Open Innovation Strategies in Firm Performance
Summary
Open innovation encompasses the deliberate use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation and expand markets for external use. Firms embracing open innovation strategies extend their boundaries to engage partners such as customers, suppliers, universities and even competitors. By integrating external ideas and technologies with internal R&D, companies can enhance both incremental and radical innovation outcomes. The performance effects of these strategies depend on factors such as the breadth and depth of external search, the firm’s capacity to absorb and integrate knowledge, and the constraints posed by finance, regulation or institutional environments. Globally, open innovation has become central to competitive advantage in sectors ranging from pharmaceuticals to manufacturing. Practical applications include co-development alliances for product launch, innovation contests to crowdsource solutions and licensing arrangements to monetise unused inventions. Firms that calibrate their collaboration networks and build complementary internal capabilities often exhibit superior innovation performance, faster time-to-market and greater resilience in dynamic markets.
Research from Nature Portfolio
No recent Nature Portfolio content available.
Open Innovation Strategies in Firm Performance publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in open innovation strategies in firm performance across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Open innovation: A paradigm that promotes use of inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation and expand external markets.
Collaboration breadth: The diversity and number of external partners a firm engages in its innovation process.
Absorptive capacity: A firm’s ability to recognise, assimilate and apply external knowledge for innovation.
Boundary-spanning search: Activities directed at acquiring knowledge from sources outside a firm’s existing boundaries.
Innovation performance: Measurable outcomes of innovation activities, including new product development, market introduction and commercial revenue.
References
- Collaborating for innovation: The inhibiting role of constraints. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge (2024).
- Employment protection laws and the commercialization of new products: A cross-country study. Research Policy (2024).
- Green entrepreneurial orientation, boundary-spanning search and enterprise sustainable performance: The moderating role of environmental dynamism. Frontiers in Psychology (2022).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.