Susanne Ollila

Exploring the field of open innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the emerging research field of open innovation and identify where the field is going as well as suggest future fields of research.Design/methodology/approach – All academic papers and books published until November 2007 under the label of open innovation were systematically reviewed. Also, nine key researchers were asked to contribute with their opinions on the research frontier.Findings – A number of key themes in the research were identified, and conclusions on the underlying structure were drawn. This reveals that there is a tendency towards a broader definition and application of the term, a growing critical perspective, and a concentration on theory development and managerial implications.Research limitations/implications – The paper suggests that the locus of the innovation process and the extent of collaboration should be used as two dimensions in a model to further understanding of how open innovation develops. These dimensions have an important imp...

Turning Open Innovation Into Practice: Open Innovation Research Through The Lens Of Managers

Despite the fact that Open Innovation (OI) has rapidly become one of the hottest topics in innovation management, comprehensive reviews of the state of the research field and its managerial implications are scarce. This could be one of the reasons why OI still represents a big challenge for innovation managers. This paper, based on a literature review covering the period from 2003 up until June 2009, identifies managerial implications of OI under four major categories: namely organizing for openness, co-creating value, leadership for diversity and intellectual property (IP) management. The contribution of this paper is both practical and theoretical. On the one hand, innovation managers can find useful suggestions for dealing with the challenge of openness in their organization. On the other hand, gaps and omissions in the practical aspects of OI management are identified in order to guide further research on the field.

Managing Open Innovation: Exploring Challenges at the Interfaces of an Open Innovation Arena

Collaborating with peers to gain access to knowledge is an attractive alternative for organizations keen to improve their innovativeness, and the rising popularity of open innovation has resulted in the emergence of new actors in the innovation process. Previous research focuses mainly on the firms that collaborate with these actors. This paper adopts the perspective of an open innovation actor and the managerial challenges involved. It is based on a case study of SAFER, a Swedish traffic and vehicle safety research unit with 22 collaborating partners. The unit, which is here called an open innovation arena, differs from an intermediary in that it both enables open innovation within a specific field of expertise and envisages itself as a key player in that same field. The case study reveals three types of challenges for the management of an open innovation arena: challenges that arise at the interface with partner organizations, challenges related to collaboration between the partners, and challenges related to the arena itself.

Implications of Openness: A Study into (All) the Growing Literature on Open Innovation

Seven years after Chesbrough published the first book on open innovation; the field has literally exploded, and is continuing to do so at an increasing speed. Earlier overviews have analyzed the current status of the field at different points in time. The purpose with this paper is to take this research one step further and analyze gaps in the field as it has progressed up to date, and also discuss the managerial implications of that literature. All scientific literature (as found through major databases) published in English on open innovation has been analyzed qualitatively. The paper identifies current streams in the literature and identifies key issues that future research needs to solve. Compared to earlier reviews, we identify a shift in the direction that the research is taken. The paper discusses why this may be the case and speculates on the future of the field.

Creativity and Innovativeness through Reflective Project Leadership

The potential contribution of reflection to leadership at the project level is explored by building upon theories of reflection, and by presenting a case describing reflective leadership in practice. Reflective leadership refers to the process by which leaders reflect on their own leader behaviour in order to understand how it affects the behaviour of others. A means of facilitating leaders in their development of reflective skills is described. The evidence supports the proposition that reflective leadership can be enhanced to the benefit of innovative climate in projects.

Heedful interrelating, knowledge sharing, and new drug development

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to report a study of knowledge sharing practices in the clinical research organization in a major pharmaceutical company. While knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer is often conceived of in terms of codification and storage in databases accessed through information technology, there is less experience in industry from working with knowledge sharing in face‐to‐face communication settings.Design/methodology/approach – A collaborative research methodology including academic researchers, consultants and company representatives was used to examine and develop a knowledge‐sharing model. Interview and participative observations were used as data collection methods.Findings – The study suggests that the use of so‐called knowledge facilitators, organizing and leading knowledge sharing seminars among clinical research teams, needs to develop the capacity to interrelate heedfully, that is, the dispositions to act with attentiveness, alertness, and care, to fully explore the ...

'Authoring' Open Innovation: The Managerial Practices of an Open Innovation Director

Abstract This chapter asks how we can understand the managerial practices in open innovation, a recently popularized way of organizing innovative work. Open innovation implies opening up the borders of the organization, creating a context where conventional steering and managerial tools no longer apply. Utilizing a collaborative research approach, following an open innovation collaboration over 8 years, this chapter outlines the managerial practices that direct the collaboration. These practices are important for meaning making and identity creation in the collaboration and can be understood as a form of authorship, a continuous intervention strategy to manage, develop and change the organizational context.

Expert or speaking‐partner? Shifting roles and identities in consulting work

Purpose: Identities are central to the regulation and control of knowledge-intensive work. Rather than being managed on the basis of technocratic or bureaucratic control, knowledge intensive firms are employing knowledge workers who enact and internalize identities and roles that guide everyday behaviour in organizations. However, the concept of identity is relational and contingent on local conditions and interactions in everyday practices, different identities may be complementary or even contradictory. The paper aims to show that consultants are altering between being experts and speaking-partners, two identities that in many ways are complementary but also mutually reinforcing. Design/methodology/approach: This is a case study of a Swedish management consulting firm, Johnson Consulting. Findings: The challenge for consultants is to be capable of effortlessly transgressing the line of demarcation between the two identities - expert and speaking-partner - and their accompanying practices for the benefit of the client. Skilled consultants are trained at moving back and forth between these positions while less experienced consultants may find it intimidating to lose their position as expert. Practical implications: The paper concludes that knowledge-intensive firms such as management consulting firms should articulate and elaborate on the various identities mobilized in everyday work when encountering clients. Originality/value: The paper uses the literature on identities in knowledge-intensive firms and an empirical study of management consultants to show that knowledge-intensive work is always operating on the level of identities and self-images. Understanding knowledge intensive firms thus demands an understanding of how co-workers perceive their own role.

Managing knowledge integration: Balancing professional and managerial logics in an engineering consulting firm

Integrating professional expertise in professional service firms (PSFs) is a key strategic challenge in the contemporary economy and individual firms. Previous research has pointed out that the governance of key aspects of PSFs, including knowledge integration, is shifting from a professional to a managerial logic, a shift that is often pictured as conflict laden based on the incompatibility of the two logics. Based on a study of knowledge integration in an engineering consulting firm, the current paper shows how managerial and professional logics interplay in shaping knowledge integration practices. We identify both aspects in which the logics reinforce each other in enabling knowledge integration and tensions that threaten knowledge integration. We conclude that the professional logic is a key driver of knowledge integration, but that the managerial logic, including its formal HR practices, may support knowledge integration through secondary effects if applied in a thoughtful way.

Beyond intermediation: the open innovation arena as an actor enabling joint knowledge creation

The open innovation paradigm has created opportunities for the emergence of new actors to provide support for open innovation. It is acknowledged that knowledge creation is pivotal to innovation, but this has yet to be discussed in the context of open innovation intermediation. This paper based on a longitudinal study of SAFER, a traffic and vehicle safety research centre in Sweden, explores the role of an actor whose objective is to support joint knowledge creation in open innovation. Theoretical models of knowledge creation are used in the analysis and the identified activities go beyond intermediation, and include peer collaboration and mobilisation of a collective strategic body. These activities are fundamental to an open innovation arena - here introduced as a new type of actor. The paper challenges the established focal firm perspective in open innovation and introduces the open innovation arena to underline knowledge creation among peers.