Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between open innovation (OI) and radical and incremental innovation success in knowledge-based companies. The company’s human resources and organizational learning capability are considered as the fundamental nexus of this relationship.Design/methodology/approach: At the conceptual level, the paper analyzes the relationships between dynamic capabilities and OI and between OI and innovation success. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to study how innovation is implemented in 29 companies.Findings: FsQCA identifies combinations of factors that facilitate incremental innovations. These combinations reveal the path to implementing company policies that enable incremental innovation and foster radical innovation.Research limitations/implications: The nature of the study sample means that the findings should be generalized with precaution. The most valuable implication is the identification of combinations of factors that help companies manage innovation.Originality/value: Scarce literature links organizational learning factors and OI to different types of innovation. The use of fsQCA to analyze the cases also marks a breakthrough in the innovation literature.