Abstract
PurposeThrough a comprehensive review of the literature on open innovation (OI), this study aimed to achieve two objectives: (1) to identify the main thematic areas discussed in the past and track their evolution over time; and (2) to provide recommendations for future research avenues.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the first objective, a method based on text mining was implemented, with the analysis focusing on 1,772 journal articles published between 2003 and 2018. For the second objective, a review based on recent and relevant papers was conducted for each thematic area.FindingsThe paper identified nine thematic areas explored in existing research: (1) context-dependency of OI, (2) collaborative frameworks, (3) organizational dimensions of OI, (4) performance and OI, (5) external search for OI, (6) OI in small and medium-sized enterprises, (7) OI in the pharmaceutical industry, (8) OI and intellectual property rights, and (9) technology. The analysis of the most recent papers belonging to the more investigated areas offers suitable suggestions for future research avenues.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, no review has yet been undertaken to reorganize the OI literature.
Highlights
Since the 2003 publication of Chesbrough’s seminal work, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, the concept of open innovation (OI) has garnered increasing attention from academics and practitioners alike
The objective of this paper is twofold: (1) to identify the main thematic areas discussed in the past and track their evolution over time, and (2) to identify avenues for future research on this topic
Through a comprehensive review of the literature on OI, the objective of this study is twofold: (1) to identify the main thematic areas discussed in the past and track their evolution over time; and (2) to provide recommendations for future research avenues
Summary
Since the 2003 publication of Chesbrough’s seminal work, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, the concept of open innovation (OI) has garnered increasing attention from academics and practitioners alike. The original definition of OI stressed that “valuable ideas can come from inside or outside the company and can go to market from inside or outside the company as well. This approach places external ideas and external paths to market on the same level of importance as that reserved for internal ideas and paths” Innovation scholars stressed the “two faces of research and development” (R&D); in other words, that the internal
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