How to promote open innovation in restricted situations? Digital transformation perspective

Purpose In the context of innovation-driven development strategy, open innovation has become an important way for enterprises to gain competitive advantages on the path of innovation and development. However, with the increasing competition, enterprises' open innovation is restricted by some constraints. How to promote open innovation in the restricted situations has become an existing research gap. Based on the perspective of digital transformation, this paper discusses how to promote the open innovation of enterprises under the restricted situations and find its breakthrough path, and analyzes the moderating effect of innovation persistence and political relevance. Design/methodology/approach Due to the complexity and confidentiality of military–civilian integration enterprises, they have become typical innovation-restricted enterprises. In this study, it selects a-share listed companies in the field of military–civilian integration in China in 2016–2020 as the research sample, and uses the two-way fixed-effect model to analyze the proposed variables. Finally, the robustness of the results in this paper is verified by a series of robustness tests and endogeneity tests. Findings The results show that digital transformation facilitates open innovation in military–civil integration enterprises, and that innovation persistence and political relevance positively moderate the relationship between the two. Further, digital transformation can promote open innovation in military–civil integration enterprises by easing the financing constraints and reducing information asymmetry. Innovation persistence has a more pronounced positive moderating effect among civilian-to-military and SMEs, and digital transformation of firms in the South has a negative effect on open innovation, but innovation persistence and political relevance dampen this negative effect. Originality/value Previous studies on the restrictions of open innovation or its dark side are mostly case studies and qualitative research. In contrast, the superiority and novelty of this study is in the form of a typical innovation-restricted enterprises “civil-military integration enterprise” as the research sample, based on the perspective of digital transformation, through empirical analysis method to explore how to better implementation of open innovation in the restricted situations. The findings of the study can not only enrich the application of digital transformation and open innovation theory, but also provide practical guidance for military–civil integration innovation in restricted situations.