What’s in it for me? Understanding value capture from open innovation in entrepreneurial and regional contexts

Open innovation (OI) is a key framework for understanding how firms collaborate beyond organizational boundaries to drive innovation. OI enables purposeful knowledge flows with external partners, such as universities, startups, and competitors. Since its introduction by Chesbrough in 2003, OI has been widely adopted across industries, emphasizing its strategic value in today’s knowledge-driven economy. However, most research has focused on value creation – how firms leverage external knowledge for innovation – while value capture remains underexplored. This thesis addresses this gap by investigating how nascent ventures and business incubators (BIs) capture value in OI settings and how regional factors shape these processes. Four research gaps motivate this thesis. First, OI research has primarily examined large firms, overlooking how nascent ventures navigate OI despite resource constraints. Second, studies often take a static view, ignoring value capture’s evolving nature. Third, prior research neglects the simultaneous capture of economic and non-economic values. Fourth, regional influences on value capture remain underexplored, despite their critical role in shaping firm interactions. To address these gaps, this thesis utilizes longitudinal data on startup activities, original survey data from German BIs, and data on regional knowledge resources to answer the central question: “In what way does open innovation contribute to value capture in entrepreneurial and regional contexts?” Chapter 2 systematically reviews 69 empirical studies on value capture in OI, identifying dominant themes and gaps. The review highlights the need for broader conceptualizations of value, greater consideration of contextual influences, adoption of dynamic perspectives, and exploration of social and environmental value capture. Chapter 3 examines how external collaborations influence the speed of completing key venture creation milestones. Using longitudinal data from 870 nascent ventures in alternative energy and ICT industries, Cox proportional hazards regression models reveal that joint R&D collaborations delay milestone achievements, while industry association memberships show no impact. These findings suggest that while collaboration offers benefits, it may also divert resources and slow progress, emphasizing the need for venture-specific collaboration strategies. Chapter 4 explores how BIs capture value through internal and external openness, considering regional knowledge resources. Survey data from 122 German BIs and secondary regional data indicate that internal networking among tenants enhances value capture, while external networking does not. Moreover, high regional private knowledge resources negatively moderate external openness, suggesting that BIs in knowledge-rich regions struggle more to capture value from external collaborations. Chapter 5 investigates how BIs achieve value capture across multiple domains. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the study identifies six configurations of BI characteristics and strategic choices that enable broad value capture, highlighting the importance of aligning BI attributes with strategic considerations. Overall, this thesis advances understanding of value capture in OI by demonstrating its dynamic, context-dependent, and multi-dimensional nature. It highlights the need for tailored OI strategies that consider firm growth stages, resource availability, and regional knowledge conditions. By integrating insights from OI, entrepreneurship, and economic geography, the thesis provides a comprehensive framework for how nascent ventures and BIs can strategically leverage OI to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and regional development.