Knowledge Sharing and Transfer in an Open Innovation Context: Mapping Scientific Evolution

Abstract

The essence of innovation lies in knowledge, which is why open innovation opens the door to knowledge transfer with agents outside the organization. In order to comprehend the joint scientific trajectory of these two areas of knowledge, the aim of this study is to identify and analyze the main indicators of scientific behavior involved in the research field related to the link between open innovation and knowledge transfer or knowledge sharing concepts through bibliometric and network analysis. The results show clear European leadership in scientific production developed in universities. In addition, the high quality of the main sources of diffusion infers publications of good scientific quality. The most recognized source of knowledge used in new research is directed towards university-company relationships in an open innovation environment. Network analysis related to keywords has allowed us to define the most interesting, relevant fields of research, highlighting the importance acquired by topics such as ‘communication’, ‘inter-organizational context’ and ‘education’, to better focus on future research of the scientific community. It can be concluded that the scientific development of both concepts is an active field in the academic community, and also, that new key terms appear, opening new paths of research.

Upholding Knowledge Sharing for Organization Innovation Efficiency in Pakistan

“…Therefore, the very idea of open innovation uses knowledge, either generated inside or outside the firm, to develop and sustain innovation. Along similar lines, Alvarez et al [61] debated that as more and more employees are switching jobs more frequently, moving from one organization to another, therefore, the knowledge also floats in a similar pattern.…”

“…Most of the literature seems to focus on finding answers for the question, 'how to innovate?' [61]. In the quest of innovation, a popular model of innovation has evolved, which is based on the prerequisites for companies to open up their innovation processes and combine both internally and externally established ideas to generate business value.…”

Worldwide Research on Open Innovation in SMEs

“…This approach belongs to the three most important literature review methods: systematic literature review, metaanalysis and bibliometric analysis [66]. These bibliometric studies have made contributions in various fields of knowledge, such as management [80][81][82], economics [83,84] and education [85,86]. Furthermore, bibliometrics has captured the attention of scholars in recent years due to its usefulness for a broad understanding of research fields [66].…”

R&D and Industrial Concentration in the Indonesian Manufacturing Industry

“…Partnership between industry and university can also strengthen the R&D and introduction of technologies in the Indonesian manufacturing industry [41]. In an open innovation environment, the source of knowledge for new research can be mostly directed toward a university-company relationship [42].…”