Open innovation in the automotive industry: why and how? Evidence from a multiple case study

Abstract

The paper explores the concept of Open Innovation (OI) and evaluates whether, why and how it is adopted in the automotive field. The study attempts to enrich the existing empirical evidence because few studies about the topic were conducted. With this aim, we studied the experience of three well-known companies operating at different levels in the value chain of the automotive industry: a final car-producer on one hand; two suppliers (i.e., a designer and a supplier of components) on the other. The underlying idea is that firm-specific strategic goals as well as external factors (i.e., environmental/industry features) can affect (i.e., explaining whether and why) the adoption of OI approaches and that openness can lead to some advantages despite some obstacles could prevent the achievement of the expected benefits.