Open innovation and growth in IT sector

IT services are overrepresented among high-growth innovative enterprises. The nature of innovation in IT requires knowledge search and collaboration, which together constitute the inbound open innovation (IOI) strategy. This study analyses whether the IOI strategies in IT service firms lead to different performance effects in comparison to other service and manufacturing firms. A quantile regression on multi-country data from the Community Innovation Survey indicates that innovative IT service companies share the same benefits from increased cooperation as other innovators, while displaying a strong growth dynamic compared to others. Therefore, IT service firms’ growth differential may not be related to external cooperation and knowledge sourcing.