Citation: Wang, J.; Duan, Y.; Liu, G.
A Study of Specific Open Innovation
Issues from Perspectives of Open
Source and Resources—The Series
Cases of Tesla. Sustainability 2022, 14,
142. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su14010142
Academic Editors: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias and Paolo Renna
Received: 12 October 2021
Accepted: 3 December 2021
Published: 23 December 2021
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Article
A Study of Specific Open Innovation Issues from Perspectives
of Open Source and Resources—The Series Cases of Tesla
Jianan Wang
1
, Yuzhen Duan
2,
* and Guijian Liu
3
1
Research Center for Science and Technology Innovation and Regional Development, University of Science
and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; wjn@mail.ustc.edu.cn
2
College of Economics and Management, Anhui Open University, Hefei 230022, China
3
School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China;
lgj@ustc.edu.cn
* Correspondence: dyzp88@mail.ustc.edu.cn; Tel.: +86-18756061131
Abstract:
It is difficult for enterprises to adapt to the rapidly developing market demand and increas-
ingly intense competition by relying only on internal resources to carry out innovation activities.
We identify three new issues for the Cross-Functional Consortium Families (CFCFs, CF
2
s) open
innovation model based on a cooperating network: participation of large-scale high-tech enterprises
(LHEs), impact from open source, and motivation of keeping resource independence. By studying
the series cases of Tesla, Inc. (Austin, TX, USA) cooperating with small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) through an open source CF
2
model, we examined and discussed these three issues and gave
new connotations to both open innovation and the CF
2
model from perspectives of open source and
resources. This paper also provides strategic reference for other LHEs to mitigate the dependency on
key resources and generate new key resources accepted by the environment.
Keywords:
open innovation; cross-functional consortium family; open source; resource dependence;
electric vehicles (pure electric vehicles); small and medium enterprises (SMEs); case study
1. Introduction
The concept of open innovation was first proposed by American scholar Henry Ches-
brough in 2003 [
1
]. It is an innovative model of dynamic multi-angle cooperation with
multiple partners at all stages of the innovation chain. Chesbrough believes that valuable
ideas can come from inside or outside an organization, and enterprises should consciously
use these knowledge inputs and outputs to promote internal innovation and expand the
external use market of innovation results, respectively, and at the same time, continue to
maintain these internal and external sources of the enterprise [
2
–
4
]. A brief illustration
graph (see Figure 1) is attached to describe the forming of open innovation.
Open innovation can be divided into input innovation and output innovation, product
innovation and process innovation, and technology-driven innovation and market-led
innovation [
5
]. At the specific practical level, enterprises usually adopt one or more
of the following modes in open innovation practices, such as acquire and development
(A&D), joint research and development (R&D), joint venture, and platform integration [
6
].
It should be noted that the core of open innovation lies in cooperation. Neither using
external marketing agencies in the commercialization stage nor entrusting a simple R&D
task to a professional enterprise means open innovation [
1
,
4
]. If the marketing agency is
included in the scope of open innovation, then only when the agency actively participates
in cooperation and makes a great contribution to the innovation process through market
development, market inspection, or customer demand analysis, will open innovation
happen [7].
Sustainability 2022, 14, 142. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010142 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
