Enterprise Openness and Open Innovation Performance: The Dual Mediation of Knowledge Management Capability and Organizational Learning

Against the backdrop of sustainability, open innovation has been widely adopted by various businesses. Within scholarly communities, how corporate openness affects innovation performance has also become a focal topic. Nevertheless, existing literature has not carried out an in-depth exploration of the intrinsic mechanisms that link openness to open innovation performance. To illustrate how corporate openness affects open innovation performance, this research intends to incorporate knowledge management capability and organizational learning as dual mediating variables. This study utilizes several research methods, including SEM analysis and Bootstrap testing, to confirm the relevant hypotheses. The findings reveal that openness and open innovation performance are mediated by external and internal knowledge management capability. In the same vein, the relationship between the two is also mediated by explorative learning and exploitative learning. Furthermore, two dual-chain mediating paths enable openness to improve open innovation performance, namely “external knowledge management capability—explorative learning” and “internal knowledge management capability—exploitative learning”. By establishing a chain mediation mechanism of “capability-learning-performance”, this study delivers a more holistic theoretical structure for deciphering the mechanisms that shape open innovation performance, in turn propelling theoretical advancements within this domain.