Read the full report here

The Garwood Center at UC Berkeley and the Fraunhofer Society in Germany have teamed up to conduct the first large sample survey of open innovation. Published in May 2013, this survey reviews how large firms with annual sales in excess of US$ 250 million in the US and Europe adopt and practice open innovation. With the sample of 125 companies, this report highlights several important findings:

      • 78% of firms in the report practicing open innovation
      • No firms in our sample report abandoning their practice of open innovation
      • 71% report that top management support for open innovation is increasing in their firm
      • 82% report that compared to three years ago, open innovation is practiced more intensively today
      • Inbound open innovation practices are more commonly practiced than outbound practices
      • Customer co-creation, informal networking, and university grants are the three leading inbound practices in 2011. Crowdsourcing and open innovation intermediary services are rated lowest in importance
      • Establishing new partnerships, exploring new technological trends and identifying new business opportunities are the leading strategic reasons to engage in open innovation.

 

This report also reveals that it is not easy to implement open innovation. Open innovation is a systemic shift that requires re-thinking many aspects of one’s business to utilize it effectively. As R&D alone cannot fully implement open innovation, other parts of the organizations must get on board for it to work effectively. Cultivating the ambience that supports open innovation is at least as important for its effectiveness, according to authors Chesbrough and Brunswicker.