Where are the ideas?: External idea acquisition

Innovation has always been an important source of competitive edge and success for organisations. Globalisation, increased competition and the fast pace of technological change all add to the importance of efficient and effective innovation processes in organisations. In recognition of the limitations of internal innovation, organisations have also become reliant on external sources of ideas. This concept is known as open innovation. While the topic is widely discussed in academic and practitioner literature, there is a lack of concrete guidance on what factors organisations should consider to increase their chances of success from open innovation. In this study, we address this gap in the body of knowledge and specifically focus on the idea generation phase of the innovation process. Based on existing research and practitioner input, we develop a conceptual model of factors that increase an organisations’ external idea acquisition focusing on, specifically, individual-level idea acquisition – i.e. an organisations’ ability to acquire of ideas from external individuals. While the conceptual model developed in this paper is focused on specific aspects within the broad concept of open innovation, it is the first attempt to develop a holistic understanding of idea generation success factors.