A knowledge governance framework for open innovation projects

Abstract

Markets tend to develop always faster with ever-growing requirements on products and services. This forces enterprises to cooperate with partners like suppliers, customers, or even competitors across organisational borders to cope with these challenges. Such a collaboration leads to knowledge flows between all partners. Being too open and sharing too much information can cause knowledge leakage. The central aim of this research is to provide a framework on how to integrate knowledge governance mechanisms in open innovation projects to ensure eligibility in practice. Insights from the field have been integrated into the framework by interviewing ten experts who have practical experiences on open innovation projects. The interviews have been conducted in 2019 and analysed later on. Based on scientific literature and insights from the field, a knowledge governance framework to guide through open innovation projects has been developed.