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11. Aping: a copy cat is possible but to a limited extent;
12. Intellectual shortage: competent personnel in theory and practice is required;
13. Money: not too little (limits possibilities) nor too much (limits sense of
creativity);
14. Price: high margins on existing offers brake to innovation need;
15. Methods: when the means becomes the end;
16. Insufficient idiocy: failure must be possible as well as trial and error
17. One reality: every level within a company has its own truth in which light the
innovation should be seen and considered; there cannot be one truth for all
levels;
18. According to Koops these 8 success factors and 17 fail factors are not only
relevant for innovation but also for change processes (15).
Adaptive organisations
Aalbers & de Valk, J. (2013) describe those organisations that embrace the open innovation
principle (Chesbrough, 2003; 2006) and use knowledge flows from outside the organisation
as adaptive organisations. Those organisations able to implement open innovation in the
normal organisation process perform better in innovation and client involvement. The main
issue is to find a proper way to define and frame ideas and knowledge provided by external
actors towards the internal innovation process (Vanhaverbeke, 2006). Gommer (2004)
advises to map relevant trends by talking to frontrunners in order to not just know the
externals of it but to understand the underlying meaning. Leadbeater (2010) encourages
conversation with users of different feather as the difference in ideas and viewpoint
enriches the ground for innovation.
According to Aalbers & de Valk, three types of ‘idea brokers’ are necessary: explorer,
connector and sponsor. The interaction of these three roles provides great opportunities to
close the gap between external knowledge needed for innovative solutions and the final
step towards a genuine adaptive organisation.
From absorptive capacity to connecting capacity
This definition is strongly related to the term ‘absorptive capacity’. Absorptive capacities
can be described as the ability of firms to recognize, assimilate and apply new knowledge
for the benefit of their business performance. These are key elements to a firm’s ability to
innovate. The nature of the concept involves three basic capacities in relation to new
knowledge: recognition of its value, its assimilation and its application for commercial
purposes (Innovation Policy Platform, 2015). As Chesbrough (2010) suggests, open
innovation poses particular challenges for SME because of their relative lack of capacity to
both seek and absorb external knowledge. Also Roper & Dundas (2015) found evidence
from studies of innovation in small and medium enterprises emphasizing the importance of
external knowledge in contributing to firms’ innovation success (Vahter, Love, and Roper,
2013). This emphasizes the role of absorptive capacity and firms’ capabilities of integrating
external and internal knowledge in successful innovation (Roper & Dundas, 2015).
In addition to the concept of absorptive abilities, the term ‘connecting capacity’ can be
added. Connecting capacity involves not only the abilities to seek and absorb external
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