Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software

Open innovation is a powerful framework encompassing the generation, capture, and employment of intellectual property at the firm level. We identify three fundamental challenges for firms in applying the concept of open innovation: finding creative ways to exploit internal innovation, incorporating external innovation into internal development, and motivating outsiders to supply an ongoing stream of external innovations. This latter challenge involves a paradox, why would firms spend money on R&D efforts if the results of these efforts are available to rival firms? To explore these challenges, we examine the activity of firms in open‐source software to support their innovation strategies. Firms involved in open‐source software often make investments that will be shared with real and potential rivals. We identify four strategies firms employ – pooled R&D/product development, spinouts, selling complements and attracting donated complements – and discuss how they address the three key challenges of open innovation. We conclude with suggestions for how similar strategies may apply in other industries and offer some possible avenues for future research on open innovation.     

Stochastic rationing by waiting list

In a stochastic queueing environment in which participants maximize expected utility, changes in queueing parameters have predictable impacts on waiting list size. For example, a decrease in mean service time cannot produce a decrease in waiting list size when arrival rate and mean service time are functionally independent.     

Semiparametric estimation of a censored regression model with an unknown transformation of the dependent variable

This paper presents a method for estimating the model Λ(Y)=min(β′X+U, C), where Y is a scalar, Λ is an unknown increasing function, X is a vector of explanatory variables, β is a vector of unknown parameters, U has unknown cumulative distribution function F, and C is a censoring threshold. It is not assumed that Λ and F belong to known parametric families; they are estimated nonparametrically. This model includes many widely used models as special cases, including the proportional hazards model with unobserved heterogeneity. The paper develops n^1/2-consistent, asymptotically normal estimators of Λ and F. Estimators of β that are n^1/2-consistent and asymptotically normal already exist. The results of Monte Carlo experiments illustrate the finite-sample behavior of the estimators.     

The Impact of a Rising Dollar on the U.S. Economy

Since June 2014, the dollar has strengthened dramatically. The effects of such a rise—and its likely continuation—on the U.S. economy are many, complex, and often obscure and could affect a number of business decisions. In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of a 10 percent rise in the value of the dollar against all other currencies through the use of a macroeconometric model. They examine direct effects and the full range of indirect effects and find that through a number of negative feedback the indirect effects will significantly offset the direct effects on GDP, interest rates, and many other macroeconomic variables—including the value of the dollar itself.     

Private equity,investment and financial constraints: firm-level evidence for France and the United Kingdom

This paper analyses the effects of private equity firms on the investments and financial constraints of their portfolio firms. We use dynamic panel data techniques to account for unobserved firm heterogeneity and endogeneity of private equity backed buyouts and expansion financing, and apply our framework to a large panel data set of firms in the UK and France. In both countries, we find that portfolio firms are characterized by higher investment levels and fewer financial constraints after expansion financing. In the UK, private equity backed buyouts outperform non-private equity backed firms in terms of both indicators.     

Deforestation,foreign demand and export dynamics in Indonesia

This paper presents a dynamic, heterogeneous firm model of investment in environmental abatement and exporting. The model highlights the interaction between firms' environmental investment and export decisions on the evolution of productivity and export demand in timber manufacturing industries. The model is structurally estimated using Indonesian timber manufacturing data that captures firm-level variation in environmental investment and export behavior. The results suggest that environmental abatement has little impact on productivity dynamics, but does encourage growth in export demand. Counterfactual experiments quantify the impact of policy change on trade and abatement decisions.     

The Effects of Perceived Fairness on Customer Responses to Retailer SST Push Policies

Many retailers are implementing policies that encourage customer adoption of self-service technology (SST) offerings, such as self-checkout lanes, in order to enhance profitability. Instead of explicitly forcing customers to use SST, retailers create situations in which patrons are subtly pushed toward SST adoption. The authors examine the effects of fairness perceptions of these SST “push” policies on relationships between established antecedents of SST adoption and customer behavioral intentions toward the provider in a retail context. The results suggest fairness perceptions exert a significant influence on the relationships between these antecedents and customer patronage, future spending, and negative word of mouth intentions. Consistent findings across both users and nonusers of SST underscore the importance of fairness perceptions in the context of retailer SST push policies.     

Non-Conscious Influences on Consumer Choice

While consumer choice research has dedicated considerable research attention to aspects of choice that are deliberative and conscious, only limited attention has been paid to aspects of choice that occur outside of conscious awareness. We review relevant research that suggests that consumer choice is a mix of conscious and nonconscious influences, and argue that the degree to which nonconscious influences affect choice is much greater than many choice researchers believe. Across a series of research domains, these influences are found to include stimulus that are not consciously perceived by the consumer, nonconscious downstream effects of a consciously perceived stimuli or thought process, and decision processes that occur entirely outside of awareness.     

Choice Based on Goals

This article introduces a goal-based view of consumer choice in which (1) choice is influenced by three classes of goals (consumption goals, criterion goals, and process goals), (2) goals are cognitively represented, and (3) the impact of a goal on choice depends on its activation. For each class of goals, we discuss how goal activation is influenced by direct (subconscious) goal priming, by spreading activation from choice options, from other goals, and from the context, and by goal (non-)achievement. Opportunities for modeling goal-based choice, the integration of emotions in a theory of goal-based choice, and relationships with dual-process theories of decision making are discussed. An expanded version of this paper is available from the first author.     

Positively deviant: Identity work through B Corporation certification

Despite widespread and growing public interest in sustainability certifications, many social entrepreneurs have opted not to obtain such certification. Drawing on recent studies highlighting the salience of both gender and context in shaping differences among social enterprises, we develop an identity-based framework for explaining heterogeneity in the adoption of sustainability certification. We test our ideas using a sample of 1251 U.S. firms obtained from B Lab, the organization responsible for assessing Certified B Corporations. Our results show that woman-owned businesses are twice as likely to qualify for certification and more than three times as likely to certify. Moreover, this propensity to certify is amplified in contexts where sustainability norms are weak, mimetic pressure to obtain sustainability certification is low, and woman-owned businesses are less prevalent. These findings support our central theoretical argument that certification differences are due to actors' efforts to engage in identity work, strengthening their sense of self-coherence and distinctiveness by way of this authentication process. We conclude by highlighting our contributions to existing scholarship on social entrepreneurship, identity work, and certification adoption, as well as strategic implications for B Lab.