The necessity of anterior knowledge exchange activities for technological collaboration and innovation performance improvement

The adoption of open innovation does not guarantee technological innovation. Many companies have nonetheless implemented open innovation, but success and failure are repeated in the process leading to product innovation performance. In this study, the important elements of technological collaboration, a representative type of open innovation, that can affect product innovation performance were investigated. Also, a structural equation was used to verify the technological collaboration strategy required by the Korean manufacturing industry. In particular, the perspectives on the necessities of anterior knowledge exchange activities and appropriate appropriability mechanisms were considered. The verification results of this study were as follows. First, anterior knowledge exchange activities had a positive effect on the subsequent technological collaboration and product innovation performance, and it was found that science, technology, and innovation (STI)-based knowledge was more effective. Second, increased doing, using, and interacting (DUI)-based knowledge exchange activity resulted in diminished STI-based knowledge effectiveness. Third, the application of informal appropriability mechanisms contributed positively to both technological collaboration and product innovation performance. Based on the verification results of this study, the strategic direction for maximising technological collaboration and product innovation performance was presented for Korean manufacturing companies.