Managing knowledge assets for open innovation: a systematic literature review
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge assumes a pivotal role in the open innovation (OI) paradigm. Yet OI has been scantly investigated by adopting a knowledge management (KM) lens. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of the KM practices analysed by prior literature to support OI activities.
Design/methodology/approach
To perform a valuable literature review, the steps for systematic review proposed by previous studies have been adopted. These steps have yielded a final sample of 34 articles. Afterward, the authors have distinguished and analysed the identified articles according to the three main OI processes, i.e. inbound, outbound and coupled OI processes.
Findings
This research groups and highlights the most relevant KM practices to support OI activities on the basis of the inbound, outbound and coupled OI processes.
Originality/value
Despite knowledge is the most relevant resource exchanged in OI activities, this is the first attempt to highlight how knowledge should be managed in an OI context by adopting a KM lens. Furthermore, the authors also identify relevant topics that have been so far understudied, which the authors suggest as future research directions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “knowledge management practices and strategies for open innovation”.
Citation
Natalicchio, A., Ardito, L., Savino, T. and Albino, V. (2017), "Managing knowledge assets for open innovation: a systematic literature review", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 1362-1383. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-11-2016-0516
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited