Internal knowledge breadth refers to the scope of scientific and technological domains in which a firm has expertise, whereas internal knowledge depth refers to the extent to which a firm is familiar with a particular technological or application domain.
Published in Chapter:
Understanding Knowledge Absorption for Inbound Open Innovation Practices: How Do Knowledge Antecedents Influence the Process?
Oya Zincir (Istanbul University, Turkey) and Diana Rus (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5849-1.ch005
Abstract
The successful integration of internal and external knowledge is crucial for the success of inbound open innovation processes. Yet, to date, our understanding of how different kinds of knowledge characteristics affect the knowledge absorption process in inbound open innovation is still rather fragmented. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of how different aspects of knowledge (i.e., internal and external knowledge antecedents: prior knowledge, internal and external knowledge structure, knowledge source, types of knowledge, and knowledge environment) related to knowledge absorption in the inbound open innovation process. In the discussion, the authors highlight how far different knowledge characteristics either help or hinder knowledge absorption and, thereby, the potential success of inbound open innovation practices. Moreover, they point towards areas that promise to be fruitful for future research exploring the link between aspects of knowledge and absorptive capacity in the context of inbound open innovation.