Managing Open Innovation: How and what to open

Youngjin Yoo and TL Hill

February 2010

The recent spread of open innovation is based on the insight that, with the help of information technology, distributed individuals can contribute to complex innovations. At its best, open innovation promises creative, robust solutions to complex problems. At its worst, open innovation threatens managerial and ownership headaches as firms try to reconcile openness with control. This report proposes guidelines to help managers think through the trade-offs involved in designing open innovation strategies. In particular, we offer principles for open innovation; a checklist for determining readiness for open innovation; and a menu of ways to manage open innovation from which managers can draw when designing their own open innovation strategies.

Information technology, particularly emerging Web 2.0, plays a very important role in implementing open innovation approaches.

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© 2011 The IBIT Report, Institute for Business and Information Technology, Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. All rights reserved. ISSN 1938-1271.