ifkad articles

Sustainability-Oriented Innovation, Open Innovation and Performance: an Agent-Based Approach

Linda Ponta, Gloria Puliga, Raffaella Manzini, Silvano Cincotti

The mounting pressure from governments and investors has imposed companies to think “green”, “sustainable” and be “social compliant”. In this paper, an investigation to understand the joint impact that Sustainable Oriented Innovation (SOI) and Open Innovation (OI) may have on companies’ performance is presented. In particular, the study aims to see if these practices, i.e. OI and SOI, impact in terms of innovation, sustainable and economic performance that have been described in the literature as different but often correlated outcomes. The model proposed a setting in which it is possible to test the joined effect of developing SOI and the sharing of knowledge considering open and closed OI strategies. Results show that the most convenient strategy is to develop SOI technologies, but the use of an open setting should be evaluated according to the life cycle stage and dynamicity of the technological environment.

IN: Proceedings IFKAD 2021 – Managing Knowledge in Uncertain Times
PP: 1742-1755