Managing Open Innovation – Trade-off or Simultaneous Solve?

Abstract

Open innovation refers to the integration of external and internal ideas as well as market paths in traditional innovation processes. In the past years, open innovation has gained significant attention and currently represents a spotlight topic both in research and practice. The paper at hand adds to the discussion of how to manage open innovation by examining two contrary managerial approaches along various management dimensions in a case study of a large multinational. Our results suggest that the most suitable management approach does not necessarily require trade-off decisions but that companies can also employ an ambidextrous approach, a so called “simultaneous solve”, by concurrently combining apparently opposing management concepts. Having investigated the management dimensions organization, strategy, governance, intellectual property and motivation, we were able to identify simultaneous solves being applied in the organization and governance dimensions as well as in the management of intellectual property. This underpins the relevance of the simultaneous solve concept for open innovation management theory and practice.