Open strategy as a catalyst for innovation: Evidence from cross-sector social partnerships

A principal advantage of open strategy as a decision-making paradigm is the magnification of both the accu-mulation and heterogeneity of knowledge. Since a key to innovation is the coalescing of dispersed knowledge, open strategy has been an attractive area of scholarly management research over the past two decades. Despite this attention, there has been a paucity of empirical studies on open strategy. Its predictions have not been adequately tested, its boundaries have not been enumerated, nor is the science settled on its application in organizational decision-making. To address this lacuna and to further explore the links between open strategy and innovation, we develop and refine the construct of open strategy and assess its relationship with a common predictor of innovation, absorptive capacity. Within this research, we assess the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the open strategy construct to theoretically refine, validate, and measure it for use in future analysis.

Automated summary

The main advantage of open strategy as a decision-making paradigm is that it enhances the accumulation and diversity of knowledge. Open strategy has been a popular area of scholarly management research over the past two decades due to its role in facilitating innovation through the integration of dispersed knowledge. However, there is a lack of empirical studies on open strategy, and its predictions, boundaries, and application in organizational decision-making have not been adequately explored. To fill this research gap and further examine the relationship between open strategy and innovation, this study develops and refines the construct of open strategy and assesses its relationship with absorptive capacity, a common predictor of innovation. The study focuses on assessing the validity of the construct in terms of convergence, discrimination, and prediction, with the aim of refining, validating, and measuring open strategy for future analysis.