Abstract:
Chesbrough’s landmark book on the topic of open innovation (OI) played an instrumental role in providing an umbrella for various research streams and building an academic community around the new paradigm. In particular, one of the key trends in OI research is related to better measurement. This paper, based on a literature review of 72 studies covering the period 2003-2014, outlines the different approaches to OI adoption measurement and categorizes the metrics identified into input, process and output. The contribution of this work is both theoretical and practical. As a matter of fact, by examining OI measures, it provides a conceptual framework exhibiting the key aspects researchers dealt with in assessing OI. Moreover, such framework constitutes a useful basis for the implementation of a managerial tool, since it encloses a set of sub-dimensions that have to be measured in order to evaluate OI after a holistic perspective.
