Open Innovation: Current Status and Research Opportunities

Abstract

Interest in open innovation (OI) as a field of research has grown exponentially since the phrase was coined by Chesbrough (2003), with numerous articles, special issues, books and conference sessions. Various reviews of the literature have summarized prior work, offered new frameworks and identified opportunities for future research. Here we summarize these opportunities, which include more research on outbound OI, the role of open innovation in services, and network forms of collaboration such as consortia, communities, ecosystems and platforms. Research should also examine the use of OI by small, new and not-for-profit organizations, as well as the linkage of individual actions and motivations to open innovation. Other opportunities include better measuring the costs, benefits, antecedents, mediators and moderators of the effects of OI on performance, and understanding why and how OI is rejected, abandoned or fails. Finally, we consider how OI can be better linked to prior theoretical research, including topics such as absorptive capacity, user innovation, resources, dynamic capabilities, business models and the definition of the firm.

Keywords: open innovation, business models, innovation strategy