ARE WE HAPPY TOGETHER? A META-ANALYTIC REVIEW OF THE IMPACT OF OPEN INNOVATION ON FIRM PERFORMANCE

The study draws on dynamic capabilities theory and evidence-based research to provide the first meta-analysis on the open innovation (OI)-firm performance relationship from 2003 to 2020. Both subgroup and meta-analytic regression analyses were employed to analyse 106 independent peer-reviewed articles, encompassing 557,642 firms and 138 effects. Results showed a positive, significant relationship between OI and overall firm performance (r= 0.20) while revealing numerous contingencies. Particularly, we found that the effect of OI on non-financial performance (r= 0.20) is larger than that on financial performance (r= 0.19), while the disaggregate results revealed that inbound OI has the strongest effect on firm performance (r= 0.23), followed by outbound OI (r= 0.19) and coupled OI (r= 0.14). Furthermore, it was found that the mixed results are driven by both contextual factors (i.e., firm size, culture, study region, sector, and industry intensity) and measurement moderators (i.e., study measure and data type). Both the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are elucidatedly discussed.