The Effect of Organizational Structure on Open Innovation: A Quadratic Equation

Open innovation has recently begun to receive increasing attention in organizational research. Studies on open innovation have emphasized the impact of organizational structure on both inbound and outbound open innovation but have tended to focus on the former. This study attempts to provide a better understanding of open innovation within the context of open source by examining 2,811 projects, especially in GitHub. The analysis results reveal that the decentralization of decision-making encourages both inbound and outbound open innovation. The impact of the decentralization of decision-making differs between inbound and outbound open innovation, a finding that both scholars and practitioners must consider.