The role and importance of open innovation

Abstract

The paper analyzes open innovation as a modern model of innovation, which is becoming increasingly important due to the limiting factors of closed innovation and the impossibility of the closed innovation model giving results in solving current problems. Open innovation represents a model of innovation, where the boundary between the organization and the environment is no longer so pronounced. Open innovations provide wider opportunities for the application of innovations, both their own and those coming from the environment. This suggests a business model that boils down to the approach that cooperation is better than competition. Open innovation is a more profitable way to innovate: it can reduce costs, accelerate time to market, increase market differentiation and create new value streams for the company. Transitioning to an open innovation model is not an easy task and certainly implies a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of open innovation on the part of the management, as well as the awareness that open innovation takes a long time to become successful in their organization.

The subject of this paper is in the form of a question: what is the role of the concept of open innovation in introducing new processes, achieving competitiveness and representation in modern industries? By establishing a model of open innovation, organizations promote their own innovative activities, cooperation with other organizations, exchange of ideas, resources and technologies, and in the end better satisfaction of consumer needs is achieved. The goal of the paper is to research how, through which factors and mechanisms the open innovation paradigm contributes to the introduction of new processes, in which way open innovation is key in achieving competitive advantage, as well as the impact of absorptive capacity and the representation of open innovation in various industries. The contribution of this paper is reflected in the overview of theoretical facts specific to open innovation and drawing conclusions about the contribution of open innovation to the introduction of new processes and gaining competitiveness on the market as well as the representation of open innovation in various industries. It can be concluded that open innovation is an important element of the spread and development of new technologies, considering that knowledge becomes widely available, that due to the incorporation of external knowledge, the costs of research and development are reduced, and that cooperation and collaboration are the basic characteristics of the environment in which organizations function.