IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL.

71, 2024 5129

How to Benefit From Open Innovation? The

Moderating Effect of Open Culture
and Open Organization
Yunjian Li , Li Li , and Zhaocong Wu

Abstract—How to benefit from open innovation (OI) sustainably disclose innovative knowledge rather than keep it [1], and on
is a real concern of enterprises. Therefore, the scholars’ focus on that basis, they implement IOI and OOI. For example, more
OI research has gradually shifted to the implementation of OI. and more Chinese enterprises have switched from importing
Based on the structural contingency theory, structural adaptation
theory, and the investigation of 426 enterprises, this study tries Western technology to self-developed technology [2], and export
to discuss the moderating effect of open culture (OC) and open innovative achievements to Asia, Europe, and Africa through
organization (OO) in the process of inbound open innovation (IOI) New Silk Road of Innovation [3]. But the open innovation (OI)
and outbound open innovation (OOI) affecting enterprise growth strategy does not always work. Take Procter and Gamble as an
(EG). The results show that both IOI and OOI are positively related
example, once enjoyed great popularity due to its OI model,
to the EG, and their interaction item is also positively related to
EG. Besides, OC and OO are positively associated with EG. What it is now in a dilemma of sustained implementation of OI due
is more, both OC and OO can enhance the positive correlation to excessive reliance on external resources, which has led to a
between OOI and EG. However, the moderating effect of OC and decline in internal entrepreneurship and innovation courage. OI
OO between IOI and EG is not significant. Furthermore, compared research at the national level also shows that OI is negatively
with the IOI, the OOI may need the fitness of OC and OO, so
related to the international impact of the innovation of a country
that enterprises can benefit from the open innovation better and
sustainably. This article develops the measurement scale of OC [3]. The dilemma of the continued failure of OI implementation
and OO in combination with the OI context, expands the research has led scholars to shift the focus of discussion on OI from
results of organizational culture and organizational structure in the “what is OI” and “why OI” to “how to benefit from OI” [4].
OI context, enriches the research results in the fields of OI, OC, OO, What should companies do to better continue to benefit from
and EG, and provides practical enlightenment on organizational
OI? This is not only a practical problem but also a theoretical
construction for enterprises to benefit from open innovation.
one.
Index Terms—Enterprise growth, inbound open innovation, According to the existing literature, it can be found that there
open culture, open organization, outbound open innovation. is still a large divergence of opinion on the role of IOI and OOI in
influencing firm performance. It has been found that acquiring
I. INTRODUCTION technology externally can positively influence an enterprise’s
innovation performance [5], and that OOI can improve firm
N THE era of sharing economy, more and more Chinese
I enterprises are changing their innovation strategies from
inbound open innovation (IOI), which relies on obtaining in-
performance even if it is through sharing technology for free [6],
[7]. However, it has been found that technology purchases lead
to increased costs and are negatively correlated with short-term
novation resources from external sources unilaterally, to more financial performance [8], [9], and that OOI will also not be
outbound open innovation (OOI). The enterprises voluntarily conducive to firm performance [10]. Why is the implementation
of IOI and OOI in enterprises so different?
Manuscript received 25 March 2022; revised 5 September 2022; accepted Most of the existing literature discusses OI in terms of innova-
28 October 2022. Date of publication 10 November 2022; date of current tion collaboration between firms and external organizations and
version 16 February 2024. This work was supported in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 71802062, in part by the Sci- the use of external information resources and advantages. These
ence and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong (2020B1010010013 and research works mostly assumed that external knowledge is both
2018A070712042), in part by the thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the Development accessible and applicable [11], firms can easily gain benefit from
of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Guangzhou (2020GZGJ161). Review of
this manuscript was arranged by Department Editor A. Brem. (Corresponding OI with little attention paid to the prerequisites that support OI
author: Li Li.) within the firm [12], ignoring the question of how companies
Yunjian Li and Zhaocong Wu are with the School of Management, Guangzhou should adapt to the development of OI. In fact, in the era of
University, Guangzhou 510006, China (e-mail: [email protected]; wuzhao-
[email protected]). OI, the implementation of OI means that the external innovation
Li Li is with the School of Business Administration, Guangdong University environment and internal task environment that enterprises face
of Finance, Guangzhou 510521, China (e-mail: [email protected]). have changed, and enterprises face more complex challenges to
Color versions of one or more figures in this article are available at
https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2022.3218748. innovation. For example, Mercedes-Benz found that the existing
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2022.3218748 innovation processes of the company will hinder the innovation

© 2022 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
5130 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 71, 2024

cooperation between enterprises and start-ups [13], which means adaptation theory. Then, provide targeted guidance and advice
that the previous innovation processes of the enterprise is no for enterprises to get more benefit sustainably from the IOI and
longer applicable to open innovation. According to structural OOI.
contingency theory and structural adaptation theory, the en- This article contributes to the OI in three ways. First, it broad-
terprise’s organizational management practices, processes, and ens the application of structural contingency theory and struc-
structures should be aligned with the external environment, task tural adaptation theory in the field of OI. Existing research works
characteristics, etc. [14], [15]. It is the only way for enterprises to on OI mainly focus on the perspectives of resource dependence,
succeed when facing OI changes. Those organizations perform institutional environment, social networks, absorptive capacity,
better when their organizational characteristics, such as structure etc. For example, Schuster and Brem [35] discussed the impact of
or culture, match the innovation context in which they operate. open innovation on enterprise capabilities from the perspective
In recent years, scholars have become increasingly aware of of external partnerships. However, there are few existing studies
the importance of OI [16], innovation culture [17], OI platforms on how enterprises can benefit from OI from the perspective
[18] to the development of enterprises, emphasizing the OI of the adaptation of internal organizational characteristics, and
culture and the construction of open organizational structures there is a lack of empirical research on the quantitative analysis
[19], [20]. However, the existing studies mainly discuss the of open innovation culture and structure. This study investigates
relationship between organizational culture and OI adoption, or the implementation of OI in enterprises from the innovation
the relationship between organizational structure and OI adop- culture level, activity level, and organization level by using
tion. Research works on organizational culture and OI adoption structural contingency theory and structural adaptation theory. It
mainly consider that organizational culture is an important factor enriches the research results in the field of structural contingency
for enterprises to adopt OI [21], [22], [23], and different cultures theory, structural adaptation theory, and OI.
have different effects on OI adoption. For example, through Second, it helps to compensate for the lack of emphasis
empirical research, Alassaf et al. [24] found that the openness on culture-level and organization-level openness in previous
of an organization’s culture has a significant positive impact on studies. Unlike current research works that focus only on IOI
the adoption of OI paradigm. Besides, innovation culture can and OOI at the level of innovation activities, this study also
encourage the IOI and OOI [25], [26], organizational learning discusses OC and OO at the cultural and organizational levels.
culture can promote OI [27], and entrepreneurial culture can It is found that OI not only has a direct impact on EG, but also
promote outside-in OI [28]. What is more, some scholars found interacts with OC and OO to influence EG. The findings of this
that a highly integrative culture [29], [30], adhocracy culture [31] study can remind scholars that future research should focus on
can promote the adoption of OI, while a hierarchy culture [29], analyzing the development of OI of enterprises from a systematic
[30], [31] discourages the adoption of OI. The research works perspective.
on organizational structure and OI adoption mainly hold that Furthermore, it tests that OC and OO are the boundary condi-
organizational structure is an antecedent to increase the creation tions for enterprises to better benefit from OI. This study treats
of shared value for OI for sustainability [32], and different struc- OI as a systematic project for enterprises to comprehensively
tures have different effects on OI adoption. Moellers et al. [33] and systematically plan and implement innovation based on
proposed that the combination of nonmonetary reward system the logic of open development. It proves that OC and OO are
and digital or physical integration mechanism can effectively the soft power and hard power, which guarantee enterprises
encourage the internal application of OI initiatives. Besides, to continuously benefit from OI. This study further enriches
organizational structure (formalization, specialization, and cen- the research results in the field of OI and provides guiding
tralization) has diverse effects on the OI practices implemented, suggestions for enterprises’ OI development.
among them, specialization and centralization can promote the The structure of this article is as follows. Section I is the in-
use of IOI and OOI, and formalization has a positive effect on troduction, Section II is the theoretical background and research
IOI, but negatively affects OOI [34]. hypotheses, Section III is the research methods, Section IV is the
Although the above literatures have conducted some research empirical results, Section V is the discussion, and the Section VI
on organizational culture, organizational structure, and OI, these is the conclusion.
studies mainly discuss the impact of organizational culture and
organizational structure on OI adoption from the perspective of II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES
“why OI,” and do not answer the question of “how to benefit
from OI” during the stage of OI implementation. Besides, most A. Open Innovation and Enterprise Growth
scholars disentangle the IOI and OOI, OC, and OO, which are the Open innovation is an innovation model in which enterprises
three dimensions of enterprise openness. The role of OC and OO integrate internal and external resources and commercialization
in the implementation of IOI and OOI is not deeply discussed. channels for value creation and value acquisition [36], [37].
There is no empirical research that answers the question of the OI can be divided into IOI and OOI [38]. The former refers
fitness between OI, OC, and OO. The question of their impact to how knowledge resources flow from external organizations
on the long-term growth performance of the enterprises is also into the enterprise and are embedded in the enterprise’s innova-
less explored. To fill this research gaps, this study intends to tions, while the latter refers to the process by which knowledge
empirically investigate the question of how the OI fits with an OC resources flow out of the enterprise to external organizations
and OO based on structural contingency theory and structural for commercial application. From an innovation perspective,
LI et al.: HOW TO BENEFIT FROM OPEN INNOVATION? THE MODERATING EFFECT OF OPEN CULTURE AND OPEN ORGANIZATION 5131

innovation is usually an essential driver of EG, and accordingly, H1: IOI is positively related to EG
the slump in EG can be explained by the decline of R&D
productivity [39]. In contrast to the traditional closed innova- H2: OOI is positively related to EG.
tion development logic, the OI development logic emphasizes H3: The interaction of IOI and OOI is positively related to EG.
breaking down organizational boundaries and leveraging the
internal and external diversified resources to promote enterprise
innovation. First, IOI helps firms to grow by accessing diverse B. Moderating Effect of Open Culture
resources. Through metaanalysis, multipurpose resources allow Shifting from closed innovation to OI, corporate strategy,
firms to reorganize resources to create new ways to grow up culture, and management need to adapt to the new challenges
[40]. This, in turn, helps firms to achieve higher levels of growth. from OI [47], which requires the corporate culture to become
For example, firms can access resources from universities and more open [38]. Existing research indicates that culture between
research institutions, scientists and university scholars have a open and closed innovation units is different, and the OI unit is
key and important contribution to the firm innovation output more open toward risk taking than closed innovation units [48].
in various industries [41], and firms are more likely to bring Enterprises with a clear innovation culture are different from
breakthrough innovations by searching for original knowledge those that are not [12], different organizational cultures have
and incorporating it into research and development [42], which different effects on enterprise innovation. A good organizational
in turn leads to EG. Second, OOI can lead to the development culture is conducive to dealing with external entities and internal
of more new and innovative knowledge, which in turn helps the integration of organizational resources, thus helping enterprises
growth of firms. It has been found that the external commercial- to adopt OI more smoothly, but a negative culture will hinder
ization of technology enhances firm performance [8], even if the cooperative innovation [49]. They have vastly different access to
technology is free, it can be used to improve firm performance internal and external sources of innovation information, and in-
[7]. In the process of implementing OOI, through technology traenterprise openness contributes to enterprises’ OI. OC refers
spillover and diffusion, the export of technology standards and to the enterprises’ open, collaborative, shared, and inclusive
so on, firms’ reputation will improve. The elevated status brings values, mindsets, cultural climate, and behaviors. An open orga-
the enterprise lucrative income, which in turn helps the enterprise nizational culture stems from an open mind [50], and refers to the
grow up in the long run. innovation culture of non-invented-here and non-sold-here [19].
Further, firms, especially technology firms, need to main- Organizations with OC can reach out to a more diverse external
tain their competitive advantage through continuous innovation culture, which facilitates individuals to gain novel ideas and
and update their knowledge base to safeguard their innovation knowledge, enhance the creativity of individuals to accomplish
success [43]. On the one hand, the implementation of IOI tasks [51]. Besides, a culture of open mindedness has a positive
happens to be an important way for firms to replenish and effect on environmental product innovation [48], in particular,
update their knowledge base by using external knowledge and the higher the environmental uncertainty, the stronger the pro-
technology more quickly, extensively, and in a more diversified motion effect of open mindedness on product innovation [52].
way, which can help enterprises to gain competitive advantage Based on the above analysis, it can be seen that the OC helps
[44]. It also enhances the internal R&D capabilities [38] and promote the innovation output of enterprises, and then affects
accumulates the technology base [45] to develop more new the growth of enterprises.
technologies and products for the OOI. Through IOI, it is also According to the contingency theory, different organizational
possible to establish broader linkages with external organiza- cultures can promote or undermine OI in enterprises. For exam-
tions, which in turn helps firms to fully identify more technology ple, a highly integrated culture contributes to IOI, while the hi-
licensing opportunities and induce external commercialization erarchical culture can hinder IOI and OOI [30]. Usually, cultural
of internal technologies [46]. On the other hand, OOI, where misalignment and misunderstanding are the main reasons for the
firms externally commercialize valuable internal innovations low level of implementation of OI in enterprises [53]. Cultural
through paid transfers, can bring additional economic benefits barriers such as inadequate openness, risk aversion, and organi-
[6], [36], which in turn provides financial support and accu- zational inertia can inhibit the success of OI, and thus enterprises
mulation of trading skills for IOI [45]. By establishing links should select the organizational culture that is appropriate for the
with external organizations for technology commercialization, open type in the OI process [54]. OC includes the open vision,
it helps firms to better capture information on market needs values, mindset, and cultural atmosphere that enterprises need
and the direction of technology development. This allows firms to build in order to move from closed innovation model to OI
to identify the external technology and knowledge they need. model. It can promote all employees to be more engaged in the
In a nutshell, there is an interaction effect between external entire OI process, stimulating the company to invest more atten-
technology acquisition and external commercialization of the tion and resources in OI, thus to ensure that OI can be carried
technology on the improvement of firm performance [35], out smoothly and efficiently. Enterprises with an OC do a better
in other words, IOI and OOI may interactively affect firm external cooperation and exchange activities than those with a
growth. culture of resistance [55]. In other words, OC strengthens an
Summarizing the above analysis, the study proposes the fol- enterprise’s cooperation in the external acquisition and external
lowing hypotheses. use of technology. As an important component of organizational
5132 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 71, 2024

characteristics, corporate culture factors not only directly affect there will be a mismatch between the organizational structure
innovation performance, but also will interact with the depth and situational factors, which in turn will reduce organizational
and breadth of OI on enterprise innovation performance [56]. performance [64], and this does no good to business growth.
According to structural contingency theory, enterprises achieve Marin-Idarraga et al. [59] integrated the structural contingency
more when organizational characteristics match the context in theory and the organizational adaptation theory to analyze the
which they operate. Organizational culture is an important or- impact of organizational structure on convergent change, and
ganizational characteristic. When an enterprise’s OC is matched found that differentiation and formalization can promote con-
with IOI and OOI, the enterprise will have a better growth vergent change, but centralization has no significant effect on
performance. convergent change. It can be seen that different organizational
structures are applicable to different organizational changes
H4: OC is positively related to EG.
and thus have different impacts on innovation. Compared with
H5a: OC positively moderates the relationship between IOI and EG. mechanic structures, OI is more suitable for the development
in organic structures [65]. Compared to organizations whose
H5b: OC positively moderates the relationship between OOI and
characteristics do not match the OI context, those who match
EG.
the OI context are likely to have better performance. Besides,
organizational structure is embedded in the institutional and
C. Moderating Effect of Open Organization organizational environment, and the structural context can shape
Unlike closed innovation, OI requires enterprises to adopt the social interactions [66], which is conducive to the implemen-
a matrix or networked organization [57], to develop a new tation of enterprise cooperative innovation. The OO refers to the
intellectual property regime [36] and a new organization internal new organizational structure, innovation platform, management
and external linking mechanisms [58]. Organizational structure mechanism, etc., it is an organizational form suitable for OI
is a pattern of variables established to coordinate the job of situations. Especially in the digital era, OI is increasingly carried
the organizational agents, based on their functional division, out around the platform ecosystem, which makes the complex
and whose processes generate formalized, differentiated, and interconnection of cross digital platforms and products a new
standardized routines [59]. Chiaroni et al. [60] considered that challenge for OI management [67]. The adoption of digital
the interorganizational networks, organizational structures, eval- platforms for collaborative innovations can promote the creative
uation processes, and knowledge management systems are the process and reduce the transaction costs [68]. OI digital plat-
four main dimensions of the firm’s organization when firms forms can promote the problem definition, finding participants
from closed to OI. Based on this, OO is a company that has and external collaboration of coupled OI processes through
a series of foundations, which supports the OI like an open dynamic capabilities, such as sensing, seizing, scanning, inte-
organizational structure, network platform, and management grating, and transforming [69]. For enterprises implementing OI,
mechanism. First, the efficiency of cooperation’s internal and OI digital platforms can help firms to find partners and financial
external link is affected by the form of organizational structure. resources, and then promote the knowledge cocreation of firms
Those structures that are decentralized are more conducive to [70]. Collaborative innovation platform can facilitate enterprises
intrateam and interorganizational communication, which in turn to publish and obtain innovation information, help enterprises to
enhances innovation performance [61], and has an impact on EG. obtain technology and resource support, and promote enterprise
Second, unlike the traditional offline collaborative innovation innovation output [71]. The depth of platform openness has a
model, the OI platform is an online model of mass participation significant moderating role between coupling OI and innovation
in innovation combining internet technology and OI concept performance [72]. Both open structure and open platform belong
[18]. Internet-based OI platforms help to broaden the number of to the construction of OO under OI. They serve the OI of resource
external innovation sources that companies openly link to, tran- acquisition, absorption, and application. It can accelerate the
scending the limitations of time and space. Reducing the cost of output of new technologies and products, thereby amplifying
research and development and shortening the development cycle the role of IOI and OOI in influencing EG. From the viewpoint
can help companies access a more diverse, broader, and more of structural contingency theory and structural adaptation theory,
appropriate range of innovative knowledge, which is conducive it can be hypothesized that when OO is matched with IOI and
to its growth. Furthermore, suitable communication and collab- OOI, the enterprise will get better growth performance.
oration mechanisms can accelerate the acquisition, assimilation, Summarizing the above analysis, the study proposes the fol-
and application of external technological knowledge, which in lowing hypotheses.
turn contributes to speeding up the new product development
H6: OO is positively related to EG.
[62], which is good for EG.
According to the contingency theory, no static management H7a: OO positively moderates the relationship between IOI and EG.
style can be applied to all organizations, and the structure and
H7b: OO positively moderates the relationship between OOI and
management of the organization should change when the strat- EG.
egy, technology, environment, and other factors change [63].
When a company moves from closed to OI, at this point, the or- Summarizing the above analysis and hypotheses, this study
ganization’s innovation strategy and task context have changed. proposes the following conceptual framework, as shown in
If it does not correspondingly adjust the organizational structure, Fig. 1.
LI et al.: HOW TO BENEFIT FROM OPEN INNOVATION? THE MODERATING EFFECT OF OPEN CULTURE AND OPEN ORGANIZATION 5133

B. Measures
This study searched authoritative journals to find measure-
ment scales for similar concepts and select relevant and mature
ones with better reliability and validity. A combination of par-
allel and back translation is used for the English measurement
items to ensure the scientific validity of the scale translation
to best match between the source questionnaire and the target
questionnaire. Based on this, eight peers were invited to discuss
and revise the wording and expression of the measurement items
to ensure that the questionnaire has good content validity and
accuracy.
Fig. 1. Conceptual framework. According to the views of Chesbrough and Crowther [38]
and Hung and Chou [37], OI includes two dimensions: IOI and
OOI. The measurement of IOI and OOI is mainly referenced to
III. METHODS the perspectives of Hung and Chou [37], Cheng and Huizingh
[73], as well as Cassiman and Valentini [5] et al. The initial
A. Sample and Procedure measurement items of IOI and OOI are four, respectively.
Considering that OC and OO are difficult to measure through From closed innovation to open innovation, enterprise culture
objective data, this study used a questionnaire to obtain the re- needs to be more open [36], including open innovation climate
search data. The data for this study come from China, which was [74] and open mindedness [50]. Open innovation climate in-
obtained in two ways. First, by relying on research topics com- cludes an open, cooperative, sharing, and tolerant of failure
missioned by the Chinese government’s science and technology cultural atmosphere and an atmosphere in which everyone par-
department and the training event for managers of science and ticipates in innovation. It means that innovation is not only the
technology enterprises, we distributed 300 pretested question- task of R&D department staff, but also the work of all employees.
naires, which are filled out by middle and senior management Innovation is not limited to invented-here, but also includes
and core technical staff. After eliminating the questionnaires noninvented-here [19]. Organizational culture is the culture of
that were completely blank, missing a lot of questions and enterprise leaders. Therefore, this study mainly measures the
filled out randomly, 229 questionnaires remained valid, with enterprise’s open culture from the open mindedness of the lead-
an effective response rate of 76.333%. Second, the electronic ers, including the leaders who have open mindedness, and the
version of the questionnaire is distributed by large enterprise leaders who often encourage and advocate employees to open
that have cooperative relations with us. We require the large learning. The OC scale contains four items.
enterprise to randomly select 500 cooperative enterprises from The transformation from closed innovation to open innovation
their internal management system and send them emails. These will bring about organizational changes, including organiza-
questionnaires are filled out by middle and upper managers, core tional mechanism changes (centralization/decentralization) and
technical staff who are familiar with the company’s innovations. organizational structure changes (functional / matrix / network)
Samples filled by those who are with less than one year of service [57]. The biggest changes in enterprises are the emergence of
in the current company, missing more than three questions, or open innovation platforms and the transformation of organi-
with obvious patterns of responses were excluded. In the end, zational mechanisms. The open innovation platform includes
426 valid questionnaires were returned, a valid response rate of open sharing platforms for internal enterprises and open inno-
85.2%. Among them, 71, 183, 129, and 43 companies have been vation network platforms for external organizations. The change
established for less than 8 years, 9–19 years, 20–30 years, and of organizational mechanism refers to the change from the
more than 30 years, respectively. Forty state-owned enterprises, original internal independent R&D mechanism to the external
322 private enterprises, 27 wholly foreign-owned enterprises, open cooperation mechanism. Considering that enterprises will
17 Sino-foreign joint ventures, and 20 other enterprises. There choose different organizational modes according to different
are 4, 163, 115, and 144 enterprises with less than 20 people, partners in the process of implementing IOI and OOI [75].
20–299 people, 300–999 people, and more than 1000 people, When an enterprise is open to internal departments, it usually
respectively. One hundred sixty-one enterprises are emerging adopts the new organization mode of open sharing platforms.
industries, 235 enterprises are traditional industries, and 30 When an enterprise is open to external organizations, it usually
enterprises in other industries. In the past three years, the av- adopts the new organization mode of open innovation network
erage proportion of research and development expenditure to platforms. When integrating internal and external resources
operating income is less than 1% for 32 companies, 1%–3% and commercialization channels, enterprises will adopt the new
for 81 companies, 4%–6% for 121 companies, 7%–10% for organizational mechanism of internal and external collaboration
95 companies, 11%–15% for 48 companies, and 16% or more and innovation mechanism. The OO scale contains three items.
for 49 companies. Most of the sample enterprises attach great Given that sales revenue growth rate and market share are
importance to innovation, so it is suitable to be the analysis object important indicators of EG [76], and the growth rate of cor-
of this study. porate profits is an important indicator of the sustainability of
5134 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 71, 2024

TABLE I
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY TEST RESULTS OF MEASUREMENT SCALE (N = 229)

a company [77], this study measures EG in three aspects: sales in the form anonymously, informing that it was for the sole
revenue growth rate, market share, and pretax profit growth rate. purpose of academic research, there is no right or wrong answer,
All of the above variables were measured on a Likert five- to reduce the concern of the filler and to exclude inconsistent
point scale, and the specific items measured are shown in Table I. samples. To test whether the feedforward control is effective, this
Besides, considering that age, size, and industry can affect OI article conducts a back-test through Harman’s one-factor test.
and performance, the age of the enterprise, the ownership of The more variation explained by Factor I, the more severe the
enterprise, enterprise size, industry type, R&D intensity, and bias. The exploratory factor analysis took five factors, the results
political connection are considered as control variables. Among showed that the Factor I explained 19.742% of the variation, for
them, R&D intensity is measured by the ratio of the enterprise’s a total variation of 74.758%. The Factor I did not account for half
R&D investment to its business revenue, and political connection of the total variation, indicating that common bias is not serious.
is measured by the political affiliation of the enterprise’s actual Also, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis in Table II
controller. Suppose the chairman or general manager is a former show that the fit indices of the one-factor model did not meet the
or current government official, a deputy to the National People’s standard values and it is the worst fit in all competition models.
Congress, a Party deputy or a member of the Chinese People’s It indicates that the common bias is not a serious problem in this
Political Consultative Conference. If so, score 1. Otherwise, study again.
score 0. This study refers to the suggestion of Armstrong and Overton
[78] and Harrington and Harrington [79] for the test of non-
response bias. First, the returned questionnaires were grouped
C. Common Variance and Nonresponse Bias in order of priority, and the 164 questionnaires collected after
To reduce the effect of common variance when the question- repeated urging were regarded as unresponsive questionnaires.
naire is filled out by the same respondent, the study was con- Second, the objective items such as enterprise age, the total num-
ducted by setting a discriminative reverse question “Company ber of employees, the ownership of enterprise, industry type, and
management generally did not find open cooperation meaning- R&D intensity were selected for the independent sample t-test,
ful” to exclude contradictory samples, and took the step of filling which showed that there was no significant difference between
LI et al.: HOW TO BENEFIT FROM OPEN INNOVATION? THE MODERATING EFFECT OF OPEN CULTURE AND OPEN ORGANIZATION 5135

TABLE II
RESULTS OF CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSES (N = 426)

the two groups, indicating that there was no nonresponse bias in 0.69 and 1, and the commonality of the measurement indexes
the data. is between 0.71 and 0.94, indicating that the scale has good
validity. The EFA results of OC, OO, EG show that in the scree
IV. RESULTS test, starting from the second factor, the number of characteristic
roots changes little, and the one factors before the inflection
A. Validity and Reliability of the Scale
point can be retained. The results of parallel analysis suggested
The results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and con- that the retention factors number of OC, OO, EG all should
fidence test (see Table I) show that the internal consistency be one. The percentage of total variance explained of OC, OO,
coefficient alpha values for IOI, OOI, OC, OO, and EG are 0.869, EG accounted for 85%, 70%, 84%, respectively, exceeding the
0.891, 0.920, 0.815, and 0.904, all more than the benchmark general recommended standard of 60%. The factor loading of
value of 0.7. The test-retest reliability coefficient for the 426 OC is between 0.89 and 0.95, and the commonality of the
formal survey samples was 0.836, 0.842, 0.883, 0.769, and measurement indexes is between 0.81 and 0.91, indicating that
0.874, the CR value of each scale is more than 0.775, indicating OC has good validity. The factor loading of OO is between
that the scales used in this article have good internal consistency 0.72 and 1, and the commonality of the measurement indexes
and reliability. is between 0.52 and 1, indicating that OO has good validity.
Second, this study conducted EFA on 229 pretest question- The factor loading of EG is between 0.89 and 0.93, and the
naires through R software. We treat the ordinal Likert scale as a commonality of the measurement indexes is between 0.80 and
discontinuous variable and adopt the method of factor analysis 0.86, indicating that EG has good validity. The results of EFA
using polychoric matrix provided by Wu (2018).1 We do the are shown in Table I. It can be seen that OI, OC, OO, and EG
EFA with oblimin, maximum likelihood, polychoric approach. all have good aggregation validity.
The project analysis results show that the discrimination of all In addition, to test the discriminant validity of the five vari-
items of each variable is between 0.59 and 0.77, which is greater ables, this study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
than 0.3. The discrimination of all items is high, and all items are of 426 formal survey data using R software. The five factor
retained. The KMO test results of OI, OC, OO, EG were 0.88, model is shown in Fig. 2. The results of CFA showed that the fac-
0.85, 0.67, and 0.75, respectively, which were all within the tor loadings for all measured items under the five-factor model
acceptable standard range. The Bartlett’s sphericity test results ranged from 0.64 to 0.88. The mean-variance extraction AVE
of OI (χ2 (28) = 1345.661, p < 0.001), OC (χ2 (6) = 665.528, values are all above 0.5, indicating that the measurement scale
p < 0.001), OO (χ2 (3) = 257.423, p < 0.001), EG (χ2 (3) in this study has good aggregation validity. Furthermore, the
= 439.058, p < 0.001) were all statistically significant. Then, results of the validation factor analysis competition model (see
we do parallel analysis using the correlation coefficient of the Table II for details) show that compared to single-factor model,
ploychoric matrix to determine the number of retained factors. two-factor model, three-factor model, and four-factor model,
The EFA results of OI show that in the scree test, starting from five-factor model had the best fit (χ2 /df = 3.233, SRMR < 0.08,
the third factor, the number of characteristic roots changes little, RMSEA < 0.08, CFI > 0.9, TLI > 0.9). It demonstrates that
and the two factors before the inflection point can be retained. the five-factor model is a better representation of the measured
The results of parallel analysis suggested that the number of constructs. The measurement scales used in this article have
retention factors should be two. The factor loading of item 4 good discriminatory validity. Besides, the AVE square roots of
of IOI is less than 0.4 in the IOI dimension, delete IOI4 (item: each core variable are greater than the correlation coefficients
purchase of external intellectual property for use in technology between the variables (see Table III for details), again indicating
development or product development). The percentage of total good discriminant validity between the core variables.
variance explained accounted for 79%, exceeding the general
recommended standard of 60%. The factor loading is between B. Descriptive Statistics and Related Analysis
The results of the descriptive statistics and correlation analysis
1 JiayuWu (2018). Gender Difference in Movie Genre Preferences Fac- in Table III show that the mean value of IOI (m = 4.250) is
tor Analysis on Ordinal Data-R Code for Replication. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://alice86.github.io/2018/04/08/Factor-Analysis-on-Ordinal-Data- higher than the OOI (m = 3.784), OC (m = 4.385) is higher
example-in-R-(psych,-homals)/ than OO (m = 4.097), indicating that the sample enterprises
5136 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 71, 2024

TABLE III
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS AND CORRELATION MATRIX (N = 426)

was effectively controlled. The results of the regression analysis

are shown in Table IV.
1) A test of the relationship between IOI and OOI and EG.
The effects of IOI and OOI on EG are shown in Models
M2 and M3 in Table IV. The results indicate that IOI
and OOI are all significantly and positively related to EG
(β = 0.222, p < 0.001; β = 0.379, p < 0.001), that is, IOI
and OOI are beneficial for EG. Further, the interaction
of IOI and OOI is significantly positively related to EG
(β = 0.144, p < 0.001), suggesting that IOI and OOI have
complementary effects on EG. H1, H2, and H3 are all
supported.
2) Testing the moderating effect of OC. The moderating
effect of OC is shown in models M4 and M5 in Table IV.
The results show that OC has a significant effect on EG
(β = 0.229, p < 0.001), which indicates that the better
the company’s OC is built, the better the enterprise grows.
Further, OC positively moderates the positive correlation
between OOI and EG (β = 0.146. p < 0.001), while the
moderating effect of OC on the relationship between IOI
and EG is not significant (β = 0.036, p > 0.100). This
indicates that the positive correlation between OOI and
EG is stronger in a high OC. In other words, OOI may
require a more OC than IOI in order for enterprises to
gain more benefit from OI. H4 and H5b are supported.
3) Tests of the moderating effect of OO. The moderating
Fig. 2. Five factor model. effect of OO is shown in models M6 and M7 in Table IV.
The results show that OO have a significant effect on EG
(β = 0.312, p < 0.001). It indicates that the better the
implemented relatively more IOI, and the OC was better than enterprise’s OO, the better the enterprise grows. Further,
the OO building, which is consistent with the findings from the OO positively moderate the positive correlation of OOI
field visits. In addition, there is a significant positive mutual on EG (β = 0.185. p < 0.001), while the moderating
correlation between EG, IOI, OOI, OC, and OO. The correlation effect of OO on the relationship between IOI and EG
coefficients are between 0.450 and 0.651, preliminarily supports is not significant (β = −0.058, p > 0.100), indicating
the hypothesis of this study. that OOI and EG in highly OO has a stronger positive
correlation. In other words, OOI may require more OO
than IOI for enterprises to benefit more from OI. H6 and
C. Multivariable Regression Analysis and Hypothesis Testing
H7b are supported.
This study uses hierarchical regression analysis to examine the 4) Further analysis: the moderating role of OO on the re-
relationship between IOI and OOI, OC, OO, and EG. First put in lationship between OC and EG. According to Pugh and
the control variables, then put in the explanatory variable like IOI Hickson [80] and Joseph and Gaba [66], the structure
and OOI, OC, and OO, as well as their interactions. Calculating should change with the change of the environment, and
the product term based on standardization of the variables, the the research on the organizational structure should con-
analysis shows that the VIF values for all regression models are sider its context. Organizational culture belongs to the
between 1.055 and 1.905, all are less than the benchmark value internal environment of an enterprise. The matching of
of 10, indicating that the multicollinearity problem in this study organizational structure and organizational culture should
LI et al.: HOW TO BENEFIT FROM OPEN INNOVATION? THE MODERATING EFFECT OF OPEN CULTURE AND OPEN ORGANIZATION 5137

TABLE IV
RESULTS OF HIERARCHICAL REGRESSION ANALYSIS (N = 426)

TABLE V
RESULTS HYPOTHESIS TESTING RESULTS

theoretically promote the growth of an enterprise. In high OO are more conducive to EG in OOI enterprises,
order to further verify whether the matching of open while the positive correlation between OOI and EG in low
organization to open innovation situations is conducive OO is not significant. In other words, the better the OO
to the growth of enterprises, this article regards OC as construction, the stronger the positive correlation between
the environment and atmosphere of open innovation in OOI and EG. Similarly, Fig. 3(b) shows that the better
which open organization are located, and then tests the the OC construction, the stronger the positive relationship
moderating role of OO between OC and EG. See models between OOI and EG. Table V summarizes the hypothesis
M8 and M9 in Table IV. The results of model M8 show testing results. Except that H5a and H7a are not supported,
that OC and OO can promote the growth of enterprises other hypotheses are all supported.
(β = 0.189, P < 0.001; β = 0.413, P < 0.001), which
verified H4 and H6 again. The results of model M8 show
V. DISCUSSION
that the interaction between OC and OO positively affects
EG (β = 0.162, P < 0.001), indicating that OO play a To answer the question, what can companies do to better
positive moderating role in the process of OC promoting benefit from OI? This study builds the research model of IOI and
EG, and high OO are more conducive to OC promoting OOI, OC, OO, and EG based on structural contingency theory
EG. The results of the study verify again that the matching and structural adaptation theory, and empirically explored by
of OO and open innovation environment is conducive to questionnaire survey, the following research findings are mainly
the EG, and also prove that the matching of OO and OC obtained.
is conducive to the EG. In this study, the simple slope First, IOI and OOI are not only significantly correlated with
test and diagram method is used to intuitively show the EG, respectively, but also interactively. The results of the em-
moderating role of OO and OC between OOI and EG. pirical analysis support the hypotheses that IOI and OOI are
Fig. 3(a) show the correlation between OOI and EG under significantly positively correlated with EG, indicating that IOI
low OO and high OO. There are significant differences: and OOI can be a strategic choice for EG. IOI and OOI can
5138 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 71, 2024

for enterprises to better benefit from OI. For enterprises, the

intellectual property protection system in developing countries
is not well developed, and enterprises may face more risks in
implementing OOI. Thus, there is a more need for a sound
institutional mechanism to ensure this. Besides, technologies
sourced from outside the organization are often readily accepted
by staff, whereas the transfer of technologies that take a lot of
effort and resources to develop is often not readily accepted
by staff. The transfer of technology to third party organizations
for commercialization is met with psychological and behavioral
resistance from employees [82]. Therefore, compared with IOI,
OOI will more require an OC to coordinate. Also, according to
structural adaptation theory [15], the insignificant moderating
effect of OO and OC on IOI and EG may be influenced by
historical factors. Most Chinese enterprises have undergone the
process of IOI by importing, digesting, absorbing, and reinvent-
ing, which may have been adapted to the original organizational
structure and organizational culture.

A. Theoretical Implications
The above findings contribute to the existing research about OI
and firm performance, organizational culture, and organizational
structure in the following aspects.
First, this article enriches the research results in the field of
OI and enterprise performance. Previous studies have found that
IOI and OOI have a positive impact on the short-term innovation
Fig. 3. (a) Moderating effect of OO between OOI and EG. (b) Moderating
effect of OC between OOI and EG. performance or financial performance of enterprises [83], [84],
[85], [86], or a negative impact [8], [9], [10], [87]. For example,
IOI practices such as purchasing intellectual property rights has a
influence the EG interactively, indicating that IOI and OOI are positive influence on firm performance, but OOI practices, such
complementary to the growth of enterprises. Although some as selling intellectual property rights has a negative influence
studies have found that open innovation is not conducive to on firm performance [88]. Through empirical research, this
enterprise performance in the short term [8], [9], [10], this article article finds that both IOI and OOI can help improve the growth
finds that both IOI and OOI are conducive to EG in the long term performance of enterprises, such as the growth rate of sales
and the promotion of IOI and OOI on EG has complementary revenue, market share, and profit before tax. That is to say, in the
effect rather than substitution effect. long run, IOI and OOI can help improve the growth performance
Second, OC and OO are the critical soft power and hard of enterprises in terms of long-term growth. Therefore, the future
power that affect the growth of enterprises. The empirical test research on OI and enterprise performance should not only
results support the hypotheses that OC and OO have a positive separately explore the role difference between IOI and OOI, but
influence on EG. The findings of this study are similar to the also separately explore the difference between long-term perfor-
“open mindedness has a positive effect on product innovation” mance and short-term performance. In addition, the interaction
found by Cegarra-Navarro et al. [50] and Lin et al. [52], and analysis found that IOI and OOI have an interactive effect on
verify the perspectives of Hallerstede [16] and Moran [81] the growth performance of enterprises, rather than a substitution
on the relationship between network platforms, organizational effect. This is similar to the result of “the combination of inbound
structure, and innovation performance. The results show that OC and outbound OI has a stronger effect on innovation output than
and OO can positively influence EG. Thus, in addition to IOI the inbound or outbound OI alone” found by Nguyen et al. [89],
and OOI, OC and OO are also relevant factors for EG. indicating that IOI and OOI can promote EG interactively.
Third, the matching of OC, OO, and OOI leads to better Second, this article expands the research perspective and
EG. Empirical data show that the interaction of OC, OO, and research results in the field of OC, OO, and enterprise innovation.
OOI all have a significant positive impact on EG, which is Previous studies mainly explored the influence of organiza-
consistent with the assumptions under the structural contin- tional culture on OI adoption [21], [22], [23] and organizational
gency theory perspective. The results show that when the OC structure on OI adoption [32], [33] from the perspective of an-
and OO are matched with the context required for OOI, the tecedents of OI. Moreover, the existing studies mainly consider
OOI can lead to better EG. However, the effect of the OC, the moderating factors of OI affecting enterprise performance
OO, and IOI interactions on EG is not significant. The results from the perspective of enterprise capability. For example, from
suggest that OOI may require more corporation of OC and OO the perspective of capability, it discusses the moderating role
LI et al.: HOW TO BENEFIT FROM OPEN INNOVATION? THE MODERATING EFFECT OF OPEN CULTURE AND OPEN ORGANIZATION 5139

of technical capability and market information management article expand the application of structural adjustment to regain
capability on the relationship between OI and enterprise perfor- fit model proposed by Donaldson [92] in the field of OI, and
mance [90], discusses the moderating role of alliance manage- enrich the research results in the field of structural contingency
ment capability and absorptive capacity on inbound/outbound theory, structural adaptation theory, and OI. Both the structural
strategies and eco-innovation performance [91], and explores contingency theory and the structural adaptation theory believe
the moderating role of network capabilities and innovation ca- that the structure of an organization should match the charac-
pabilities between OI and radical innovation [85]. In addition, teristics of its tasks. This article finds that the organizational
some studies discuss the moderating effect of organizational structure and the organizational culture should be adjusted ac-
mechanisms (formalization, decentralization) between OI and cording to the task situation, and the matching of OI with OO
firm performance from the perspective of organizational mech- and OC is more conducive to the growth of enterprises. This is
anism and found that the decentralization has a positive mod- the view found in this article that culture and structure should
erating effect between OOI and firm performance, while the match the task situation. This view is not only applicable to
formalization has a negative moderating effect between OOI and the OI field, but also can be used to explain other enterprise
firm performance [83]. Although the existing studies have found innovation and development phenomena, such as enterprise
that it is conditional for enterprises to benefit from OI from the digital transformation. The digital transformation of enterprises
perspective of capability and organizational mechanism, there is also requires the development of organizational culture and
still a lack of discussion on how enterprises can benefit from OI organizational structure toward the digital direction, the cul-
from the perspective of organizational culture and organizational tivation of digital thinking, and the construction of a digital
structure adaptation. Different from previous studies which mea- platform.
sured organizational culture and organizational structure from
the conventional context, this article developed a measurement
scale of OC and OO based on the context of open innovation. B. Practical Implications
Different from the existing research perspective, this article This article has the following practical implications. First, the
discusses the moderating role of OC and OO between OI and research findings that open innovation can promote the growth
EG performance from the perspective of culture, organization, of enterprises provide important practical value for enterprises
and innovation adaptation, and verifies that OC and OO are the to implement partner-oriented, market-oriented, and regional-
boundary conditions for enterprises to better benefit from OOI. oriented opening. Companies should acquire knowledge, infor-
This article can not only provide measurement tools for future mation, technology, and product ideas from external organiza-
empirical research on OC and OO, but also enrich the research tions such as higher education institutions, research institutions,
results in the field of OC, OO, and enterprise innovation. partners, and competitors in their innovation process and incor-
Third, after summarizing and sorting out the literature on porate them into their technology research and product devel-
organizational structure, Joseph and Gaba [66] proposed that opment activities. Meanwhile, appropriate technology licens-
future research needs to pay more attention to the impact of ing, technology transfer, and commercial application through
structural context. The research on organizational structure and external organizations are also effective means for companies to
organizational culture should be combined with its structural obtain demand information, market-entry, and economic bene-
context and culture context. However, most of the existing stud- fits. Furthermore, enterprises should cross organizational and re-
ies on organizational culture, organizational structure, and OI do gional boundaries to carry out open and cooperative innovation,
not combine with OI context. This study helps to fill this research and break the boundary barriers of knowledge flow. In addition,
gap. This article developed the measurement tools of OC and OO enterprises should also pay attention to the improvement of the
by combining OI context, and uses the structural contingency ability to acquire and utilize external technology simultaneously,
theory and structural adaptation theory to explore the implemen- thus creates and acquires more value in technology research,
tation of OI in enterprises from the OI culture level, OI activity product development, and marketing promotion.
level, and OI organization level. Existing studies have found that Second, to move from closed innovation development to OI
different organizational mechanisms have different effects on the development, not only does the R&D department need to decide
implementation of OI. For example, the moderating effects of on the OI implementation strategy and the degree of openness,
decentralization and formalization between OI and firm perfor- but also all other departments need to help build an OC and OO
mance were positive and negative, respectively [83]. The reason to help shift the awareness and perception of innovation devel-
may be that decentralization and OI fit, while formalization and opment among all employees, as well as update and equip the
OI misfit. When an enterprise implements OI, if the enterprise is implementation resources, organizational structure, and institu-
still the traditional closed innovation organizational culture and tional arrangements accordingly. For example, enterprise leaders
organizational structure, there will be a misfit between organiza- should have an open mind and often encourage and advocate
tional culture, organizational structure, and contingency factors open learning for employees to create a culture of openness,
(OI), which will reduce enterprise performance. When an enter- cooperation, sharing, and toleration, forming an atmosphere of
prise builds an OC and an OO in the process of implementing innovation for mass involvement. Also, to facilitate the ideas
OI, the organizational culture and organizational structure will exchange between employees, strengthen the interaction and
be regain fit with contingency factors (OI). This regain fit will cooperation between enterprises and external organizations, and
help to improve enterprise performance. The findings of this thus better protect the smooth development of OI. Enterprises
5140 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 71, 2024

should design the office space into an open space, build an VI. CONCLUSION
OI network platform connected with the outside world based
This article analyzed the important role of IOI and OOI as the
on internet information technology and improve internal and key factors affecting the growth of enterprises, and discusses
external collaboration and innovation mechanisms.
the interactive promotion of IOI and OOI on the growth of
Third, in view of the positive moderating role of OC and
enterprises. The results show that the growth performance of en-
OO between OOI and EG, enterprises should pay attention to terprises will be better when they implement the strategy of high
the synchronous enhancement of OC, OO, and OI activities. In
IOI and high OOI. The results also show that when the enterprise
the process of OI development, enterprises should not only pay
has a higher OC and a higher OO, the OOI has a stronger role in
attention to the open access and commercialization of value- promoting the growth of the enterprise. These findings show that
creating activities, but also attach great importance to the con-
the construction of OC and OO helps to enhance the promotion
struction of OC and OO, build a comprehensive OI system, and of OOI on EG, while the implementation of OOI also helps
coordinate the relationship between OC, OO, and OI. According to enhance the promotion of IOI on EG. In general, from the
to the changes of innovation environment, enterprises should
perspective of culture, structure and innovation matching, this
adjust the organizational structure and organizational culture in article provides theoretical knowledge and practical implications
a timely manner, so that the organizational structure, organi- for researchers and managers to better understand OI and EG,
zational culture, and innovation activities of enterprises can be
and how enterprises can better grow from OI.
matched again, and then promote the growth of enterprises.

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Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2021.1970129 versity of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 2017.
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Zhaocong Wu received the B.S. degree in man-
plays of open innovation activities, firm capabilities, and environmen-
tal dynamism,” Asian J. Technol. Innov., vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 369–397, agement from Guangzhou University, Guangzhou,
China, in 2021. He is currently working toward the
2018.
M.S degree in management with the school of man-
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agement, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China.
organizational performance in different conflict management styles: Based
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management and intelligent manufacturing.
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