Open innovation

: a study on market and technology based innovation outcomes

Abstract

Over the past few years the topic open innovation has gained popularity in theory and in practice. Despite this raising popularity, former studies have revealed, that the majority of companies in the German industry are still at an early stage of adopting a more open innovation processes. At this early stage, exploring the possibilities of different tools and platforms and the opportunities through innovation collaboration with different external sources is a priority for companies. Understanding different innovation outcomes related to different innovation sources is part of that early-stage process. Hence, the objective of this dissertation is to explore, whether there is a connection between different sources and outcomes in the context of technology-based and market-based outcomes. To do that, an indepth literature review was conducted. The findings of this literature review were the basis for several semi-structured interviews, conducted with different managers from leading industrial engineering companies in Germany. In the course of the interviews different innovation sources and outcomes and the importance of open innovation in the German industry were discussed. Furthermore, the interviews revealed, how open innovation challenges and barriers apply to the sample. The study has shown, that companies tend to expect market-based innovation outcomes from customer collaboration, whereas innovation efforts with suppliers tend to be incremental. Even though managers see opportunities for an increased innovation potential through open innovation, the study has confirmed, that there are fundamental barriers to the application of open innovation principles, especially when it comes to core technologies.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Cláudia Isabel de Sousa Costa (Supervisor)