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Purpose – Despite extensive published research into the relationship between open innovation (OI) activities and performance, the nature and direction of the relationship remain inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship as to how firms’ inbound and outbound OI activities, as well as their interaction influence incremental and radical innovation performance. The authors also consider the potentially mediating roles of knowledge learning and organizational capabilities in such a relationship. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate this relationship, data were collected from a cross-industry survey of 304 leading Taiwanese-based firms. Three-stage least square analysis was employed to test the model. Findings – Analyses reveal that knowledge learning and organizational capabilities mediate the OI activities-innovation performance relationship. In addition, a firm focussing on inbound activities enhances its radical innovation performance, but hinders its incremental innovation performance, while focussing on outbound activities produces the opposite effects. Among the findings, it is worth emphasizing that the effect of the interaction between inbound and outbound activities on innovation performance can be counter-productive. Research limitations/implications – The findings demonstrate that existing studies only partially explain the effects of OI activities on innovation performance. Understanding how OI activities influence innovation performance will facilitate more informed decision making, leading to more effective use of OI activities. Practical implications – The results suggest that managers need to consider knowledge learning and organizational capabilities in order to fully capture the potential effects of OI activities. Managers also need to be aware of the limitations of OI activities. Originality/value – The theoretical model presented here offers a timely contribution to the theory base underpinning the development of OI activities for innovation performance.

Relationship quality is a central theme in business to business relationships, and it is becoming increasingly important from a theoretical as well as practical perspective to understand and monitor relationship quality. Despite its pivotal role, measurement issues of relationship quality have not been systematically investigated, confounded by a lack of consensus on the dimensions and contents of this construct. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the measures of relationship quality, and proposes the CLOSES scale as a new monitoring tool. This higher order, multidimensional scale reflects the intensity of communication (C), long-term orientation (LO), and social and economic satisfaction (SES) of a focal actor in a business relationship. Tested with data collected from 404 construction companies and cross-checked with a second round of data collection from 201 companies in other various industries, using partially multiple respondents, this new scaleshows good reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity, as well as cross-industry transferability. Thus, future academic research as well as practical management of business relationships is enriched by providing a valid and reliable tool that is not tied to a specific industry setting, to capture the important construct of relationship quality.

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