How Does Outside-In Open Innovation Influence Innovation Performance? Analyzing the Mediating Roles of Knowledge Sharing and Innovation Strategy

Embracing outside-in open innovation (OI) can result in a plethora of organizational advantages, including improved innovation performance. Although some studies have found that outside-in OI improves innovation performance, others have shown that it has no effect or even a negative effect. This mixed empirical evidence leads to a need to unpack the relationship between outside-in OI and innovation performance, and to examine how certain key mediating variables related to the outside-in OI process can ensure that outside-in OI turns into improved innovation performance. Thus, this paper aims to examine the influence of outside-in OI on innovation performance considering the mediating roles of knowledge sharing and innovation strategy. This paper draws on a cross-industrial sample of 112 firms. Data are analyzed using a set of ordinary-least-squares regression models and the bootstrap procedure. Results show that knowledge sharing and innovation strategy fully mediate the relationship between outside-in OI and innovation performance.