What is open innovation?

“Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”.

Open innovation was defined as the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively (Chesbrough,2003).

A business concept developed by Henry Chesbrough which encourages companies to acquire outside sources of innovation to order to improve product lines and shorten the time required to bring products to market, and to market or release internally developed innovation which does not fit the company's business model but could be effectively used elsewhere.

“Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”.Alternatively, it is "innovating with partners by sharing risk and sharing reward."The boundaries between a firm and its environment have become more permeable; innovations can easily transfer inward and outward.

Open Innovation, also known as external or networked innovation, is focused on uncovering new ideas, reducing risk, increasing speed and leveraging scarce resources.