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Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues Open access
Journal Impact FactorTM (2024) 1.3 Q3
Journal Citation IndicatorTM (2024) 0.26 Q4
Received: 2025-03-11  |  Accepted: 2025-06-12  |  Published: 2025-09-30

Title

Sustainable open innovation interactions in industrial sector partnerships


Abstract

The adoption of open innovation (OI) practices emerges as a key catalyst for sustainable innovation, generating multiple organizational advantages in industrial sectors. This study examines how OI outcomes derive from the configurational effects of interconnected OI interactions. Through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) examining 48 European innovation partnerships in industrial sectors, the research identifies two distinct configurational pathways to achieve elevated sustainable innovation output: the Broad approach and Platform-targeted approach. Conversely, two configurations result in low innovation output: the Isolated and Platform-missing approaches. The study establishes that platform and complex systems engagement represents a fundamental condition for high sustainable OI output - though insufficient in isolation, the results suggest its robust connection with sustainable open innovation. The findings establish that OI outcomes depend on interaction configuration effects and present a framework for analyzing pathways to enhance OI effectiveness in industrial sectors. Additionally, the paper provides managerial guidance for optimizing sustainable innovation outputs based on distinct OI interaction strategies.


Keywords

green technology adoption, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, sustainable open innovation, innovation outcomes, industrial sectors


JEL classifications

O36 , L26 , Q55


URI

http://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/1331


DOI


Pages

95-106


Funding

This research was funded by the Gdansk University of Technology, Poland (DEC- 4/2021/IDUB/II.2/Sc) in the Scandium Programme within Excellence Initiative—Research University Programme.

This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Authors

McPhillips, Marita
Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland https://pg.edu.pl
Articles by this author in: CrossRef |  Google Scholar

Journal title

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues

Volume

13


Number

1


Issue date

September 2025


Issue DOI


ISSN

ISSN 2345-0282 (online)


Publisher

VšĮ Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, Vilnius, Lithuania

Cited

Google Scholar

Article views & downloads

HTML views: 300  |  PDF downloads: 223

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