It is argued that industry is entering a new era of “open innovation”; in which investments in internal R&D are supplemented or even substituted by extensive use of external knowledge sourcing and paths to commercialization. This paper analyses  innovation practices across Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Norway to assess its benefits and impact on business performance.

The analysis is based on Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data collated by national statistical offices throughout the European Union, Norway and Iceland. The surveys are designed to give information on the innovativeness of different sectors and regions.

This paper develops an indicator framework for examining open innovation practices and their impact on performance and revealed some interesting findings:

• Open innovation matters – open innovation practices have a strong impact on innovation performance.
• A broad based, holistic approach to open innovation may give greater returns than a deep focus on a single aspect – the overall strategies are more important than individual dimensions of open innovation.
• A strong internal capacity is still important – internal investments are still important for innovative performance, stressing that open innovation is not a substitute for internal knowledge building.

To read more:

Open Innovation Practices and Their Effect on Innovation Performance by Bernd Ebersberger, Carter Bloch, Sverre J. Herstad, Els Van De Velde, 2012, International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, World Scientific

Recommended by Prof Tugrul Daim, post by R&D Today admin.