Challenges Companies Face Engaging In OI

Challenges Companies Face Engaging In OI

When introducing a culture of Open Innovation, companies find difficulties, especially in aligning internal resources. According to the report “Managing Open Innovation in Large Firms”, the main barriers in Open Innovation (by importance) with these kinds of businesses are:

  • Managing the organizational change internally
  • Management of external relationships with innovation sources
  • Protecting internal critical know-how
  • Identifying new innovation sources
  • Effectiveness of intellectual property protection
  • Avoidance of external or already existing knowledge

Additionally, the report by Henry Chesbrough and Sabine Brunswicker describes other relevant barrier to Open Innovation Implementation: The lack of structured practices. Large firms typically engaged in Open Innovation in a trial-and-error manner, is said.

The study also points out aspects related to the level of acceptance of Open Innovation by large companies. For instance, that the Open Innovation culture and budgets are higher when this model has the support of the top management or has been practiced within the company for a extended period of time.