Open innovation and its effectiveness to embrace turbulent environments

The paper focuses on the challenges of integrating external sources in the innovation process and investigates the role of environmental turbulence in this context. Building on the resources-based view and the dynamic capabilities perspective the authors propose that open innovation strategies assist companies in navigating through turbulent times. Empirical testing of this assumption in a sample of 101 manufacturing firms indicates that open innovation activities are more important in turbulent than in non-turbulent markets and that supplier integration is vital when technological turbulence is high, whilst customer integration is critical in environments characterized by high market turbulence. From a practical point of view, these findings highlight the importance of stakeholder integration in the innovation process and provide details on the successful implementation of this strategy under different environmental settings.