Uncovering the Relations between Customer Knowledge Management and Open – Innovation – A Cluster Analysis

The innovation capacities of today’s companies are the basis of their adaptability and sustainability. Knowledge, information, and data are increasingly important resources. The ability to attract and internalize external knowledge in the company and the involvement of clients, partners, consumers, and other stakeholders are essentially the basis of open innovation. The present study brings to the attention of the academic and business environments a correlation and connectivity between two insufficiently explored constructs: open innovation and Customer knowledge management. The study is based on a bibliometric analysis that uses the VOSviewer software to analyze the SCOPUS and Web of Science databases. The present research sets an exploratory framework for the two constructs. It creates a map of future research, clearly establishing the connection between the terms and the potential advantages for the business environment. The work starts from the definition and evolutionary understanding of the terms, reaching an exploratory bibliometric analysis that establishes the conceptual intersection points between the terms and finally sets a concluding framework regarding the evolution of relationships. The importance of exploiting external knowledge resources represents the metric force that generated this approach. More than that, the work fills the gap found in the literature regarding the exploitation of the relationship between the two concepts, something also highlighted by the small number of works included in the analysis. This work’s contribution expands the academic point of view regarding the existing conceptual relationship between the constructs and the identification of methods and possibilities of exploitation of external knowledge for the benefit of the business environment.