Developing a Sales Model Based on Open Innovation in the Building Industry (Case Study: Iranian Atlas Construction Group)

Due to the recession in all industries, and in particular in the country's construction industry, almost all construction industry activists including a group of construction companies cannot sell construction units in the usual way and are looking for new ways to sell their goods and services. Therefore, considering that the concept of open innovation-based sales has been a new concept in sales literature and very few sales scholars investigated the issue based on open innovation concepts, the development of this concept will contribute to the enrichment of the literature as well as fill the operational gap for the related research and industry activists, and will provide operational solutions for the sale of building units. Accordingly, this research has two key objectives helping the sales literature to increase the perception of researchers and academicians of open source sales and its key elements through the development and improvement of this concept, as well as identifying the relationship between open innovation components and sales. This inductive research is applied in nature based on qualitative methods. This research is a field study conducted on a particular case. Because this study seeks to develop a new theory and enhance the knowledge for open innovation-based sales, it aims to explore the issue through semi-structured interviews. Also, data derived theory has been used by the researchers. The statistical population of this research consists of Atlas Iranian construction companies. Data collection and analysis were carried out simultaneously and the data were analyzed based on constant comparative analysis using Straight-Corbin method. Based on the categorizations made in this study, 260 codes were classified into 55 concepts and 33 main categories. The data analysis procedure led to the creation of a theoretical model which includes the causal conditions, background conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and outcomes that describe the main issue of "open innovation sales". The results of this research showed that open innovation sales dimensions can be categorized into thirty four main categories. The present study identifies and introduces new and more comprehensive set of methods that can be used to facilitate sales in the construction industry in conditions of market downturn, as a source of sales based on open innovation. The research addressed the categories related to ideas and technologies within the company, ideas and technology outside the company, knowledge sharing, dividing the sales promotion risk, and redefining the business model. In this research, open innovation categories in the building industry including the use of competitor knowledge, the use of rivals, customization of products based on customers’ preferences, investment in research, and the purchase or sale of licenses that have not been introduced in the sales models so far.