Open innovation and company culture: Internal openness makes the difference

- Companies often neglect the actual internal openness of employees.
- Five main forms: closed, doing, using, interacting, outsourcing, extramural, proactive
- Closed innovation behavior is by far the most widespread.
- Proactive innovation behavior remains an exception in the overall sample.

There is a common agreement that innovation is driven by the people that form the heart of any company's innovation activity. Still, people perform innovation in a special institutional environment characterized by rules and regulations that might support or impede innovation. The open innovation paradigm expects companies to engage in external relationships for innovation; however companies often neglect the actual internal openness of employees, which is an absolute must before partnering with external partners. The article finds that company innovation culture comes in five main forms: closed innovation (driven by internal capabilities); doing, using, interacting (ad hoc processes, no link to knowledge providers); outsourcing innovation capabilities; extramural innovation, no matching internal culture/procedures and proactive innovation (match of internal and external openness). The empirical analysis shows that the closed innovation behavior is by far the most widespread among Russian companies whereas proactive innovation behavior remains an exception in the overall sample.