Open Innovation in Practice: An Analysis of Strategic Approaches to Technology Transactions

TLDR

Open innovation, defined by firms actively commercializing external technology and engaging closely with their environment, contrasts with traditional closed approaches and has been largely explored only through theory and case studies, with limited focus on acquisition or exploitation. The study adopts an integrated view, treating external technology acquisition and exploitation as the two main dimensions of a firm's open‑innovation strategy. Using a questionnaire of 154 mid‑ and large‑sized firms, the authors cluster companies into groups that pursue homogeneous open‑innovation strategies. This large‑scale analysis is the first to describe the current state of open innovation in practice and to identify firms’ strategic approaches to technology transactions across the innovation process.

Abstract

In addition to acquiring external technology, firms have started to actively commercialize technological knowledge, which represents the opposite type of technology transactions. The strong interactions with a firm's environment contrast the traditional closed approaches to innovation. Therefore, this new paradigm has been termed open innovation. Prior research into this field has mostly been limited to theoretical considerations and case studies. More general work has usually focused either on external technology acquisition or on external technology exploitation. Accordingly, I take an integrated perspective and regard the two types of technology transactions as the main dimensions of a firm's strategic approach to open innovation. Drawing on these dimensions, I use data from a questionnaire-based study of 154 middle and large companies to identify groups of firms that pursue homogeneous strategies regarding open innovation. Accordingly, this analysis is the first large-scale study that describes the current state of open innovation in practice. Moreover, it is the first work that identifies strategic approaches of firms to technology transactions along the innovation process.