Introduction

Abstract

Companies increasingly face a level of complexity and multi-disciplinarity in their research and development (R&D) of products, which a single player is unable to cope with – especially if he wants to stay competitive (see Miotti and Sachwald 2003; Pfeffer and Salancik 2009). A company can address this issue by opening up its innovation process and integrating external partners and sources (e.g., customers, universities, suppliers) to accelerate its own innovation process and/or facilitate the external use of its innovations (see Chesbrough 2003; Chesbrough et al. 2006). This phenomenon is called open innovation (OI).