Relative effectiveness of open innovation strategies in single and complex SME innovators

This study examines the impact of inbound and coupled open innovation (OI) strategies in single and complex innovators, whereby the former concerns firms that engage in either product or process innovation, while the latter encompasses firms that simultaneously engage in product and process innovations. Moreover, the relative performance effects of OI strategies in complex and single innovators are largely unexplored. Data are derived from the German innovation survey. It focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing sectors. Logit regression is used to measure the impact of breadth and depth of inbound OI and the breadth of coupled OI strategy on innovation performance of complex and single innovators. Empirical findings suggest that among single innovators, search depth is more effective in stimulating product than process innovations. Besides product innovators, complex innovators also benefit from search depth relative to single process innovators. With respect to other dimension of OI, search breadth has no differentiating effect among single and complex innovators, while cooperation breadth is more effective in complex innovators relative to single innovators, whether product or process.