Open Innovations and International Collaboration in the Context of Emerging Economies

In this paper we examine how firms perform open innovation in the context of an emerging economy. Specifically, we investigate how Jordanian pharmaceutical firms collaborate internationally, over a period of time, for open innovations and how this influences their innovation performance. The research is based on four detailed case studies of leading firms. We find that participating in international collaboration has a positive influence on open innovation performance, but only when the form of collaboration is highly integrated and the internal R&D can absorb and adapt innovation. In particular, the greater the degree of open innovation, the higher the innovation performance. Internal R&D and external innovation strategies are found to complement each other, demonstrating that a strategy of open innovation is not a substitute for internal capabilities, but rather a development path to developing higher innovation performance.