Opening the Innovation process: Models and practice in Italy

The concept of “Open Innovation” is often studied supposing an artificial dichotomy between closed and open approaches, whilst the idea of exploring different degrees and types of openness in a sort of continuum seems to provide a more interesting and rich avenue to investigate. In vein of these premises, we analyse different open innovation models adopted in practice in terms of: 1) the number and typologies of partners (partner variety) and 2) the number and type of phases open to external partners (innovation phase variety). In this paper, we first of all describe the approaches to Open Innovation firms adopt according to these two variables and we identify four dominant models adopted; second, we illustrate if and how contextual variables - both internal and external - influence the choice of a specific approach to Open Innovation; third, we analyse the impact that such approaches to Open Innovation have on performance.