Conclusions
In this study, the integration of management systems and open innovation are studied as two managerial drivers of innovation efficiency in pursuit of improving their performance. Using a sample of 220 Spanish companies, results suggest that IMS facilitates the enhancement of innovation efficiency while OI might provide some manageable inefficiency. Moreover, innovation efficiency allows firms to perform better in terms of the productivity in the sales of new products. This research has three main implications for the academia. Firstly, this paper measures IMS by minimizing subjectivity, as firms were not asked to assess directly their level of IMS. According to the results, IMS might be a relevant driver of innovation efficiency due to alignment of goals (Bernardo et al., 2009; Nunhes et al., 2017; Salomone, 2008) and the optimization of the human and financial resources (Abad et al., 2014; Salomone, 2008; Santos et al., 2011). Secondly, innovation efficiency means optimizing resources when producing innovation outputs, which, in turn, promote firm performance. Hence, the efforts invested in innovation seem to pay off through the optimization of resources that, consequently, benefits firms in terms of their productivity when commercializing their new products. Finally, this study evidences empirically the need of further researching into the role of OI and IMS to promote sustainable development and avoid the excessive use of resources in this process (Kennedy et al., 2017; Pacheco et al., 2017).
