Open innovation: A new classification and its impact on firm performance in innovative SMEs

This paper attempts to deepen understanding of the relationship between open innovation (OI) and firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on survey data from 306 Korean innovative SMEs, the results of this study show that: (1) broad and intensive engagement in OI and cooperation with external partners are positively associated with firm performance; (2) technology and market-oriented OI modes (Joint R&D, user involvement and open sourcing), involving relatively low level of changes, can positively contribute to performance enhancement; and (3) innovative SMEs benefit from working with non-competing partners, such as customers, consultancy/intermediaries and public research institutes. This work has broadened the evidence available on SMEs’ OI adoption and has proposed a new way to study OI adoption and implementation.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from FEUP Edições via http://feupedicoes.fe.up.pt/journals/index.php/IJMAI/article/view/55/8

Leveraging Open Innovation to improve society

Open Innovation (OI) is an approach which describes a purposive attempt to draw together knowledge from different contributors to develop and exploit innovation. It has become clear that OI directly benefits organisations' economic performance and resilience, but researchers, practitioners, and policy makers became also convinced that OI might be the way forward to tackle the world's most pressing societal challenges, representing unresolved Grand Challenges, which can only be weathered by diverse sets of collaborative partners that join forces. Although anecdotal evidence points at how OI practices can be employed to achieve societal impact not only in private firms but also in public organisations, very little understanding exists-beyond anecdotal-to link OI to societal impact. This special issue has the ambition to start the discussion and establish a framework as the stepping stone to tackle this complex research gap

Arthroscopic treatment of a medial meniscal cyst using a posterior trans-septal approach: a case report

Arthroscopic partial menisectomy followed by cyst decompression is currently recommended for treatment of a meniscal cyst. However, it is doubtful whether partial menisectomy should be performed on cysts communicating with the joint in cases without a meniscal tear on its surface since meniscal function will be sacrificed. In this report, a meniscal cyst arising from the posterior horn of the medial meniscus without meniscal tear on its surface was resected using an arthroscopic posterior trans-septal approach. A 59 year-old male presented to our hospital with popliteal pain when standing up after squatting down. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a multilobulated meniscal cyst arising from the posterior horn of the medial meniscus extending to the posterior septum with a grade 2 meniscal tear by Mink's classification. The medial meniscus was intact on the surface on arthroscopic examination. The meniscal cyst and posterior septum were successfully resected using a posterior trans-septal approach without harming the meniscus. This is the first report on a meniscal cyst being resected using an arthroscopic posterior trans-septal approach with a 9-month follow-up period

Probabilistic Analysis of Optimization Problems on Generalized Random Shortest Path Metrics

Simple heuristics often show a remarkable performance in practice for optimization problems. Worst-case analysis often falls short of explaining this performance. Because of this, "beyond worst-case analysis" of algorithms has recently gained a lot of attention, including probabilistic analysis of algorithms. The instances of many optimization problems are essentially a discrete metric space. Probabilistic analysis for such metric optimization problems has nevertheless mostly been conducted on instances drawn from Euclidean space, which provides a structure that is usually heavily exploited in the analysis. However, most instances from practice are not Euclidean. Little work has been done on metric instances drawn from other, more realistic, distributions. Some initial results have been obtained by Bringmann et al. (Algorithmica, 2013), who have used random shortest path metrics on complete graphs to analyze heuristics. The goal of this paper is to generalize these findings to non-complete graphs, especially Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graphs. A random shortest path metric is constructed by drawing independent random edge weights for each edge in the graph and setting the distance between every pair of vertices to the length of a shortest path between them with respect to the drawn weights. For such instances, we prove that the greedy heuristic for the minimum distance maximum matching problem, the nearest neighbor and insertion heuristics for the traveling salesman problem, and a trivial heuristic for the $k$-median problem all achieve a constant expected approximation ratio. Additionally, we show a polynomial upper bound for the expected number of iterations of the 2-opt heuristic for the traveling salesman problem.Comment: An extended abstract appeared in the proceedings of WALCOM 201

Probabilistic Analysis of Facility Location on Random Shortest Path Metrics

The facility location problem is an NP-hard optimization problem. Therefore, approximation algorithms are often used to solve large instances. Such algorithms often perform much better than worst-case analysis suggests. Therefore, probabilistic analysis is a widely used tool to analyze such algorithms. Most research on probabilistic analysis of NP-hard optimization problems involving metric spaces, such as the facility location problem, has been focused on Euclidean instances, and also instances with independent (random) edge lengths, which are non-metric, have been researched. We would like to extend this knowledge to other, more general, metrics. We investigate the facility location problem using random shortest path metrics. We analyze some probabilistic properties for a simple greedy heuristic which gives a solution to the facility location problem: opening the $\kappa$ cheapest facilities (with $\kappa$ only depending on the facility opening costs). If the facility opening costs are such that $\kappa$ is not too large, then we show that this heuristic is asymptotically optimal. On the other hand, for large values of $\kappa$, the analysis becomes more difficult, and we provide a closed-form expression as upper bound for the expected approximation ratio. In the special case where all facility opening costs are equal this closed-form expression reduces to $O(\sqrt[4]{\ln(n)})$ or $O(1)$ or even $1+o(1)$ if the opening costs are sufficiently small.Comment: A preliminary version accepted to CiE 201

Yangian symmetry and bound states in AdS/CFT boundary scattering

We consider the problem of boundary scattering for Y=0 maximal giant graviton branes. We show that the boundary S-matrix for the fundamental excitations has a Yangian symmetry. We then exploit this symmetry to determine the boundary S-matrix for two-particle bound states. We verify that this boundary S-matrix satisfies the boundary Yang-Baxter equations.Comment: 17 page

Beyond absorptive capacity in open innovation process: the relationships between openness, capacities and firm performance

The literature has shown that open innovation (OI) can be a winning strategy in improving firm performance. However, in order to adopt and implement it, managers need to resolve practical problems, such as understanding the role played by OI capacities and openness on firm performance. In response to these needs, this study aims to investigate the hierarchical relationships between openness, OI capacities and performance using a structural equation model approach. This paper also attempts to compare the levels of openness between firms in different industries to discover similarities and differences in OI phenomena. The analysis of data obtained from a survey of Korean firms shows significant interrelations between openness, OI capacities and firm performance. Our results go further in developing understanding of the building blocks on which successful OI is built and particularly suggest that desorptive capacity which underpins the out-bound OI process, is in turn strongly supported by knowledge management capacity. It is hoped that the results of this study can enrich our understanding of the OI mechanism *and provide managerial and policy implications.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2016.118173

Dynamic capabilities and economic crises: Has openness enhanced a firm's performance in an economic downturn?

Many studies have attempted to investigate the potential benefits of open innovation. However, the long-term effects of openness have yet to be demonstrated, even if few researchers hypothesized that high openness could increase firms’ dynamic capabilities and hence their resilience in the face of adversities, such economic downturns. Hence, this article attempts to investigate this dynamic relationship between openness and firm performance with particular considerations addressing the recent financial crisis in 2008. Based upon the UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS) panel data collected between 2006 and 2012, this study finds evidence that supports the positive influence of openness on long-term firm performance. The results show that (i) increasing a firm's openness is an effective way of enhancing its dynamic capability and hence its resilience, and (ii) of all the various configurations of openness, the collaboration with partners outside the firm's value chain and international partners has the highest impact on turnover recovery, as they will increase the chances of acquiring newer knowledge, which in turn will help firms to identify new opportunities to achieve sustainable growth. The findings of this article have some practical implications for managers and policymakers

Understanding the human side of openness: The fit between open innovation modes and CEO characteristics

In small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where typically the decision-making process is highly centralised, important decisions, such as open innovation (OI) adoption, will be strongly influenced by the characteristics of their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Pointing the attention to the strategic leadership and human elements, this paper sheds light on the micro-foundation of OI by emphasising the role that the personal traits of key individuals in innovation. OI adoption could result in the enactment of several OI modes - each representing an opportunity of potential change (of market, of technology or/and of the organisation) - and this paper attempts to examine the relationships between the CEO characteristics and each of the OI modes. Our analysis, using Korean SME data, shows that CEOs' positive attitude, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), patience and education can play important roles in facilitating OI in SMEs. However, this paper also observed that the effects of CEO characteristics on OI adoption were differently configured according to the nature of each OI mode, for example, CEOs' patience and EO had different impacts depending on the degree of uncertainty in the OI mode. This suggest that OI must be understood as a wide innovation spectrum, and, to increase opportunities for successful OI adoption, CEOs have to attempt to compensate for characteristics they may lack by recruiting appropriate complementary top managements. The research has practical implications for CEOs and policy makers who are interested in enhancing competitiveness of SMEs

Quantum finite-size effects for dyonic magnons in the AdS_4 x CP^3

We compute quantum corrections to finite-size effects for various dyonic giant magnons in the AdS_4 x CP^3 in two different approaches. The off-shell algebraic curve method is used to quantize the classical string configurations in semi-classical way and to compute the corrections to the string energies. These results are compared with the F-term L\"uscher formula based on the S-matrix of the AdS_4 / CFT_3. The fact that the two results match exactly provides another stringent test for the all-loop integrability conjecture and the exact S-matrix based on it.Comment: 21 pages, No figures, corrected typos, added some reference