Is Your Company Ready for Open Innovation? Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Many industrial businesses are trying to profit from open innovation, which entails actively collaborating with external associates throughout the innovation process. Companies also increasingly transfer some of their very own proprietary technology to other businesses by means such as licensing - an approach known as outbound open innovation. The researchers examined the function of employee approaches in open innovation through a large scale benchmarking study of German industrial businesses. The writers conclude that worker approaches that favor internal innovation often impede the successful execution of innovation strategies that are open.

However, the businesses that pursued traditional closed innovation strategies had a higher average return on sales compared to the group of businesses that transfer their very own technology to others but do not acquire much technology from external sources. These findings, the writers note, suggest that a focus merely on outbound innovation could be dangerous, as a company dangers transferring its "crown jewels." The authors note that the results of their study underscore the necessity to alter worker approaches if supervisors aim to implement open innovation strategies; managers, they note, need to communicate their open innovation strategies to workers, have executive winners for them and devise suitable incentives and organizational structures to encourage open innovation.

PUBLICATION DATE: October 01, 2011 PRODUCT #: SMR400-HCB-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about TECHNOLOGY & OPERATIONS