A networking culture to benefit from open innovation - a comparison between technology and business services industries in The Netherlands

This paper aims to improve our understanding of why some companies are more successful in implementing open innovation strategies than others, by building a framework of capabilities required to benefit from open innovation. It argues that companies can benefit from open innovation when they have the capabilities to connect closed and open approaches to innovation. This requires building a culture conducive to developing networking capabilities. In the article, a comprehensive set of networking capabilities is developed intended as an analytical tool to evaluate to what extent companies are equipped to benefit from open innovation. As a first step to further validating the framework, empirical research has been carried out in The Netherlands to compare networking capabilities of companies in the technology industry and in the knowledge intensive business services sector. The results indicate that according to the framework, technology companies are in the lead in benefiting from open innovation, which may be explained by their previous experience in innovation networking. The results suggest that the networking capabilities framework is a promising tool for analysis that can help companies to become better equipped to jointly create value and capture value in innovation networks. The research has policy implications for regions as well, because it indicates that regional open innovation strategies need to address the development of networking capabilities of companies and other actors in the regional innovation system.