Integrating open innovation and business process innovation: Insights from a large-scale study on a transition economy

•External open innovation is integrated with internal business process innovation.•A new theoretical model of “integrative innovation” is proposed and verified.•A survey of 224 companies from a small transition economy confirms the model.•Innovation is enabled by valuable relationships rather than monetary investments.•The significance of research findings is discussed in the context of transition economies.

Open innovation and business process innovation (BPI) have been investigated by their respective research communities for decades. However, the important relationship between externally focused open innovation and internally implemented BPI is currently unexplored, particularly in transition economies. The main purpose of this study is to contribute toward closing this important research gap. This study describes the main findings of a research study of innovation practices of 224 companies operating in a transition economy.We propose and validate a comprehensive model of integrative innovation and offer some important insights into the relationship between externally focused R&D collaboration and a firm's internal process innovation.