Coordination Approaches to Foster Open Innovation R&D Projects Performance

Open innovation R&D projects involve teams from different organizations, which may affect the team's ability to communicate since people are from different locations and companies, which may have different priorities, procedures, goals, and expectations. To succeed in the project, the team needs coordination mechanisms that facilitate teamwork. However, in the open innovation R&D projects, the coordination approach that fosters project performance is not evident. Using structural equation modeling analysis (PLS-SEM) with a sample of 50 open innovation R&D projects, we assessed the relationship with the project performance of two coordination approaches (organic or mechanistic) focusing on the communication strategies used. We find evidence that both organic and mechanistic approaches are positively associated with performance, which means that each approach has its role in fostering the project's performance. Consequently, such projects benefit both from open, continuous, and informal communication flow and from a more formal procedure of sharing information through a clear definition of project objectives, evolution, and challenges. This research extends prior research on coordinating teamwork for an open innovation setting.