Contenu du sommaire : Rethinking boundaries for innovation

Open innovation has attracted extensive interest (and has raised numerous debates) in the recent literature on economics and management of innovation. If rich and stimulating, open innovation remains however a loose concept, which calls for further exploration of its shapes and stakes. This article precisely intends to 1) question the originality of the open innovation paradigm, by confronting it with other related concepts developed in the literature previously; 2) investigate more in depth the new modalities that open innovation may take in reality; and 3) discuss the rationales and challenges of the different declinations of the open innovation model by analyzing their benefits and their costs. In other words, we both summarize the state of the art on open innovation and identify research tracks worth being investigating in the future.JEL Codes: L22, L24, O32, M2

The participation of firms in Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities is growing and is increasingly debated among scholars. As Ousterhout (1999) explained, “FLOSS needs profit” and we do not know of any successful FLOSS products without firms in their ecosystem, either through the financial support of foundations (Eclipse, Linux) or the commercial supply of products or services (MySQL, Red Hat Linux). Various views of these phenomena have been proposed, but scholars have usually studied either the involvement of firms in a community or the integration of FLOSS into their market strategy, but not both. In this article, we argue for a more structured and global analysis, based on concepts of industrial economics, and thus starting from the basic conditions of the computer market and demand. This conceptual framework helps to distinguish the different roles firms may play in the FLOSS ecosystem and, more specifically, the different ways they are involved in development.JEL Codes: L11, L15, L22, L86

The paper describes a conceptual approach for a next-generation innovation paradigm in the Digital Economy called “Embedded Innovation” (Innovation 3.0). The notion of “embeddedness” is introduced to mark the increasing challenge of integrating firms into their surrounding communities to assure the absorption of exploitable knowledge. In the paper the evolutionary steps from Closed via Open to Embedded Innovation in small and medium sized companies (SME) are described. On the basis of the firm's different relationships and knowledge flows with respect to its surrounding communities different modes of how and what to learn from communities are defined and how this may unfold leverage effects for the innovation process. Finally, we present empirical innovation case studies on how to embed the firm into communities with the aim of ensuring knowledge absorption and collaborative learning.JEL Codes: L17, O31, O32, O33

The word Crowdsourcing –a compound contraction of Crowd and Outsourcing, was used by Howe in order to define outsourcing to the crowd. Beyond cost, benefits for the company can be substantial. It can externalize the risk of failure and it only pays for products or services that meet its expectations. The Crowdsourcing phenomenon covers heterogeneous situations and it has inspired a number of authors. However, we are still lacking a general and synthetic view of this concept. The aim of our work is to characterize Crowdsourcing in its various aspects. First we define of Crowdsourcing, and provide examples that illustrate the diversity of Crowdsourcing practices and we present similarities and differences between Crowdsourcing and established theories (Open Innovation, User Innovation and Open Source Software). Then, we propose and illustrate a typology of Crowdsourcing practices based on two criteria: the integrative or selective nature of the process and the type of tasks that are crowd sourced (simple, complex and creative tasks). In either case, the client firm seeks to mobilize external competencies. Relying upon the crowd can be an adequate method, because of its unique characteristics that are fostered by the Internet. Finally, we present some potential benefits and pitfalls of Crowdsourcing.JEL Codes: O32, L17, L24, L29, M19

The trivialization of smartphones has given rise to an architectural reconfiguration of the mobile operating system innovation process. We have also seen the recent emergence of three “open source” consortia: the Symbian and LiMo Foundations, and the Open Handset Alliance. In this exploratory paper, we analyse the coherence of these consortia using an open source framework to perform the necessary reconfiguration at both the technological and organizational level. In order to evaluate the coherence of this strategy, we analyse the ability of these consortia to produce standards. Bearing in mind the exploratory nature of this research, this allows us to demonstrate that, although these consortia exhibit original forms of “open innovation”, they find it difficult to produce consortia standards by means of vertical coordination. Equally, we consider various scenarios dealing with the construction of standards, examining in particular horizontal collaboration between these consortia.JEL Codes: L15, L17, L86, L96, O33, O34

Value co-creation is an emerging marketing and innovation paradigm describing a broader opening of the firm to its customers by providing them with the opportunity to become active participants in the design and development of personalized products, services and experiences. It has a great potential in affecting the way firms operate and innovate and has, therefore, attracted the attention of both scholars and practitioners. However, there is not yet a fully satisfactory theoretical vision about its distinctive characteristics as compared to more traditional value creation approaches. The present paper provides empirical research results in answering two research questions. The first question is: What are the principal components of value co-creation? The second question is: What is the relationship between the degree of firms' involvement in value co-creation activities and the perception of their innovativeness. The paper starts with a review of the literature and a conceptual refinement of the value co-creation paradigm to continue with the identification of the key components of value co-creation based on a research methodology using web search and Principal Component Analysis techniques applied to data collected from a sample of 273 firms selected for being representative of the breadth of their value co-creation activities. The second part of the paper discusses the results from a linear regression analysis examining the relationship between firms' degree of involvement in value co-creation and the perception of their innovativeness. The analysis leads to research insights about the relevance of specific value co-creation components in terms of their innovation-related outcomes. To the best of our knowledge this is the first work discussing value co-creation implementation patterns based on the relationship between firms' involvement in value co-creation and the perception of innovativeness.JEL Codes: L1, L2, L17, O31

This article addresses the underlying capacities attached to collaborative approaches to innovation. Adopting a qualitative methodology from a historical case study, it examines how the first computerised Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance aircraft (TSR-2) had been developed in the early sixties by the British military industry. The study contributes to theory by indicating that the development of the TSR-2 aircraft required four dimensions to be managed and aligned, each reflecting a particular capacity (design, interaction, governance and culture) the organisation should hold so as to reap the full benefits of adopting collaborative approaches to innovation.JEL Codes: O30, O31, O32, O39

The analysis of the literature on SMEs' internationalization enables to identify three main theoretical approaches according to the main explanation retained: stages approach, economic approach and network approach. The purpose of this article is to review and assess the impact and the limits of each of the three approaches by taking into account the applicability in the particular context of SMEs. As such, we examine the three approaches and their interrelationships in order to propose a new reading of them. That is, we will highlight the existence of various dimensions of the international development which can be found within the three approaches. The concept of resources and competencies offers a conceptual framework which may play a federator role compared to all other factors (organizational training, networks, organizational capacities, etc.) currently used by the previous approaches.JEL Codes: D85, O33, L22, L26