practices to increase workforce retention. AI3 Increasing speed to launch new products/services. AI4 Increasing service and products complexity. AI5 Sharing knowledge with other actors (e.g.: clients, suppliers) in modules. Selective Revealing RS1 Revealing knowledge and innovations whose intellectual property rights the company owns. Henkel (2006); Alexy, George & Salter (2013); Henkel, Scheorge & Alexy (2014). RS2 Openly revealing knowledge and innovation to some organizations and individuals while keeping them a secret to others. RS3 Waiving intellectual property rights over some knowledge and innovations. RS4 Influencing other organizations to converge to our technological path so as to make others get iReducing development costs of new products and services. RS5 Outlining practices adopted by professionals and trade associations connected to our business. RS6 Using crowdsourcing (obtaining ideas through virtual communities) for other organizations or individuals to solve our problems. Innovation Performance DI1 Reducing development costs of new products and services. Laursen and Salter (2006); Laihonen et al. (2015); Cui et al. (2015); Arora, Athreye & Huang (2016); D’Ambrosio et al. (2017) DI2 Reducing products and services trade time. DI3 Introducing new or significantly improved products and services. DI4 Introducing new or significantly improved processes. DI5 Opening new markets to your products and services.

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Indicator Openness Formal Appropriation Informal Appropriation Selective Revealing Innovation Performance ABEINB 0.893 ABEOUT 0.899 ABECOU 0.926 AF1 0.816 AF2 0.747 AF3 0.744 AF4 0.701 AI1 0.783 AI2 0.691 AI3 0.674 AI4 0.794 AI5 0.768 RS1 0.789 RS2 0.764 RS4 0.861 RS5 0.807 DI3 0.848 DI4 0.806 DI2 0.790 DI5 0.742 DI1 0.736 Source: Primary data.

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	Mean	Median	S.D	Minimum	Maximum	Asymmetry	Kurtosis (K)
Formal Appropriation	3.04	2.75	1.71	1	7	0.46	- 0.83
Informal Appropriation	4.89	5.20	1.18	1	7	- 0.72	0.37
Appropriability	4.06	4.00	1.19	1	6.67	-0.07	-0.49
Selective Revealing	3.52	3.50	1.61	1	7	0.08	-0.89
Innovation performance	5.02	5.20	1.28	1	7	- 0.61	0.30
Openness	48.13	47.59	25.73	0	98.30	0.06	-0.95
Inbound Breadth	63.32	63.64	28.25	0	100.00	-0.43	-0.72
Inbound Depth	42.76	42.42	20.51	0	100.00	0.15	- 0.31
Outbound Breadth	50.62	45.45	31.23	0	100.00	0.21	-1.14
Outbound Depth	27.17	22.22	24.62	0	100.00	0.85	0.06
Coupled Breadth	51.70	45.45	32.13	0	100.00	0.15	-1.20
Coupled Depth	27.47	19.44	26.29	0	100.00	0.88	- 0.08

	Formal Appropriation	Informal Appropriation	Selective Revealing	Innovation performance	Breadth	Depth
Formal Appropriation	1.00	-	-	-	-	-
Informal Appropriation	0.41	1.00	-	-	-	-
Selective Revealing	0.37	0.31	1.00	-	-	-
Innovation performance	0.29	0.48	0.29	1.00	-	-
Breadth	0.41	0.37	0.56	0.29	1.00	-
Depth	0.44	0.35	0.56	0.30	0.89	1.00

	Externalizing	Neutral	Internalizing	Very Internalizing
Breadth Centroid (Inb - Out)	-29.47	2.23	22.07	52.00
Depth Centroid (Inb - Out)	-15.64	7.36	26.06	38.96
Number of firms	29	163	103	50
Formal Appropriation	2.80	3.25⁽¹⁾	3.19	2.44⁽¹⁾
Informal Appropriation	4.93⁽¹⁾	5.00⁽²⁾	4.85	4.20^{(1, 2)}
Selective Revealing	3.16	3.87	3.33	3.12
Innovation performance	5.01	5.10	5.20	4.72

Construct	Item	Description	References
Openness	AB1	Business clients	Laursen; Salter, (2006Laursen, K., & Salter, A. (2006). Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among UK manufacturing firms.Strategic Management Journal ,27(2), 131-150., 2014Laursen, K., & Salter, A. J. (2014). The paradox of openness: Appropriability, external search and collaboration.Research policy,43(5), 867-878.); Cui et al., (2015)Cui, T., Ye, H. J., Teo, H. H., & Li, J. (2015). Information technology and open innovation: A strategic alignment perspective.Information & Management,52(3), 348-358.; Uduma, Wali and Wright, (2015)Uduma, I. A., Wali, A. F., & Wright, L. T. (2015). A quantitative study on the influence of breadth of open innovation on SMEs product-service performance: The moderating effect of type of innovation. Cogent Business & Management, 2(1), 1120421.; Laihonen et al., (2015)Laihonen, H., Aloini, D., Pellegrini, L., Lazzarotti, V., & Manzini, R. (2015). Technological strategy, open innovation and innovation performance: evidences on the basis of a structural-equation-model approach.Measuring Business Excellence .; Greco, Grimaldi & Cricelli (2016)Greco, M., Grimaldi, M., & Cricelli, L. (2016). An analysis of the open innovation effect on firm performance.European Management Journal,34(5), 501-516.; Freel & Robson (2017)Freel, M., & Robson, P. J. (2017). Appropriation strategies and open innovation in SMEs.International Small Business Journal,35(5), 578-596.
	AB2	Individual clients or users
	AB3	Competitors
	AB4	Suppliers
	AB5	Consulting firms
	AB6	Business laboratories or private research institutes
	AB7	Universities or other higher education institutions
	AB8	Public sector and public research institutes
	AB9	Technical assistance and professional training centers
	AB10	Testing and certification institutions
	AB11	Business associations
Appropriation (Formal and Informal)	AF1	Registering industrial property (example: patents, trademarks, designs etc.).	Cheng & Huizingh (2014)Cheng, C. C., & Huizingh, E. K. (2014). When is open innovation beneficial? The role of strategic orientation.Journal of product innovation management,31(6), 1235-1253. ; Aloini et al. (2015); Baldwin & Henkel (2015)Baldwin, C. Y., & Henkel, J. (2015). Modularity and intellectual property protection.Strategic Management Journal,36(11), 1637-1655.; Spithoven, Teirlinck (2015)Spithoven, A., & Teirlinck, P. (2015). Internal capabilities, network resources and appropriation mechanisms as determinants of R&D outsourcing. Research Policy , 44(3), 711-725.; Laihonen et al. (2015)Laihonen, H., Aloini, D., Pellegrini, L., Lazzarotti, V., & Manzini, R. (2015). Technological strategy, open innovation and innovation performance: evidences on the basis of a structural-equation-model approach.Measuring Business Excellence, 9(3), 22-41.; Zobel, Lokshin & Hagedoorn (2017)Zobel, A. K., Lokshin, B., & Hagedoorn, J. (2017). Formal and informal appropriation mechanisms: The role of openness and innovativeness. Technovation , 59, 44-54.; Freel and Robson (2017)Freel, M., & Robson, P. J. (2017). Appropriation strategies and open innovation in SMEs.International Small Business Journal,35(5), 578-596.;
	AF2	Registering computer software copyright and licensing out free of charge.
	AF3	Registering computer software copyright and selling rights.
	AF4	Licensing other types of copyrights.
	AI1	Adopting non-disclosure practices (confidentiality) over knowledge and innovations.
	AI2	Adopting practices to increase workforce retention.
	AI3	Increasing speed to launch new products/services.
	AI4	Increasing service and products complexity.
	AI5	Sharing knowledge with other actors (e.g.: clients, suppliers) in modules.
Selective Revealing	RS1	Revealing knowledge and innovations whose intellectual property rights the company owns.	Henkel (2006)Henkel, J. (2006). Selective revealing in open innovation processes: The case of embedded Linux.Research Policy ,35(7), 953-969.; Alexy, George & Salter (2013)Alexy, O., George, G., & Salter, A. J. (2013). Cui bono? The selective revealing of knowledge and its implications for innovative activity.Academy of Management Review,38(2), 270-291.; Henkel, Scheorge & Alexy (2014)Henkel, J., Schöberl, S., & Alexy, O. (2014). The emergence of openness: How and why firms adopt selective revealing in open innovation.Research Policy ,43(5), 879-890..
	RS2	Openly revealing knowledge and innovation to some organizations and individuals while keeping them a secret to others.
	RS3	Waiving intellectual property rights over some knowledge and innovations.
	RS4	Influencing other organizations to converge to our technological path so as to make others get iReducing development costs of new products and services.
	RS5	Outlining practices adopted by professionals and trade associations connected to our business.
	RS6	Using crowdsourcing (obtaining ideas through virtual communities) for other organizations or individuals to solve our problems.
Innovation Performance	DI1	Reducing development costs of new products and services.	Laursen and Salter (2006)Laursen, K., & Salter, A. (2006). Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among UK manufacturing firms.Strategic Management Journal ,27(2), 131-150.; *Laihonen et al.* (2015)Laihonen, H., Aloini, D., Pellegrini, L., Lazzarotti, V., & Manzini, R. (2015). Technological strategy, open innovation and innovation performance: evidences on the basis of a structural-equation-model approach.Measuring Business Excellence, 9(3), 22-41.; Cui et al. (2015)Cui, T., Ye, H. J., Teo, H. H., & Li, J. (2015). Information technology and open innovation: A strategic alignment perspective.Information & Management,52(3), 348-358.; Arora, Athreye & Huang (2016)Arora, A., Athreye, S., & Huang, C. (2016). The paradox of openness revisited: Collaborative innovation and patenting by UK innovators.Research Policy,45(7), 1352-1361.; D’Ambrosio et al. (2017)**D’Ambrosio, A., Gabriele, R., Schiavone, F., & Villasalero, M. (2017). The role of openness in explaining innovation performance in a regional context.The Journal of Technology Transfer ,42(2), 389-408.
	DI2	Reducing products and services trade time.
	DI3	Introducing new or significantly improved products and services.
	DI4	Introducing new or significantly improved processes.
	DI5	Opening new markets to your products and services.

Indicator	Openness	Formal Appropriation	Informal Appropriation	Selective Revealing	Innovation Performance
ABEINB	0.893
ABEOUT	0.899
ABECOU	0.926
AF1		0.816
AF2		0.747
AF3		0.744
AF4		0.701
AI1			0.783
AI2			0.691
AI3			0.674
AI4			0.794
AI5			0.768
RS1				0.789
RS2				0.764
RS4				0.861
RS5				0.807
DI3					0.848
DI4					0.806
DI2					0.790
DI5					0.742
DI1					0.736

[1] sprakel@uol.com.br agcmachado@gmail.com

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Open Innovation Strategies and Appropriability in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Evidences and Implications in the Brazilian Context

ABSTRACT