OPEN INNOVATION IN PUBLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTES — SUCCESS AND INFLUENCING FACTORS

Abstract

Public research organizations need to increasingly engage in open innovation processes besides classic collaboration with industry and public-private partnerships. In this study, the effectiveness of an open innovation approach is examined in three bio-economy cases set up by a public research institute, as well as the factors influencing the implementation of the approach. The results indicate that an open innovation approach can yield many beneficial outcomes in a public research context, despite a great many detrimental influencing factors. These identified adverse factors can be aggregated into four key areas, the organizational structure and culture being the prevalent. The results and the derived implications contribute to the further understanding of managerial challenges experienced when implementing open innovation to practice, deliver insights towards the applicability of open innovation in a public research environment and provide a first understanding on how the approach performs in the context of the transition towards a bioeconomy.