In the report we explore these aspects of open innovation practices. The point of departure is the current notion of open innovation and the subsequent attempts made at transforming this firm-level management concept into more global perspectives on innovation and growth. While contributing to a more nuanced theoretical conceptualisation of open innovation, our main contribution is the large-scale empirical analysis (130,000 firms from 22 European countries) of open innovation impacts and determinants which have been conducted based on the pan-European Community Innovation Survey. In light of this material, an extensive survey of current and relevant policy measures is provided. The overall aim of the conceptual, empirical, and policy components of the report is to promote the emergence of a new policy discussion in the area of open innovation.

Open innovation as defined by Professor Chesbrough in his 2003 book encompasses a variety of innovation processes, inclusive of and not mutually exclusive with crowdsourcing and lead user innovation. Open innovation is a general way of describing the flow of ideas across organizational boundaries, both in to and out from. In fact, Professor Chesbrough talks and writes extensively about both outside-in and inside-out open innovation. (The Netflix spin out of Roku is one example of inside-out open innovation.)