Open innovation models adopted in practice: an extensive study in Italy

Purpose – Many companies claim they are adopting an open approach to innovation, but each of them with its own way. This paper aims to explore the different models for opening up the innovation process adopted in practice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilises an extended survey among Italian manufacturing companies, cluster analysis and ANOVA. Findings – The study distinguishes four different open innovation models with respect to two variables, representing the degree of openness: the number and type of partners with whom the company collaborates (partner variety), and the number and type of phases of the innovation process open to external collaborations (innovation phase variety). They are: open and closed innovators, integrated and specialized collaborators. The paper describes each cluster in terms of firm‐specific variables that characterize Open Innovation choices; at last, it tries to draw some tentative explanation of the influence of openness on the innovative performance of companies. Research limitations/implications – The number of respondents is still limited (about 100). Moreover, it studied only the relationship between some firm‐specific factors and the degree of openness (in terms of partner and phase variety): a wider investigation is recommended to include more variables to define the openness degree and more contextual factors. Practical implications – The paper provides managerial implications because it suggests that open innovation is not an “on/off” choice, but it can be interpreted and adopted with different degrees, consistently with the company's specific context. Originality/value – The paper introduces a new perspective that integrates the number/typology of both partners and phases, in order to understand if such perspective can confirm the existence of different open innovation models.