An Open Innovation Capability Maturity Model and Inside-In Innovation

Open Innovation (OI) is still a young phenomenon and its adoption by industry subject to a number of still poorly understood context factors and drivers. The development and implementation of the OI paradigm in business poses specific challenges not only to the management of the external environment but also to the development of organizational skills that would specifically prepare the organization to operate in OI networks and successfully integrate external knowledge flows into the innovation process and products. Each organization is at some level of maturity, but imperfect signalling and deliberate withholding of firm-internal information prevent the necessary alignment both among units of the same firm and between corporate entities as a whole necessary for external and innovative collaboration. This study applies the concept of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)—which focuses on the quality of organizational processes—to the domain of intra- and interorganizational collaboration for innovation (open innovation). We propose the organizational-internal concept of inside-in innovation to complement boundary-spanning innovation flows such as inside-out and outside-in innovation. Based on research of three case companies, we outline an OI-CMM, identifying some of the key capabilities needed, and suggesting further avenues of research.