Advancing a Typology of Open Innovation

Abstract

Interest in the concept of open innovation (OI) has increased during recent years; yet, this line of inquiry remains limited due to the lack of a more comprehensive conceptual framework. As a first step toward a unifying framework, we provide a critical review of previous research on the conceptualization, antecedents, and consequences of OI. We then offer a typology describing four OI strategies: (i) innovation seeker, (ii) innovation provider, (iii) intermediary, and (iv) open innovator, which emerge through unique combinations of sources of innovation, firm attributes, and mechanisms of inter-organizational exchange, and produce varying outcomes. Finally, we discuss our typology's implications for theory and practice, and advance potential research avenues.

Open innovation in the food and beverage industry

“…Researchers who have reviewed the emerging findings in OI (e.g., Dahlander and Gann, 2010;Gianiodis et al, 2010;Huizingh, 2011;Lichtenthaler, 2011) have pointed out that it is a broad concept and that most studies distinguish between inbound and outbound open innovation activities.…”

Customer Integration in New Product Development: A Literature Review Concerning the Appropriateness of Different Customer Integration Methods to Attain Customer Knowledge

“…Due to its importance regarding the progression and the eventual success of enterprises, innovation is an intensively researched area (Gianiodis et al 2010). Since the involvement of customers in innovation processes has gained greater importance over the years, much research has been conducted concerning various customer involvement methods.…”

“…Drawing from the sample of articles from the first stage, subsequently, in the second stage, we enlarged our search by using forward and backward citation indices. We continued this procedure until we identified an exhaustive set of studies (Gianiodis et al 2010). Concerning the timeframe, we searched the literature from 1980 up to 2011, since the involvement of customers in the innovation process started to attract interest in the academic business literature from about the 1980s (see e.g., Rosenblad-Wallin 1985).…”

“…First, concerning the identified research articles, we solely included papers published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, since the terms customer involvement, customer integration, and especially open innovation, have gained major attraction in the popular press and other nonacademic print media (Gianiodis et al, 2010). We then analysed each paper and book, including only those which explicitly addressed methods involving customers in the innovation process.…”

Business Models for Open Innovation: From Collaboration to Incorporation

“…a total closed behaviour, to "active buy, active sell" when both inbound and outbound activities are relevant. Gianiodis et al (2010) defined four models for open firms: "innovation seekers" who buy technology from outside, "innovation providers" selling their own technology, "intermediaries" between the first two categories and "open innovators" being capable to act as both innovation seekers to fill technology gaps and innovation providers to divest a particular technological trajectory. Dahlander and Gann (2010) add to the inbound vs. outbound dimension the pecuniary vs. nonpecuniary nature of OI activities, defining two forms of inbound innovationacquiring and sourcing -and two types of outbound innovation -selling and revealing.…”