How to benefit from open innovation? An empirical investigation of open innovation, external partnerships and firm capabilities in the automotive industry

Prior research on open innovation primarily focused on theoretical perceptions about the transaction of technologies in information technology, pharmaceutical and electronics industry. Research about open innovation in the automotive industry has hardly received attention. However, the automotive industry has long been cooperating with external partners and nowadays acquires about three quarters of the value created from their suppliers. Based on theoretical findings of other industries, we examine the role of technology transactions and external partnerships in fostering firm capabilities. Survey responses from the German automotive industry let us empirically test seven hypotheses with a multiple regression model. Based on a firm's individual resource configuration and capability level, results show that some firms clearly profit more from openness than others. With this study, we extend research about open innovation in an industry where it has not been done before and empirically test the concept to overcome the prescriptive character of recent research on open innovation.