The concept of open innovation (OI) has become a very popular topic during the last decade, with an increasing number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) embracing OI practices to gain competitive advantage. With the majority of publications focusing on large firms, open innovation in...

Purpose Open innovation in start-ups is a relatively unexplored field and studies focusing on collaborative innovation between start-ups with large companies seen from the former’s point of view are virtually inexistent. The authors address this gap in an exploratory study built on in-depth...

Few studies on open innovation (OI) address OI practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how their use of OI and the resulting benefits differ from those of large enterprises. The lack of resources in SMEs to engage in looking outward is said to be a barrier to OI, but at the...

This paper examines the relationship between (outside-in) open innovation and the financial performance of R&D projects, drawing on a unique dataset that contains information on the open innovation practices, management and performance of 489 R&D projects of a large European multinational firm....

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a more dynamic perspective on open innovation by conducting a longitudinal analysis of the adoption of open innovation strategies. In order to do so, we rely on three comparable waves of the Dutch Community Innovation Survey, which were conducted in...

The existing literature on open innovation mostly concentrates on large firms. Little is known about the role of open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this paper we explore how SMEs engage in open innovation search. We draw upon a new survey of 1,489 SMEs. Results...

We review the contribution and evolution of open innovation since the publication of Chesbrough’s 2003 Open Innovation book, and suggest likely directions going forward. We link the articles of this special issue to three key trends in open innovation research: better measurement, resolving...

An increasing number of companies are practicing open innovation by relying on external sources of technology. However, inbound open innovation is not always leading to the expected improvements in innovation performance. A key factor for success is quickly and reliably determining which...