Abandoning innovation activities and performance: The moderating role of openness

•The experience of abandoning an innovation activity can positively affect an organization's innovation performance.•The effect is contingent upon the way an organization is engaging with open innovation.•Openness has a negative effect on learning from the experience of abandoning an innovation activity.•Engaging with many different types of sources of innovation does not encourage the change of routines needed for learning.•Formal collaborations generate inertial forces which restrict learning from the experience of abandoning innovation activities.