Exploring Knowledge-Related Tensions in the Dynamic Transition to Open Innovation : Standardisation as a "De-Biasing" Mechanism

Despite its increasing popularity and wide application of the open innovation model, less attention has been paid to its dynamic traits. By viewing open innovation as a process of transition entailing progressively higher degrees of openness to external knowledge, this study investigates the tensions between openness and organisational resistance towards external knowledge emerging in different stages of open innovation adoption and examines the role of standardisation in mitigating such concerns. Hurdle model estimations on a sample of 600 Korean small and medium-sized enterprises suggest that tensions between openness and knowledge-related biases, such as the not invented here and the not-shared-here syndromes act as thresholds in the transition between different phases of firms’ knowledge search paths, but different types of standardisation activities may act as “de-biasing” mechanisms facilitating knowledge access and transfer at each stage