12. Innovation Trajectories: When to Open and Close the Innovation Process

Innovation as a source of competitive advantage helps the organization gain superior returns from the market. Until recently, innovation activities were generally restricted inside organizations and in some cases to select partners. The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of practices where private enterprises open all or select innovation activities for anyone with interest to participate. Referred to as “open innovation” approach to innovation development, organizations have shown different patterns of openness in their innovation efforts with regard to stages and levels of openness, identified as innovation trajectory in this study. In one of the first studies to explore openness at innovation process level, we explore the factors that determine the choice of innovation trajectory, i.e. pattern of openness, in the organization’s innovation process.