For those with a professional or academic interest in open innovation, autopoiesis, innovation management and business models, absorptive capacity and dynamic capability in an empirical case the abstract is included below:
Abstract: This paper examines how firms can implement inbound open innovation through a business model based on autopoiesis—viewed as a self-organizing and self-renewing system. Drawing on systems theory, it introduces a framework that connects open innovation with core concepts such as autonomy, absorptive capacity, and dynamic capabilities.
Using a longitudinal case study of a multinational chemical firm, the study shows how decentralized teams and customer collaboration support faster and more adaptive innovation. The autopoietic business model enables firms to manage external knowledge effectively while maintaining internal coherence.
The findings offer practical guidance on how firms can redesign leadership, structures, and systems to support sustainable innovation. This paper contributes to innovation management by showing how self-organizing models can balance openness with stability and outlines future research opportunities for scaling such models across different organizational contexts.
The paper will be published in the conference proceedings (level 1). If you’d like a copy, feel free to reach out: john-erik.andreassen@hiof.no