Summary and conclusion

Zusammenfassung

The initial motivation to analyze innovation culture in an Open Innovation environment was twofold: first, since the introduction of the concept of Open Innovation in 2003 it has gained widespread interest in theory and practice. Numerous works from several research streams have addressed this topic and contributed to the development of the field. Furthermore, many firms have implemented the concept by switching from Closed to Open Innovation or by setting up separated organizational units to follow this approach. This trend is expected to continue as many firms plan to make increasing use of it. Second, while many firms have implemented the concept of Open Innovation, many of them faced difficulties during its implementation. They had to realize that besides paying attention to external ideas and technologies as well as to the processes to find them, cultural aspects need to be considered. The move from Closed Innovation to Open Innovation needs to be accompanied by a change in the underlying innovation culture. A different way of thinking and a different way of dealing with ideas and technologies is required to fully exploit the potential of Open Innovation. It is therefore quite surprising that empirical research on Open Innovation culture is missing. The central objective of this thesis was therefore to shed new light on the unexplored research field of cultural aspects of Open Innovation. Overall, six major research questions have been posed. Their answers will be summarized in the following paragraphs: