The relationship between inbound open innovation and the innovative use of information technology by individuals in teams of start‐ups

Abstract Digital technology and artificial intelligence technology have built an open sharing environment of intellectualization. For start‐ups, which are restricted by their own limited resources, it is wise to take inbound open innovation as a strategy to get external advanced technical information quickly. However, how to match technology resources obtained from outside with the organisation's demand is still a problem for entrepreneurial teams and entrepreneurial researchers. Based on the literature review of existing research and considering entrepreneurial teams' demand to deal with the challenges, this paper firstly analyses the relationship between entrepreneurial teams' inbound open innovation strategy and the innovative use of information technology by individuals in teams of start‐ups and based on the Identity Theory to explore the mechanism of IT identity on the relationship mentioned above. Lastly, the paper further analyses two types of team authorisation (structural empowerment and psychological empowerment) that play different moderating roles in the relationship of inbound open innovation, IT identity and the innovative use of information technology by individuals in teams. Using 238 survey data from entrepreneurial teams with linear regression analysis, we found that IT identity moderates the relationship between inbound open innovation and individual new IT technology exploration positively, and team psychological empowerment has further moderated the relationship between inbound open innovation and the innovative use of information technology by individuals in teams positively, while team structure empowerment plays an inverted U‐shaped moderation. This study has certain guiding significance for entrepreneurial teams to take advantage of digitalised opportunities, and it also has important value for innovation and digitalisation research.