In recent years, open innovation and intellectual property rights have become critical factors to gain superior sustainable innovation performance. However, existing literature pays little attention to different open innovation strategies and their interplay with different IP management approaches in improving sustainable innovation performance. Drawing on the contractual/non-contractual view, this study explores how external partnering and external sourcing affect sustainable innovation performance, and the moderating role of IP strategic planning and IP operation. An empirical study is performed based on an innovation survey with one sample of 764 manufacturing firms. The results show that both external partnering and external sourcing can enhance sustainable innovation performance. Moreover, both IP strategic planning and IP operation play a positive moderating role in the relationship between open innovation and sustainable innovation performance. IP operation functions well once firms engage in open innovation, while IP strategic planning functions well when firms are open to some certain extent. This study provides important implications for sustainability research and managerial practice.

Open innovation (OI) is a smart way for firms to explore new opportunities, develop new products and new processes to create value. When firms keep open to reveal knowledge for collaborating with external partners, they simultaneously protect their innovations from being copied, i.e. appropriability. The understanding of whether appropriability enables or hinders open innovation to impact innovation performance still remains inconsistent. OI can be divided into formal and informal OI. Specifically, formal OI is based on contractual agreements, informal OI is involved in non-contractual and unplanned knowledge exchange. The different dimensions of OI may impact innovation performance differently when interact with appropriability. It is necessary to study how the interplay between formal/informal OI and appropriability impact innovation performance. An empirical study is performed based on an innovation survey with a sample of 764 manufacturing firms. The results suggest that both formal and informal OI enhance innovation performance, and informal OI is found to exert a stronger impact on innovation performance compared to formal OI. The interaction between formal OI and appropriability enhances innovation performance. In contrast, the combination of informal OI and appropriability reduces innovation performance.