Dismissing uncertainties about open innovation constraints to organizational agility in emerging markets: is knowledge hiding a perfect storm?

Purpose As a key driver of organizational agility, open innovation allows for improving time-to-market and complexity, which are the mechanisms that most significantly lower the risk of knowledge expropriation in emerging markets. For this reason, there is concern about the negative impacts of hiding knowledge in the context of inter-organizational collaborative work. Therefore, the research goal is to analyze the moderating effect of the three types of knowledge hiding (playing dumb, evasive hiding and rationalized hiding) on the relationship between open innovation (both inbound and outbound) and agility. Design/methodology/approach The research model was tested with survey data from a sample of 248 companies located in an emerging country, mostly from sectors of high turbulence in demand and technology. Findings None of the three types of knowledge hiding has a negative effect on the relationship between open innovation and agility. Surprisingly, evasive hiding has a positive and significant effect, specifically on the relationship between inbound open innovation and agility. Originality/value The study contributes to the discussion on the contradictory influence of knowledge hiding. Although the presence of knowledge hiding in business relationships with their external partners is undeniable, this research makes clear that, when faced with the particular need to be agile, businesses recognize that the benefits of open innovation in terms of time-to-market improvement and complexity outweigh the protectionism underlying hiding. Moreover, the study results suggest evasive hiding is essential for the inbound process to use time effectively and avoid wasting it in discussions that do not promote agility.