Open innovation ecosystems

Abstract

Defined as a community of hierarchically independent, yet interdependent heterogeneous actors around a focal firm who facilitate innovation through cross-boundary knowledge flows, the open innovation ecosystem extends scholarly understanding of open innovation. In particular, the open innovation ecosystem broadens the scope of inquiry over knowledge flows from inside-in, inside-out, coupled, and outside-in modes of open innovation to include an outside-out mode. In doing so, open innovation ecosystem extends the literature on innovation ecosystems more generally, as well as providing a powerful new analytical perspective for open innovation scholars.