Previous work on innovation performance has focused on either organization or individual-level analysis. The current study is the first that we are aware of in which multilevel theory and method were applied to innovation behavior and innovation performance. This multilevel study of 100 managers, 512 R&D teams of employees from 38 R&D companies demonstrated that both individual-and team-level factors were significantly associated with innovation behavior: Balanced psychological contract fulfillment explained within-team variance, and innovation climate explained between-team variance. Further, employee innovation behavior aggregated to the team level explained between-team variance in innovation performance. This paper also explores the impact of the RBV on the theoretical and empirical development of SHRM and innovation climate. This study is to introduce Intellectual capital as a mediating construct between knowledge human resource management (KHRM) systems and knowledge create. This study provides consistent support for the notion that KHRM systems are fundamental in the development of intellectual capital. This study also found intellectual capital to be associated with increased knowledge creation and innovation performance. With regard to intellectual capital¡¦s mediating role in the HR-performance linkage, this study provides both managers and academics with a more fine-grained analysis of how to target HR investments that build intellectual capital, which, in turn, drive team innovation performance. The results contribute to knowledge on the resource-based view of the firm and the importance of multilevel theory.

A inovação tornou-se um tema importante para as organizações empresariais no atual ambiente econômico, marcado pela intensa competição por mercados, tecnologias e recursos, e o cenário brasileiro não foge a regra. As empresas se esforçam para entender os fatores que influenciam a inovação e a sua complexa dinâmica a fim de desenvolverem ou ajustarem sua cultura, suas estruturas e seus processos organizacionais com o intuito de estimulá-la. O estudo da inovação não é algo totalmente novo, vários artigos e trabalhos acadêmicos foram desenvolvidos sobre o tema, não obstante, o assunto ainda é um amplo campo de pesquisa. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo contribuir no esforço de um melhor entendimento da inovação nas empresas, mais especificamente em qual a influência das práticas do processo de desenvolvimento de produto no desempenho inovador das organizações e, a diferença de uso das práticas nas organizações com perfil mais e menos inovador. Cerca de 50 gerentes, envolvidos com a atividade de desenvolvimento de produto de empresas localizadas no Brasil de diferentes nacionalidades e tamanho, participaram da pesquisa. Técnicas de correlação e análise multivariada permitiram identificar quais práticas da atividade de desenvolvimento correlacionaram-se com os indicadores de desempenho inovador e, a diferença entre as empresas mais e menos inovadoras em relação ao uso destas. O estabelecimento de mecanismos de coleta de idéias de colaboradores, fornecedores e clientes e de um sistema para a avaliação e seleção das melhores idéias são extremamente importantes a fim de que, uma empresa identifique e selecione as melhores oportunidades tecnológicas e de mercado. Outros fatores também identificados foram: a existência de um método para a execução dos projetos na organização, a utilização de equipes multidisciplinares e a colaboração externa, com fornecedores e clientes. O envolvimento do nível executivo da empresa, apoiando a equipe de projeto, provendo diretrizes e desempenhando um importante papel nas decisões de continuar ou abortar projetos, também merece destaque. Outras práticas, no entanto, não foram passíveis de identificação na presente pesquisa como: a necessidade de alinhamento contínuo do projeto com as informações de mercado em todo o ciclo de desenvolvimento, a preocupação pela melhoria contínua e o desenvolvimento de um plano de lançamento, suportado por uma base de dados contendo informações sobre testes em protótipos, antes da introdução do produto no mercado. / The innovation has become an important subject for the corporations in the current economic environment, characterized by an intense competition for markets, technologies and resources, and the Brazilian scenario is not different. Companies struggle to understand the factors which could influence the innovation and its complex dynamic in order to create or align its culture, its organizational structure and processes with the objective to harvest it. The innovation research it is not something new, a variety of academic articles and researches have been developed about it however, the field still is a green field for research. The current work has the objective to contribute for the effort of a better understanding of corporation innovation, in special, what it is the influence of product development practices in the innovation performance and what it is the difference in the use of practices between corporations with a more or less innovator profile. Around 50 managers, involved in product development activity at companies located in Brazil of different nationality and size, joined the research. Correlation and multivariate techniques identified which product development practices correlated with innovation metrics and, the difference between companies more or less innovators regarding the use of these practices. The establishment of a mechanism for gathering employers, suppliers and customers? idea and one for assessing and selecting the best ones are extremely important in order to the company identify and select the best technologies and markets opportunities. Others factors also highlighted by the research were the existence of an established methodology for executing its projects inside the organization, the use of a multidisciplinary teams and the external collaboration, with its suppliers and customers. The executive level involvement, supporting project team, providing directives to it and playing a crucial role in the go-kill projects, also deserve some attention. Others practices however were not identified in the current research such as: the need of continuously keeping the project aligned with market information during the whole development cycle, process improvement mentality and the creation of a launching plan, supported by a database contained information about prototype tests, before the product introduction in a market.

The topic of this thesis is to analyse the impact of Slovak innovation policy on trade balance. The aim of this thesis is to assess how Slovak Republic uses innovation policy instruments to support innovation and enhance competitiveness. I analyzed basic macroeconomic indicators, indicators of innovation performance comparison through the European Innovation Scoreboard and analysis of the trade balance. I evaluated Slovak innovation policy at the conclusion of the thesis.

Innovation är idag en välkänd framgångsfaktor för företag att skaffa sig konkurrensfördelar (Mansury & Love, 2008; Sicotte, Drouin & Delerue, 2014). En bra utgångspunkt för innovation är att samla kundinsikter genom en metod som kallas Voice of the Customer (VoC) där det har visat sig att användningen av metoden kan leda till en hel del förbättringar, både finansiella och icke-finansiella, t.ex. högre lönsamhet och kortare ledtider (Cooper, 2013). Trots dessa identifierade positiva effekter har ingen tidigare forskning undersökt sambandet mellan VOC och Return on Investment (ROI). Därför är syftet med denna studie att hitta relationen mellan VoC och ROI. Studien genomfördes som en fallstudie på ASSA ABLOY och inkluderade flera källor för insamling av data. En omfattande litteraturstudie utfördes följt av en empirisk datainsamling i form av intervjuer och enkäter. De viktigaste områdena som undersöktes var innovation, VoC, kunskapshantering samt mätetal kopplade till innovation. Den kvalitativa delen bestod av 16 intervjuer med chefer och den kvantitativa delen av 155 användbara enkätsvar från ASSA ABLOY globalt. Resultaten från intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades genom ett kvalitativt analysverktyg. Resultaten från enkäterna analyserades både statistiskt med hjälp av linjär regression och T-test samt en kvalitativ beskrivande analys. Denna studie har hittat en relation mellan ROI och VOC, på projektnivå, genom en värdekedja där immateriella tillgångar och kunskapshantering har en central roll. Resultatet av studien visar att det är av stor betydelse hur värdet av att utföra en VOC tas tillvara på i ett antal nivåer. Detta inkluderar hela kedjan från insamling av kundinsikter till hur dessa driver innovationsprojekt och till slut ger resultat. Mer konkret så utformades en modell för att kunna se effekterna från VoC på ROI på projektnivå. Den utformades för att ge implikationer till ASSA ABLOY om hur man kan följa upp investeringar, processer samt resultat av de projekt som drivs av insikter från VoC. Detta gavs med ett förslag om hur en kunskapsdatabas för VoC skulle kunna utformas. / Innovation management is today a well-known success factor for companies to gain competitive advantage (Mansury & Love, 2008; Sicotte, Drouin, & Delerue, 2014). One useful starting point for innovation is to gather information about customers wants and needs through a method called Voice of the Customer (VoC). It has been shown that the use of VoC lead to several improvements, both in financial and non-financial terms, among them higher profitability and a shorter time to market can be gained (Cooper, 2013). Despite these positive effects, no previous research has investigated the link between VoC and Return of Investment (ROI). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to find the relationship between VoC and ROI. The study was conducted as a case study at ASSA ABLOY including multiple sources of data. An extensive literature review was performed followed by an empirical data collection through interviews and questionnaires. The main areas investigated were innovation, VoC, knowledge management and innovation measurements. The qualitative part consisted of 16 interviews with managers and the quantitative part of 155 useful questionnaire answers, at ASSA ABLOY globally. The results from the interviews were transcribed and analysed through qualitative data analysis software. Furthermore the results from the questionnaires were analysed statistically using linear regression and T-test. The analysis of the questionnaires was also carried out qualitatively. This study found a relationship between ROI and VoC, on a project level, through a value chain where intangible assets and knowledge management have a central role. It was found to be of great importance for the final outcome how the value of performing a VoC is captured in a number of levels, from the beginning where insights are gathered to how these drive innovation projects and give tangible results. More concrete, a model towards how to see the impact VoC has on ROI of projects. It was designed to give managerial implications to ASSA ABLOY on how to track investments, the process and outcome of projects driven by insights from VoC. This including a proposal of how a knowledge database regarding VoC could be designed.

Innovation has become increasingly important for organizations to sustain their competitive advantage. Among the factors frequently put forward as drivers of innovation are for instance innovation strategies, -processes, -tools, and –methods. Alongside these traditional managerial means, there is also explicit focus on innovation climate and –culture. Organizational culture has been proposed as a key factor in explaining innovation in firms, in particular in the light of high-performing and innovative firms such as Google and Apple. There is growing evidence implying that cultures supporting new-product development processes can foster innovative behaviors (Jassawalla and Sashittal, 2002). This supportive organizational culture can be defined as an innovation culture. Nevertheless, despite its apparent importance there is limited research investigating the relationship between innovation performance and organizational culture (McLean, 2005). This study aims to describe an innovation culture and the potential inter-relations there are between innovation culture and innovation performance. The study based on an extensive literature study within the area of organizational culture from where an analytical framework was developed including the following cultural factors, which are proclaimed to stimulate innovation; challenging work, collaboration, competition, empowerment, encourage change, freedom, innovation support, open communication, organizational encouragement and risk-taking. Moreover, a framework for measuring innovation performance was developed where the innovation performance was divided into four dimensions in the innovation process; Ideation, Ideation Output, Implementation and Output. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting data in terms of 38 interviews and 510 useful survey answers from 13 organizations. Results from the interviews were summarized and analyzed within-case and cross-case, while the survey results were analyzed with a regression analysis for uncovering potential relations between the cultural factors and innovation performance. Main findings from the study are the outcome from the regression analysis confirming five of the ten cultural factors to be significant for innovation performance; competition, encourage change , innovation support, organizational encouragement and risk-taking. Further the study confirms a few specific factors of the innovation culture that have higher impact on the innovation performance in specific dimensions than others. By clarifying inter-relationships between innovation performance in specific dimensions and different aspects of innovation culture, an identification of a deficient innovation performance dimension opens up for changes in the innovation culture, enabling to deploy supportive processes, procedures and roles to reach concrete output. Keywords: organizational culture, innovation culture, innovation performance / Innovation har blivit allt viktigare för att bibehålla företags konkurrenskraft. Bland de faktorer som ofta framförts som drivkraft för innovation återfinns till exempel innovationsstrategier, -processer, -verktyg och -metoder. Vid sidan av dessa traditionella metoder finns det också ett uttalat fokus på innovationsklimat och -kultur. Organisationskultur har fastslagits som en viktig faktor för att förklara innovation i företag, i synnerhet hos högpresterande och innovativa företag som Google och Apple. Det finns allt fler bevis som pekar på att företagskultur som stöder nya produktutvecklingsprocesser kan främja innovativa beteenden (Jassawalla och Sashittal, 2002). Denna stödjande organisationskultur kan definieras som en innovationskultur . Trots sin uppenbara betydelse finns det dock förhållandevis lite forskning som undersöker sambandet mellan innovation och organisationskultur (McLean, 2005). Denna studie syftar till att beskriva en innovationskultur, samt hitta de inbördes relationer finns mellan innovationskultur och innovation. Baserat på en omfattande litteraturstudie inom organisationskultur utvecklades ett analytiskt ramverk. Följande kulturella faktorer som påstås stimulera innovation inkluderades; utmanande arbete, samarbete, tävling, egenmakt, uppmuntran till förändring, frihet, innovationssupport, organisatorisk uppmuntran, öppen kommunikation, och risktagande. Dessutom utvecklades ett ramverk för att mäta innovationsprestanda där den delades upp enligt fyra faser i innovationsprocessen; Ideation, Ideation output, Implementation och Output. Studien är en fallstudie och använder sig av både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder för insamling av data i form av 38 intervjuer och 620 enkätsvar från 13 olika företag. Resultaten från intervjuerna sammanfattades och analyserades within-case och cross-case. Resultat från enkäten analyserades med en regressionsanalys för att hitta eventuella relationer mellan de kulturella faktorerna och innovationsprestandan. Betydande resultat från studien är bland annat resultatet från regressionsanalysen som bekräftar fem av de tio kulturella faktorer signifikanta för innovationsarbetet; tävling, uppmuntran till förändring, innovationssupport, organisatorisk uppmuntran och risktagande. Vidare bekräftar studien att vissa faktorer inom innovationskultur har större påverkan på innovationsprestandan i specifika faser än andra. Genom att klargöra sambanden mellan innovationsprestanda i specifika faser och olika aspekter av innovationskulturen, kan en identifiering av en bristfällig innovationsprestanda i en av faserna öppna upp för förändringar i innovationskulturen. Detta möjliggör implementering av stödjande processer, rutiner och roller för att nå konkreta resultat. Nyckelord: företagskultur, innovationskultur, innovationsprestanda

Background:  The reallocation of resources is changing with the rapid growth of business and the changing products and technologies in most countries around the world. Information technology (IT) outsourcing is one way to access resources efficiently. Meanwhile, software and IT service providers, in particular, rely significantly on innovation to stay competitive and fulfill their clients' continuously changing expectations (Blumenberg et al., 2009). Knowledge transferring is a source of innovation, which helps employees actively acquire their explicit and tacit knowledge from their clients to realize ambidextrous innovative performances. Purpose:   The goal of our research is to investigate the association between the two different knowledge transfer mechanisms from the clients to the suppliers, ambidextrous innovation and innovation performance of suppliers’ employees in the software and IT services industry. The research also aims to identify whether ambidextrous innovation has mediating effects on the relationship. On the basis of a literature review of the topic, a total of 17 hypotheses are proposed.  Method:   As for the research methodology, this research adopts a realist ontology and a positivist epistemology. Through a web-based questionnaire survey of 250 employees from the software and IT industries, the research collected relevant data about knowledge transfer, employees’ ambidextrous innovation, and employees’ innovation performance and the approach is purposive and snowball sampling. In addition, we conducted a pretest to ensure the web-based survey’s questionnaire is reliable and valid. SPSS 28.0 was used as the tool for data analysis, and the methods of analysis mainly included descriptive statistics analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, and correlation analysis and linear regression. Conclusion:  Our research established a framework to show the association between two types of knowledge transfer mechanisms, employees’ ambidextrous innovation and employees' innovation performance. It has been found that the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge from clients to suppliers' employees has a statistically significant positive association with the employees' innovation performance in the suppliers’ companies of software and IT services industry. Furthermore, explicit knowledge transfer has a stronger association with employees' ambidextrous innovation compared to tacit knowledge transfer. The analysis also pointed out that exploratory innovation, rather than exploitative innovation, is proven to have a higher association with employees’ innovation performance. In addition, a mediating role of ambidextrous innovation between knowledge transfer and innovation performance is also identified in our research. Our research also took gender into consideration to examine the consistency of the results across gender conditions.

PhD thesis / High-tech firms are no longer able to rely exclusively on their internal knowledge and technologies to respond effectively to current market dynamics. Instead, they frequently collaborate with external entities to access new technologies and share the costs and risks of the innovation process. However, the effectiveness of such collaborations is questioned by many executives. Yet, as these Product Development Collaborations (PDCs) become crucial for a firm’s growth and success in current times, executives and academics alike are paying growing attention to them. In marketing, PDC is an active research topic since 1999. However, the body of marketing knowledge on the PDC is scattered across several studies over an extended period of more than two decades. In addition, the extant marketing studies report results that are inconsistent on some PDC issues and have overlooked others. In particular, marketing strategy considerations, in terms of firm’s strategic capabilities and objectives, have received somewhat of a short shrift in the literature. My dissertation contributes to our marketing literature with (a) a systematic review study that synthesizes the current state of marketing knowledge on the topic, identifies the research lacunas, and sets a future research agenda; and (b) two theory-driven empirical studies that provide new insights and novel implications to enrich our understanding of PDCs, their relation to the firm’s marketing strategy, and provide clear guidance to practitioners on how to benefit most from their supplier collaborations. v Grounding on several theories, creating and using a unique dataset, and utilizing multiple research and econometric techniques, my dissertation empirically addresses the following two general research questions: RQ1. Can their functional (marketing, technological, and operations) capabilities lead firms into competency traps and hurt their innovation performance? How? Do international PDCs outperform domestic PDCs in combating the competency trap effect? When? RQ2. What is the appropriate PDC governance mechanism (joint ventures, agreements, or licenses) that would enhance innovation performance? How do governance and capabilities simultaneously impact innovation performance? How does the firm’s product positioning strategy (differentiation versus cost-leadership) interact with governance and capabilities to affect innovation outcomes? / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Many firms establish Product Development Collaborations (PDCs) with suppliers to innovate new products. Although PDCs have numerous advantages, they are ladened by various contractual hazards and risks. This raises concerns of many executives about their effectiveness. In this dissertation, I systematically review the existing marketing studies on the PDC topic. Then, building on my review, I empirically investigate several marketing strategy factors that impact a PDC's effectiveness in terms of enhancing the innovation performance of focal firms. Drawing on several theories, building and using a unique dataset, and utilizing multiple research and econometric techniques, I conduct two empirical studies to examine the impact of four strategic considerations (i.e., functional capabilities, international PDCs, PDC governance mechanisms, and positioning strategy) and their interactions on innovation performance of high-tech firms in PDCs. My results reveal various interesting and important relationships and interactions that advance our understating of PDCs, their relation to marketing strategy, and provide important managerial implications to practitioners.

The thesis will be available at the end of the embargo: 31st May 2024

Yes / As the economy becomes more reliant on innovative, knowledge-intensive firms, understanding the interaction between knowledge and improving innovation performance is increasingly important. Despite the majority of UK businesses being micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (micro/SMEs), knowledge management research has tended to focus on large companies, and the findings may not be applicable to micro/SMEs, especially in the creative sector. Moreover, the important role played by knowledge sharing in innovation can be critical to successful performance for smaller players in the creative sector where resources are limited. Our study presents an insight from micro/SMEs operating in a highly knowledge-intensive and innovative creative industry - games/entertainment software development. Using a mixed method approach, we investigate knowledge sharing and its contribution to firm innovation performance improvements. Our findings suggest that micro/SMEs are at the forefront in the creative sector precisely because of their smaller size. Our study reveals evidence of knowledge donation but limited evidence of knowledge collection in the knowledge sharing process in micro/SMEs. We develop a knowledge sharing model for innovation performance improvement in micro/SMEs. This highlights the importance of industry context, individual knowledge and organisational size in the role of knowledge sharing in innovation performance.

The way firms innovate has notably changed in recent years. A clear example is the manufacturing sector which has been experiencing a new revolution in production and innovation. Linked to this industrial shift, manufacturing firms have been adopting more open and collaborative practices to innovate. This phenomenon, known as Open Innovation (OI), is helping firms to acquire and explore knowledge from external sources (inbound process) and to exploit knowledge via the commercialisation of ideas and technology (outbound process). Even though numerous researchers have studied the adoption of OI and its relation to numerous strategic and organisational results, very few studies have focused on investigating the positive influence of diverse OI approaches and practices on multiple dimensions of firm performance from different angles. These drawbacks hinder the diffusion of OI practices and raise the question of whether it is convenient for any firm in any industry to adopt or not to adopt OI. Thus, this thesis helps to fill this gap by examining the extent to which OI practices are adopted by firms and other actors in unexplored mature manufacturing industries and by understanding the unidentified roles that these practices play in relation to different dimensions of firm and industrial performance.  This thesis brings together different methodologies and data to investigate OI practices with a novel multi-perspective approach. Hence, OI practices are framed within the industrial context of manufacturing firms in Italy and Sweden, several actors in the food industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the Italian foundry industry, and also within worldwide SMEs designing and producing supercars. More specifically, using data from 247 European manufacturing firms collected through a tailored OI survey, this thesis supports the relevance of internal context characteristics such as firm size and provides evidence of the relation between configurations of OI models and innovation performance. Through two case studies in the food industry, this thesis demonstrates novel forms of OI practices that can be characterised and adopted by different innovation actors within and around this mature industry. Likewise, drawing from 30 rigorous case studies of small and medium-sized foundries, this research for the first time illuminates the relation between the aggregations of some innovation practices (specifically internal R&amp;D and inbound OI) with a contemporarily relevant dimension of environmental and industrial performance such as energy efficiency. Although foregrounding the practical implications of adopting OI practices, this project also investigates and attempts to contrast some of the theoretical perspectives used when researching OI in mature manufacturing industries. This thesis concludes with an integrative study of the main aspects of the research project to demonstrate the advantages of using a multi-perspective approach to study OI. This last study, originally inspired from two case studies of small carmakers, involved collecting data from 48 small and medium-sized manufacturers of supercars with a survey designed to evaluate OI influence on several types of firm performance. Collectively, the results from this thesis confirm the validity of OI in new research contexts and reveal a combined influence of specific innovation practices on innovativeness, but also on the dimensions of industrial, environmental, and social performance. This thesis contributes to theory and practice by empirically showing that even though OI and the results of practicing it are highly context dependent, adopting OI practices can definitely have a positive influence in the overall performance of firms in mature manufacturing industries, including SMEs and other small actors. / Det sätt på vilket företagen innoverar har förändrats märkbart under de senaste åren. Den här situationen syns tydligt inom tillverkningssektorn, som upplever en ny produktions- och innovationsrevolution. Med tanke på detta inför tillverkningsföretagen öppnare och mer samarbetsbaserade metoder. Detta fenomen, benämnt öppen innovation (Open Innovation, OI), hjälper organisationer att förvärva och utforska kunskaper från externa källor (ingående process) och att utforska kunskaper genom kommersialisering av idéer och teknik (utgående process). Även om ett flertal forskare har studerat införandet av OI och hur det hänger samman med olika strategiska och organisatoriska resultat, har endast mycket få studier lagt fokus på att undersöka de positiva effekter som olika former av OI-metoder och -praxis har på flera dimensioner av företagens resultat och ur olika synvinklar. Den här bristen hindrar spridningen av OI-praxis och väcker frågan om huruvida det är fördelaktigt för ett företag i en viss bransch att införa eller inte införa OI. Denna avhandling hjälper till att fylla det här tomrummet genom att undersöka i vilken utsträckning öppen innovationspraxis har införts av företag och andra aktörer i outforskade, mogna tillverkningsbranscher och vilka oidentifierade roller sådan praxis spelar i förhållande till olika dimensioner av företagsresultat och branschresultat. Denna avhandling för samman olika metoder och data för att undersöka OI-praxis ur ett nytt multiperspektiv. Det industriella sammanhanget för studien av OI-praxis är därför tillverkningsföretag i Italien och Sverige, flera aktörer inom livsmedelsindustrin, små och medelstora företag från den italienska gjuteriindustrin samt små och medelstora företag världen över som utformar och tillverkar superbilar. Denna avhandling använder data från 247 europeiska tillverkningsföretag, som samlats in genom en skräddarsydd enkät om öppen innovation, för att bekräfta betydelsen av det interna sammanhangets egenskaper, t.ex. företagets storlek, och lägga fram bevis för relationen mellan OI-modellkonfigurationer och innovationsresultat. Genom två fallstudier inom livsmedelsindustrin visar denna avhandling nya sätt på vilka OI-praxis kan karakteriseras och införas av olika innovationsaktörer inom och omkring den här mogna branschen. Forskningsprojektet utgår även från 30 noggrant genomförda fallstudier av små och medelstora gjuterier för att för första gången belysa relationen mellan samlingar av vissa former av innovationspraxis (nämligen intern FoU och ingående OI) och en samtida relevant dimension av miljö- och branschresultat, t.ex. energieffektivitet. Detta projekt bildar förgrunden till de praktiska följderna av att införa OI-praxis, men undersöker även och försöker kontrastera till några av de teoretiska perspektiv som används vid forskning kring OI i mogna tillverkningsbranscher. Denna avhandling avslutas med en integrerande studie av forskningsprojektets huvudsakliga aspekter för att påvisa fördelarna med att använda en multiperspektivmetod vid studier av OI. Den sista studien, till vilken inspirationen ursprungligen hämtades från två fallstudier av små biltillverkare, innebar insamling av data från 48 små och medelstora tillverkare av superbilar med en enkät avsedd att utvärdera OI:s påverkan på flera typer av företagsresultat. De sammantagna resultaten från denna avhandling bekräftar OI:s giltighet i nya forskningssammanhang och avslöjar en kombinerad effekt av vissa former av innovationspraxis på innovationsförmåga, men även på dimensionerna industriella, miljömässiga och sociala resultat. Avhandlingen bidrar till teori och praktik genom att empiriskt påvisa att även om OI och resultaten av OI-praxis är starkt kontextberoende, kan införande av OI-praxis säkerligen ha ett positivt inflytande på det totala resultatet för företag i mogna tillverkningsbranscher, däribland små och medelstora företag och andra mindre aktörer. / Il modo in cui le imprese stanno innovando è notevolmente cambiato negli ultimi anni. Un chiaro esempio è il settore manifatturiero, che sta reagendo a una nuova rivoluzione nella produzione e innovazione. Collegato a questo cambiamento industriale, le aziende del settore della manifattura stanno acquisendo nuove pratiche più aperte e collaborative per innovare. Questo fenomeno, noto come ‘Open Innovation’ (OI), sta aiutando alle aziende ad acquistare e esplorare le conoscenze dalle fonti esterne (processo ‘inbound’) e di sfruttare la conoscenza tramite la commercializzazione delle idee e delle tecnologie (processo ‘outbound’). Anche se numerosi ricercatori hanno studiato l’adozione della OI e la sua relazione con numerosi risultati strategici ed organizzativi, in pochi studi si sono concentrati sullo studio dell’influenza positiva di diversi approcci e pratiche sulle multipli dimensioni della performance aziendale di diverse angolature della OI. Questi inconvenienti ostacolano la diffusione delle pratiche OI ed evidenziano la questione se è pure conveniente per qualsiasi tipo d’azienda in qualsiasi tipo d’industria adottare o non adottare OI. Così, questa tesi contribuisce a riempire questa lacuna tramite la esaminazione delle misure in cui le pratiche della OI vengono adottate dalle aziende ed altri attori nelle inesplorate industrie mature della manifattura e attraverso la comprensione dei ruoli non identificati che queste pratiche giocano in relazione alle diverse dimensioni della performance aziendale e industriale.   Questa tesi mette insieme le diverse metodologie e i dati ad indagare sulle pratiche della OI con un nuovo approccio multi-prospettico. Quindi, le pratiche OI sono inquadrate nel contesto industriale delle aziende manifatturiere in Italia e in Svezia, i diversi attori nel settore alimentare, le piccole e medie imprese (PMI) del settore della fonderia italiana, e anche nelle PMI di tutto il mondo che disegnano e producono i supercars. In particolare, utilizzando i dati di 247 aziende manifatturiere europee raccolti attraverso un sondaggio, questa tesi sostiene la rilevanza delle caratteristiche del contesto interno come la dimensione della azienda e fornisce la prova della relazione tra configurazioni dei modelli OI e la capacità di innovazione. Attraverso due casi di studio nel settore alimentare, questa tesi dimostra delle nuove forme di pratiche OI che possono essere caratterizzate e adottate dai diversi attori dell’innovazione all’interno ed all’intorno di questo settore maturo. Allo stesso modo, raccolto da 30 rigorosi casi di studio delle piccole e delle medie fonderie, questa ricerca per la prima volta illumina la relazione tra le aggregazioni di alcune pratiche di innovazione (in particolare le pratiche interne di R&amp;S e di OI inbound) con una dimensione contemporaneamente rilevante delle prestazioni ambientali ed industriali quali l’efficienza energetica.   Anche se in primo piano le implicazioni pratiche dell’adozione delle pratiche della OI sono accentate, il progetto indaga anche e cerca di contrastare alcune delle prospettive teoriche utilizzate nella ricerca nelle mature industrie manifatturiere. Questa tesi finisce con uno studio integrativo degli aspetti principali del progetto di ricerca per dimostrare i vantaggi di utilizzare un approccio multi-prospettiva per studiare la OI. Quest’ultimo studio, originariamente ispirato da due casi di studio di piccole case automobilistiche, ha coinvolto la raccolta dei dati provenienti da 48 piccole e medie produttori di supercars tramite un sondaggio per valutare l’influenza dei diversi tipi di performance aziendale. Collettivamente, i risultati di questa tesi confermano la validità di OI in nuovi contesti di ricerca e rivelano una influenza combinata di pratiche d’innovazione specifica su innovazione, ma anche sulle dimensioni della performance industriale, ambientale e sociale. Questa tesi contribuisce alla teoria e alla pratica, che empiricamente mostra che se anche la OI ed i risultati di praticarla sono molto dipendenti dal contesto, l’adozione delle pratiche OI può sicuramente avere un effetto positivo nelle prestazioni complessive delle aziende nella industria manifatturiere matura, comprese le PMI ed altri piccoli attori. / <p>This thesis is produced as part of the EMJD Programme <em>European Doctorate in Industrial Management (EDIM) </em>funded by the European Commission, Erasmus Mundus Action 1.</p><p>EDIM is run by a consortium consisting of the industrial management departments of three institutions.</p><p>•KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden</p><p>•Politecnico de Milano, POLIMI, Milan, Italy</p><p>•Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM, Madrid, Spain</p><p>QC 20160128</p> / European Doctorate in Industrial Management