A study of open innovation strategy of german automotive supplier:continental AG

Abstract

Open innovation strategy influenced on automobile industry with great speed as a result of technology fusion, convergence, integration, cost competitiveness and shortened PLC (Product Life Cycle).Companies put many efforts on making their ‘absorptive capacities’(Cohen and Levinthal, 1999) stronger, so that they can cope with the new ‘era of open innovation’(Chesbrough,2003) actively. They establish an internal department specializing on innovation. They adapt innovation technology to assist efficient communication between departments, and introduce external resources into companies. They also develop new technologies and products not only with companies within a same industry; customers, competitors and suppliers, but also with companies from other industries; alliances and partnerships. From this study, I argued about former research of open innovation focusing on common perspectives; organization, culture, growth strategy and intermediary. And I found out the result of open innovation implementation from companies’ product features and patent analysis. Qualitative analysis proved that open innovation is influenced on organization, culture, growth strategy, and product feature. On the other hand, quantitative analysis confirmed it impacts on patent positively. I explained how Continental AG, the German automobile components supplier takes this idea to their busi-ness. I showed that Continental started accepting open paradigm actively and making process on strategies. As a result, I assured again that open innovation is suitable for automotive industry, and I discussed how much open innovation is important for companies’ growth and survival under the fast change automobile industry.