Organizing for open innovation: adding the human element

Abstract

Firms across industries are radically changing the way they innovate. Instead of developing new products and technologies on their own, they are increasingly embracing open innovation (OI) as a new way to create and capture value from different sources of knowledge that reside both within and across their organizational boundaries. This is evidenced by the increasing adoption of strategic OI units and specific OI professionals in firms, which supports the notion that OI is not only a buzzword but an actual phenomenon in the contemporary corporate world. However, while OI has received significant academic attention, the concept remains relatively ambiguous, and there is a limited understanding of how companies actually organize and manage OI. Furthermore, while it is individuals who enact OI strategies, studies focusing on the specific roles, responsibilities, practices and competencies of formal OI specialists remain scarce.

The purpose of this study is to explore how companies organize and formally manage OI. It combines qualitative and quantitative research designs and several research methods, including multiple case studies, content analysis and a survey. Overall, the empirical data includes interviews with 18 senior innovation managers at 10 companies, 454 survey responses and 100 job advertisements for OI positions.

The findings of this study demonstrate how companies strategically understand, adopt and organize for OI. They also identify specific, formalized OI roles and responsibilities that individuals tend to adopt and suggest organizational practices and mechanisms that can empower employees to facilitate OI within intra- and inter-firm boundaries. In addition, the findings reveal challenges in OI that are associated with cultural differences and highlight possible solutions to overcome them. Collectively, the findings contribute to OI and knowledge management research and provide new insights for practitioners on how to organize and manage OI.