How to bridge the gap between innovation niches and exploratory and exploitative innovations in open innovation ecosystems

In the context of open innovation business environments, more and more firms are joining together and creating innovation ecosystems to improve their innovation capabilities by interacting with heterogeneous actors. Yet, there has been little research that has examined the mechanisms regarding how and when firms within such open innovation ecosystems could enhance their innovation capabilities. To address this gap, we propose and empirically test a conceptual framework for understanding the internal mechanisms and contextual conditions in the relationship between a firm’s innovation niche and its exploratory and exploitative innovations. Using a sample of 327 Chinese manufacturing firms in strategic emerging industries, we find that a firm’s innovation niche within an open innovation ecosystem has a positive impact on its exploratory and exploitative innovations, and we demonstrate that these relationships are mediated by the innovation ecological network. Additionally, we find that the innovation ecological environment moderates the relationship between a firm’s innovation niche and the innovation ecological network. Furthermore, we show that the innovation ecological environment moderates the indirect effects of a firm’s innovation niche on its exploratory and exploitative innovations via the innovation ecological network. These results not only enrich the research on open innovation ecosystems but also provide important managerial implications for implementing innovation niche initiatives to foster firms’ exploratory and exploitative innovations.