Limiting factors of open innovation organizations: A case of social product development and research agenda

While open innovation organizations have grown in popularity, they hold a high failure rate. This paper identifies limiting factors that contribute to this high failure rate at three levels: strategy, process, and community. After validating and expanding these limits through a case study, the paper offers a framework identifying success factors for open innovation and their hierarchical relationships. We classified these success factors into six groups, design, implementation, technology, operation, community readiness, and community development, and their relationships into four groups, deployment, engagement, evaluation, and governance. This framework and the accompanying propositions offer a better theoretical understanding of open innovation models and provide practical recommendations toward their viability, survivability, scalability, and profitability. Lastly, the paper discusses possible research avenues for the further development of open innovation organizations. •Viability of open innovation organization depends on its business model deployment.•Survivability of open innovation organization depends on its engagement mechanisms.•Scalability of open innovation organization depends on the quality of its outcomes.•Profitability of open innovation organization depends on its co-governance.