When is interorganizational learning beneficial for inbound open innovation of ventures? A contingent role of entrepreneurial orientation

Inbound open innovation for purposive knowledge acquisition and generation is a viable strategy for new ventures to fill out internal knowledge gaps through external innovation networks. However, the smallness and newness liabilities to which the firms are subject can restrict their potential to take increased innovation returns of inbound-oriented activities. Against this practical issue, we test assumptions that employing interorganizational learning (IOL) is beneficial for ventures to achieve better inbound open innovation performance and that the performing-by-learning mechanism is contingent on their entrepreneurial posture for productive knowledge utilization, referring to entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Findings from an analysis of 218 inbound open innovation projects of ventures demonstrate that firms showing higher exploitative and exploratory IOL practices enjoy greater technological and business performance, corresponding to the value creation and capture of inbound open innovation. Furthermore, EO serves as a significant moderator to leverage the advantages of exploratory learning for technological performance and exploitative learning for business performance. This study contributes to the literature by adding original findings that the entrepreneurial mode of interactions at the external innovation networks is essential for ventures to orchestrate the distinctive yet reciprocal functions of exploitative and exploratory learning in capitalizing on network-available knowledge. In practice, institutionalizing the IOL–EO nexus in the firms’ inbound-oriented activities legitimizes the contingent rationality for increased innovation returns in technology and business.