Dr Letizia Mortara looks at how multi-nationals have been approaching Open Innovation and the common themes that were observed by researchers across a range of industries following a two year IfM study of OI.

Manufacturers are increasingly turning toward Open Innovation (OI) as a means of enhancing their innovation capability. As manufacturing processes and technology become increasingly complex and global markets are far more competitive, few companies can rely on in-house research departments alone . Open innovation is a process designed to accelerate innovation through collaboration. Under this approach a company works with external partners on new ideas in a bid to generate new business opportunities OI was defined by Henry Chesbrough (2003) in his framework of Open Innovation (OI). However, among practitioners there is still confusion over how companies can best implement OI. This talk will present the results of a two-year IfM study that reviewed how large multinational corporations approached it's implementation. The study revealed despite different motivations and different drivers for its adoption, there were several common themes which researchers observed across a range of industries.