The philosophy of “open innovation” : Historical development of the philosophy of open innovation and its reflection from Taoism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the ideological foundation of open innovation strategies and the open business model, which are appearing as new industrial paradigms based on information technology (IT). Design/methodology/approach First, this paper examined the ideological foundation of Deleuze, Whitehead, and Popper. Next, Taoism was scrutinized to discover concrete bases for open innovation. Findings Here, it was found that Taoism completely coincides with the logical basis of open innovation. The theory “the supreme good is like water” of Taoism means to vacate oneself and fill the space with others to create paradoxes, thereby filling oneself with a more creative method. Originality/value Taoism provides a way to present paradoxes through the idea of vacating and opening to reach a creative stage of leaving nature as it is.