Co-innovation Dynamics

1Open Innovation, or Collaborative Innovation, Between Clients and Suppliers

At the foundation of Open Innovation, a term forged by academia, is the principle that in a world where knowledge is very widely distributed, one firm alone cannot control it all.

The dominant model of technological innovation practice throughout the 20th Century was that of the R&D laboratory that was vertically integrated into the commercial structure [LEM 06, WES 14]. Innovation was “closed”. It was developed from A to Z within the limits of the same firm.

During the second half of the century, innovation gradually opened up; firstly in the client–supplier relationship.

From the 1970s onwards, outsourcing became an increasingly important strategy for companies. The complexity of products increased with the multiplication of subcontracted components. Suppliers played an increasingly important role in new product development projects.

The academic world then began to focus on the subject by studying R&D alliances and technological partnerships¹ as well as the development of new products. The latter initially focused on the automotive sector. Moreover, from the very first published works [IMA 85, TAK 86]², it was revealed that the early involvement of suppliers in development projects was one of the keys to the performance of Japanese industry [JOH 09, p. 188]. Among car manufacturers, their involvement thus represents 30% of the total engineering effort, while it represents 16% in Europe and 7% in ...