Examining the linkage among open innovation, customer knowledge management and radical innovation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model exploring the link between open innovation, customer knowledge management and radical innovation. It seeks to answer these research questions: is there any difference among the effects of different types of open innovation activities on radical innovation? How does the organizational learning ability influence the impact of customer knowledge management on radical innovation? Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on the data collected from a sample of 165 modern service enterprises located in the Yangtze River Delta region. The authors conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using SPSS and MPLUS to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results showed that different kinds of open innovation activities had different impacts on the path to radical innovation. Inbound open innovation activities directly influenced radical innovation while the effect of outbound open innovation activities on radical innovation combined with the organizational exploitative learning ability is indirect. Similarly, the empirical results also proved that customer knowledge management had an indirect effect on radical innovation through the organizational learning ability, and the influence of the exploratory learning ability was more prominent. Originality/value Under the background of the national innovation driven by the development strategy, this paper studies the impact mechanism of radical innovation from the perspectives of open innovation and customer knowledge management. Therefore, it is suggested that the enterprise should adopt open innovation activities to foster innovation performance, formulate a customer-oriented innovation strategy and invest information and communication technologies to enhance the organizational learning ability of the enterprise.