Open Innovation and Sustainable Innovation Performance: The Moderating Role of IP Strategic Planning and IP Operation

Abstract

In recent years, open innovation and intellectual property rights have become critical factors to gain superior sustainable innovation performance. However, existing literature pays little attention to different open innovation strategies and their interplay with different IP management approaches in improving sustainable innovation performance. Drawing on the contractual/non-contractual view, this study explores how external partnering and external sourcing affect sustainable innovation performance, and the moderating role of IP strategic planning and IP operation. An empirical study is performed based on an innovation survey with one sample of 764 manufacturing firms. The results show that both external partnering and external sourcing can enhance sustainable innovation performance. Moreover, both IP strategic planning and IP operation play a positive moderating role in the relationship between open innovation and sustainable innovation performance. IP operation functions well once firms engage in open innovation, while IP strategic planning functions well when firms are open to some certain extent. This study provides important implications for sustainability research and managerial practice.