Alberto Di Minin

Fiat: Open Innovation in a Downturn (1993–2003)

One of the key elements of Fiat9s recent resurgence is the superiority of its clean, fuel-efficient engine technologies that were mostly developed during the 1990s by Centro Ricerche Fiat (CRF), the Fiat Group company in charge of R&D and technology development. In the early 1990s, when the Italian carmaker was going through troubling times (along with many other players in the automotive industry), CEO Gian Carlo Michellone radically turned around CRF9s organization and innovation strategy, adopting and mastering a strategic approach to innovation that resembles what would become known as the open innovation paradigm. This revolution allowed the Fiat Group to keep its “innovation engine” running, despite the heavy downturn of the industry. The CRF case demonstrates how open innovation can protect the firm9s innovation capability from the risk of severe resource rationalizations during periods of crisis while proffering a starting point to replicate innovation capability once the downturn is over. The efforts to streamline the adoption of open innovation need to be targeted at several aspects of a firm9s organization, i.e. the structures, organizational roles, the planning and control and performance management systems, corporate values, and individual competencies and attitudes. The role played by the senior executive leadership in promoting the successful implementation of open innovation is critical, especially during tough economic times.

The Non-Globalization of Innovation in the Semiconductor Industry

The global semiconductor industry is undergoing several forms of structural change simultaneously. The structure of market demand is shifting from one dominated by personal computers to a more diverse array of heterogeneous niches, largely resulting from global diffusion of the Internet and wireless communications applications. The structure of manufacturing activities is shifting from one dominated by integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) that both design and manufacture semiconductor components to one characterized by vertical specialization, where many firms specialize in either design and marketing (fabless firms) or manufacturing (foundries). Finally, market demand and technical expertise are growing in geographic regions (e.g., Malaysia, Singapore, the Peoples Republic of China, etc.) that formerly were much less prominent actors in the global industry. We examine the influence of these three overlapping trends on the geographic structure of R&D in this industry, using data on patenting and offshore investment by firms in development fabs from 1994 to 2004.

Family-driven innovation : resolving the paradox in family firms

This article presents an integrated, contingency perspective on family firm innovation called Family-Driven Innovation (FDI). The framework highlights the need for consistency between a family firms strategic innovation decisions and its idiosyncrasies to achieve and sustain competitive advantage through innovation. This article also offers some directions for future research on FDI and serves as an introduction to this special section on family firms.

Disruptive Innovation … in Reverse: Adding a Geographical Dimension to Disruptive Innovation Theory

Based on a literature review on disruptive innovation and innovation from emerging economies, we offer an interpretation of a subset of reverse innovation within the disruptive innovation theory. We argue that the combination of these two theories provides a useful framework to look at emerging economies as sources of new products and technological solutions. Finally, we provide a new categorization of disruptive innovation considering a geographical dimension and future research directions.

Visualizing the structure and bridges of the intellectual property management and strategy literature: a document co-citation analysis

This article uses document co-citation analysis to objectively explore the underlying structure of the intellectual property research domain, taken from a managerial and strategic standpoint. The goal of this study is identifying its main research areas, understanding its current state of development and suggesting potential future directions, by analyzing the co-citations from 181 papers published between 1992 and 2011 in the most influential academic journals. Five main clusters have been identified, mapped, and labeled as follows: Economics of patent system, technological and institutional capabilities, university patenting, intellectual property exploitation, and division of labor. Their most active areas on this topic, and the most influential and co-cited papers have been identified and described. Also, intra- and inter-cluster knowledge base diversity has been assessed by using indicators stemming from the domains of information theory and biology. A t test has been performed to assess the significance of the inter-cluster diversity. The knowledge bases of these five clusters are significantly diverse, this meaning that they are five co-existing paradigms.

How family firms execute open innovation strategies: the Loccioni case

Purpose This paper aims to shed light on how family firms execute open innovation strategies by managing internal and external knowledge flows. Design/methodology/approach First, through a comprehensive literature review, the paper identifies the barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in open innovation processes. Second, it presents and discusses the results of an exploratory case study on Loccioni, an Italian family firm providing high-tech measurement solutions, highlighting how this family firm managed to overcome the barriers in executing an open innovation strategy. Findings The case study shows that Loccioni faced specific challenges in acquiring and transferring knowledge in its open innovation processes and developed two idiosyncratic capabilities – labelled imprinting and fraternization – that helped the firm overcome the barriers to knowledge acquisition and transfer. The analysis shows that these two capabilities are enabled by the distinctive goals and social capital characterizing family firms. Originality/value The paper creates a link between open innovation and family business research with an empirically grounded model illustrating how the idiosyncratic capabilities of a family firm help overcome the critical barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in executing an open innovation strategy.

Proclivity for open innovation: Construct development and empirical validation

Over the past decade, the concept of open innovation has received substantial attention. Research has ranged from case study representations to large-scale quantitative studies using the Community Innovation Survey data or developing novel approaches to measuring open innovation. In this study, we conceptualise and validate a firm-level measure of proclivity for open innovation, which relates to the firm’s predisposition to perform inbound and outbound open innovation activities. To do so, we focus on smaller firms, assessing their organisational and behavioural perspectives related to open innovation. Building on existing scholarly research and a field study, we begin by conceptualising the theoretical framework of the multidimensional construct. We then develop and validate its measurement scale on two cross-cultural samples. The measure contains the following dimensions: inward IP licensing and external participation, outsourcing R&D and external networking, customer involvement, employee involvement, venturing, and outward IP licensing. Our results indicate that the measure has good reliability and validity. Implications for future research are also discussed.

How are companies facing the social media (r)evolution

As well as it happened in the first digital revolution led by Web 1.0 technology, the advent of the second digital revolution led by Web 2.0 has forced firms to rethink at both their business models and strategies. On the basis of both theory and empirical examples, this paper shows that strong similarities exist between the two digital revolutions. Consistently with old economic and managerial models found in the first digital revolution, we find that companies can choose among three strategies in facing the second digital revolution: to deny, to react or to reinvent themselves. However, as the empirical examples described shown, only outliers are leading the transformations and are redefining business models and practices in their industries.

Big data for open innovation in SMEs and large corporations: Trends, opportunities, and challenges

The notion of ‘Big Data’ has recently been attracting an increasing degree of attention from scholars and practitioners in an attempt to identify how it may be leveraged to create innovative solutions and business opportunities. Specifically, Big Data may come from a variety of sources, especially sources outside the usual boundaries of organizations, and it represents an interesting and emerging opportunity for sustaining and enhancing the effectiveness of the so-called open innovation paradigm. However, to the best of our knowledge, no prior works have provided a broad overview of the use of Big Data for open innovation strategies. We aim to fill this gap. In particular, we have focused our investigation on two types of companies: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and big corporations, reviewing the major academic works published so far and analysing the main industrial applications on this topic. As a result, we provide a relevant list of the main trends, opportunities, and challenges faced by SMEs and large corporations when dealing with Big Data for open innovation strategies.

L’impresa è un’opera aperta. Open innovation in italia dal 2003 ad oggi

L’idea dell’Innovazione Aperta si e diffusa ed e ormai radicata in Italia. Oggi e possibile inquadrare diversi elementi che caratterizzano l’applicazione di questo concetto. Compito del manager e quello di sperimentare, e di trovare prassi che portino ad una soddisfacente applicazione della strategia. Compito dello studioso di management e quello di interpretare le scelte fatte ed evidenziare elementi di continuita. Questo contributo rivisita le sfide organizzative e strategiche affrontate dalle aziende italiane nel corso di dieci anni di implementazione del concetto di Open Innovation. Viene evidenziata in queste pagine la rilevanza di alcuni casi aziendali per i temi tuttora al centro del dibattito scientifico. Inoltre, si sottolinea come l’applicazione di una strategia di Open Innovation debba prevedere una trasformazione di molti processi aziendali, debba tenere ben presente la questione dell’appropriazione dei risultati e debba far leva sul ruolo delle persone, all’interno e all’esterno dell’organizzazione aziendale.