The Role of Design in Open Innovation

Although open innovation has been a hot topic within business, design and innovation management, it is still ill defined and companies struggle with smooth implementation of open innovation practices into their daily operations. Most of the literature relies on success case studies, but learning from failures, can also be very interesting and revealing for research community and practitioners.

Different perspectives on the need for openness, antecedents of open innovation, the different typologies of practices and how to determine which one fits each company and challenge, the processes for implementation and the roles that design and designers can play in these processes have been proposed within this interdisciplinary field.

The main aim of this conference track is to debate some of these emerging issues and position designers within this context.

This track invites contributions particularly within the following topics:

• Collaboration within open innovation
• Internal organisational antecedents for open innovation
• Crowdsourcing and open innovation platforms
• Lead-user and co-creation.
• Engagement with intermediaries
• The role of start-ups and SMEs in open innovation
• Open innovation in the public sector and regulatory environments
• Knowledge management across open innovation
• Managing IP and risk
• Integration of open innovation into daily operations
• Space for open innovation
• Design methodologies applied in open innovation initiatives

It is expected that within these topics, the role of design, the designer and design management are considered and potential drivers for implementation of open innovation within organisations discussed. We invite both, conceptual and practice-oriented papers.

Indicative References​

Chesbrough, H. (2003).Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Chesbrough, H., & Bogers, M. (2014). Explicating open innovation: Clarifying an emerging paradigm for understanding innovation. In H. Chesbrough, W. Vanhaverbeke, & J. West (Eds.), New Frontiers in Open Innovation (3–28). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dahlander, L., & Gann, D. M. (2010). How open is innovation? Research Policy, 39(6), 699–709.

Enkel, E., Gassmann, O., & Chesbrough, H. W. 2009. Open R&D and open innovation: Exploring the phenomenon. R&D Management, 39(4), 311–316. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9310.2009.00570.x

Casoni, G., (2010). Design and creativity in open innovation processes: The case of Italian industrial districts. Strategic Design Research Journal, 3(2), pp.33-40.