Making open innovation happen: The Loccioni case

Bridging family firms and open innovation literatures, this paper explores the activities and capabilities that allow a family firm to achieve a fit between the distinctive characteristics of this governance archetype and the open innovation processes. From the literature reviewed, a theoretical framework that links family firms' idiosyncratic characteristics and three types of open innovation barriers (namely cognitive, intra- and inter-organizational barriers) is introduced. Through an in-depth, illustrative and exploratory case study on Loccioni Group (an Italian high tech family firm), the paper describes how a family firm has been able to reach a fit between its family firm characteristics and its open innovation process. From the data analyses, three main capabilities, namely imprinting capability, orchestrating capability and relational capability, emerged as important to successfully implement open innovation in the context of family firms.