Managing openness in high complexity innovation projects: Evidence from the automotive sector

Despite prior conceptual work arguing that complex innovation projects should be managed within the boundaries of the focal firm (i.e., closed innovation), recent empirical evidence shows that a variety of complex innovative products have been developed through the collaborative efforts between the focal firm and its business partners (i.e., open innovation). To address this lack of congruity between theory and practice as well as the dearth of project-level research on open innovation, this paper aims to empirically explore the relationship between project complexity and open innovation. Drawing upon a qualitative case study involving a pioneering electric vehicle manufacturer, this study explores the extensive B2B collaborations involved in the development of complex products and system integration efforts that span three different stages (i.e., ex-ante integration, co-development, and ex-post integration). The study aims to shift the current consensus in the innovation literature that either negates or does not explicitly accept the possibility of openness for complex projects towards acknowledging, analyzing and explaining the management of open innovation for complex projects