Abstract Based on the survey of 317 enterprises in South China, this study empirically examines the direct effect of inbound open innovation, the dual moderating effect of centralization of decision-making and intellectual property protection. The results reveal that both inbound open innovation and intellectual property protection have a significantly positive linear effect on radical innovation performance, and higher centralization of decision-making can enhance the effect which inbound open innovation has on radical innovation performance. Furthermore, intellectual property protection, centralization of decision-making and inbound open innovation have a significantly positive 3-way interaction effect on radical innovation performance, which suggests that when intellectual property protection is better, higher centralization of decision-making may bring in a stronger moderating effect of inbound open innovation on radical innovation performance.
