Strategic external deployment of intellectual assets
Kutvonen, Antero (2012-12-19)
Väitöskirja
Kutvonen, Antero
19.12.2012
Lappeenranta University of Technology
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-349-9
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-349-9
Tiivistelmä
Globalization, pervasiveness of technology and ICT, and the buildup of information societies
and policies have lead to a growing abundance of knowledge and highly educated labour
supply that is distributed widely. These changes have shifted the foundation of
competitiveness to valuable knowledge resources which are now distributed widely across
the globe, across actors in the value chain and across educated individuals in multiple
organizations. Against this backdrop, the paradigm of open innovation (OI) has emerged as a
new response to managing the increased amount of boundary-spanning knowledge flows in
and out of the innovation process. The outbound mode of open innovation, that is to say the
external exploitation of knowledge assets outside of the firm’s own products and services, has
been the less-researched aspect of the concept and so far typically seen as concerning the outlicensing
of unused technological assets to generate additional revenue. Given that open
innovation is essentially a framework for the holistic structuring and management of crossboundary
knowledge flows to improve a firm’s innovative performance, a close integration to
corporate strategy seems imperative in order to fully benefit from it. Integrating open
innovation to strategy leads to elevating its role from a fringe activity to a central innovation
management issue that needs to be systematically managed. Building a structure that allows
effective management necessitates linking open innovation activities to each phase of the
innovation process. Previously, the connection between outbound OI and the earlier stages of
innovation has not been studied. The thesis finds that connecting outbound OI to the entire
innovation process of the firm, including the fuzzy front end of innovation, is critical for
attaining strategic objectives and to the successful implementation and management of the
activity. The practical purpose for the research is to enable companies to fully utilize their
potential for outbound open innovation and to be able to implement and manage it from a
strategic standpoint.
and policies have lead to a growing abundance of knowledge and highly educated labour
supply that is distributed widely. These changes have shifted the foundation of
competitiveness to valuable knowledge resources which are now distributed widely across
the globe, across actors in the value chain and across educated individuals in multiple
organizations. Against this backdrop, the paradigm of open innovation (OI) has emerged as a
new response to managing the increased amount of boundary-spanning knowledge flows in
and out of the innovation process. The outbound mode of open innovation, that is to say the
external exploitation of knowledge assets outside of the firm’s own products and services, has
been the less-researched aspect of the concept and so far typically seen as concerning the outlicensing
of unused technological assets to generate additional revenue. Given that open
innovation is essentially a framework for the holistic structuring and management of crossboundary
knowledge flows to improve a firm’s innovative performance, a close integration to
corporate strategy seems imperative in order to fully benefit from it. Integrating open
innovation to strategy leads to elevating its role from a fringe activity to a central innovation
management issue that needs to be systematically managed. Building a structure that allows
effective management necessitates linking open innovation activities to each phase of the
innovation process. Previously, the connection between outbound OI and the earlier stages of
innovation has not been studied. The thesis finds that connecting outbound OI to the entire
innovation process of the firm, including the fuzzy front end of innovation, is critical for
attaining strategic objectives and to the successful implementation and management of the
activity. The practical purpose for the research is to enable companies to fully utilize their
potential for outbound open innovation and to be able to implement and manage it from a
strategic standpoint.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [1037]