PURCHASING TEAM INNOVATION CLIMATES AS ANTECEDENTS OF PURCHASING INVOLVEMENT IN OPEN INNOVATION

Abstract

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between team innovation climate within the purchasing team and the level of purchasing involvement in open innovation (OI) initiatives. Previous research in psychology and management has documented the impact of team climate on innovation capacity. Furthermore, the purchasing function has been recognised as a bridge between internal and external resources in OI. However, to date, research has not examined the link between the team innovation climate and the role of the purchasing function in OI initiatives. To address this gap, we studied a sample of 258 purchasing teams across industries in France based on a self-audit and questionnaire using established team innovation climate scales. From our analyses, four dimensions of the purchasing team climate towards innovation emerge: the team cohesiveness, the team creativity, the leader support for innovation and the institutional support for innovation. We subsequently conduct regression and necessary condition analysis. Our results show that institutional support is both necessary and positively related to involvement. Moreover, purchasing’s ability to contribute to inbound OI is constrained by each of the four dimensions of the team innovation climate, to various extents. Our work thereby elucidates the individual elements and the collective impact of the team innovation climate that enable the exploitation of the innovative potential of suppliers through purchasing’s bridge function between external and internal innovation actors providing new insights into the human side of OI at team level.

Managerial Highlights

•	Team innovation climate plays an important role in the management of open innovation.
•	Team innovation climate influences the purchasing team’s involvement in open innovation projects of its firm i.e. the way its open innovation is managed.
•	There are four dimensions affecting the purchasing team innovation climate: institutional support, team leader support, team creativity and team cohesiveness.
•	High levels of involvement of the purchasing function do not occur without at least medium levels of these four dimensions.
•	Only institutional support is directly and positively related to the increasing level of involvement of purchasing in open innovation initiatives.