Integrating open innovation to new product development - the case of the Brazilian aerospace industry

A number of recent works point towards open innovation as a new imperative for innovation management. Within more traditional and conservative high-tech sectors such as aerospace, however, the literature on open innovation is fairly limited, even more so in the context of emerging economies. This exploratory paper aims to fill this gap by providing some perspectives from a study whose goal is to identify the implications of the innovation openness paradigm to the product development process in the Brazilian aerospace industry. Using information gathered from Brazilian and Canadian aerospace firms, this paper draws an analogy and raises the hypothesis that companies from emerging economies are more prone to open innovation, since they are often heavily dependent on foreign knowledge and expertise. The findings imply that Brazilian firms should bear in mind that innovation openness is an important aspect to consider when designing an innovation strategy.