Dynamics of Open Innovation Practices: Drivers, Enablers and Barriers

Abstract

Researchers use open innovation to address novel outward practices and assess the sophistication of inward processes. This thesis first discusses the notion of innovation and then reviews the open innovation literature and reveals that little attention has been paid to the practical aspect of open innovation practices. The thesis examines the specific case of open innovation in a collaborative business initiative, ElNet, located within the higher education sector to illustrate the barriers and enablers to open innovation. The study’s objective is to understand open innovation practices from a relational perspective, explaining (1) why and how businesses engage in open innovation and (2) how barriers and enablers interrelate. Data were interpreted through iterative thematic and narrative analysis and theorized using sociomateriality concepts. This lens focused particularly on the material practices that are socially enacted in implementing open innovation. This analysis explores the way that the interrelations between enablers and barriers to open innovation are illuminated through sociomaterial practices. This study focuses on the dynamics of these development paths by focusing on four episodes which elaborate how the case study members engaged in an open innovation project. The application of sociomateriality to show how the material and social realms are entangled and how sociomaterial dynamics are enacted through practices is relevant to an exploration of open innovation practices. Thus, the sociomateriality focus of this analysis provides an important contribution to the literature and creates opportunities for potential improvements in practice.