List of Open Innovation resources, tools, books and more

Open innovation models have become an integral part of the innovation strategies and business models of companies in recent years. Innovation is increasingly based on knowledge assets beyond the boundaries of the company and co-operation has become an important way of tapping into knowledge resources outside in order to generate new ideas and bring them quickly to the market (the “outside-in” approach). At the same time companies may spin out technologies and intellectual property that they have developed internally but that are outside their core business and thus better developed and commercialised by others (the “inside-out” approach).

General sites and communities

• European Open Innovation Forum: ‘a new initiative to discover, discuss and share the most effective ways to organise your open innovation pipeline’.
• 15inno: ‘by Stefan Lindegard helps innovation leaders with their challenges and issues through peer-to-peer networking groups and learning sessions.’
• Crowdsourcing.Org:  ‘Crowdfounding, mass collaboration, it’s all on Crowdsourcing.org, the place go to place for authoritative, information-rich content and insights on crowdsourcing.’
• Exnovate: ‘The European network of excellence on open and collaborative information..a place where OI best practices could be exchanges and where a genuine market for OI expertise would be prepared and organised for all stakeholders.
• Innovation Tools. Open Innovation Resource Centre. ‘This..resource center contains a valuable collection of the best articles, websitess, books and other resources on this important topic.
• Open Innovation Community: ‘..an informational resource for thought leaders, consultants, authors, business leaders, academics and others who have a deep interest in open innovation’.
• Open Innovation Strategy & Policy Group:  ‘unites industrial groups, academia and private users to support policies for Open Innovation at the European Commission’.
• Openinnovators.de: German-language open innovation community and news resource.
• The Big Innovation Centre: ‘exists to make the UK a global open innovation hub, to build a world-class innovation eco-system, and re-balance the UK economy.’

Tools, services and platforms

• 12Designer: ‘offers clients and creatives an innovative platform for creative competition projects.’
• 100%Open: ‘a specialist open innovation agency that helps large organisations create value by innovating with others.’
• Bracket. :’provide businesses with bespoke creative teams for innovation strategy and implementation.
• Creative Barcode:  Trust based easy IP fit for open innovation in the digital age. A trust, ethics and etiquette mechanism and framework used to under-pin open innovation challenges both for those running them and those participating in them.
• Creative Commons:  ‘a non-profit organisation that develops, supports and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximises digital creativity, sharing and innovation.’
• Ideatorrent: this ‘open innovation software lets people submit their ideas, brainstorm them and then vote on them’.
• Induct: an ‘integrated web-based service which supports custom design, measurement, and measurement of the entire open innovation process. Induct integrates Enterprise 2.0 technology and social networking concepts with a flexible and customisable innovation process management framework’.
• InnoCentive: ‘is the open innovation and crowdsourcing pioneer that enables organizations to solve their key problems by connecting them to diverse sources of innovation including employees, customers, partners, and the world’s largest problem solving market place.’
• Innoget:  ‘provides a full range of services related to the acquisition, re-evaluation and marketing of technologies and addressing the needs of R&D and innovation.’
• Innovation Bank: ‘An innovation & IP trading portal for SME’s to Corporates, Creative industries, inventors, funders, professions and academics seeking collaborative partners to do business with, buy, sell, and license IP. Also excellent PR and marketing platform to promote innovation challenges, initiatives and company success stories.
• Innovation Exchange: ‘an open innovation marketplace for Global 500 companies and not-for-profit organisations.’
• NineSigma: ‘offers a full array of state-of-the-art products and services that will engage your company with the global information community and enable you to leverage those connections for optimal value through proper organizational and and process alignment.’
• One Billion Minds: an ‘online community which includes scientists, professional and student innovators from across 180 universities, 54 areas of study, and 103 countries around the world.’
• OpenIDEO: ‘an online platform for creative thinkers.’
• Open Xerox  ‘a web portal that hosts technology prototypes from the Xerox R&D labs, making them accessible to the external user community well before the launch of a product offering.’
• OSSWatch: a free open source advisory service for UK higher and further education institutions.
• Presans: Matches customer needs to a worldwide network of registered experts.
• Quantum Innovation Centre: ‘..creates a fresh, new forum for both large and small businesses, government and academia in which each can combine their resources in a market-led approach to innovation’.

Examples of corporate sites

• Akzo Nobel Open Space: a site which looks for ‘brilliant ideas and solutions’.
• Barclaycard Ring:  ‘a credit card that is driven by its community of card members
• BASF Future Business: a site which seeks solutions in the areas of energy, electronics and health.
• BMW Group Virtual Innovation Agency: ‘an interface between external innovation sources and developers from the BMW Group’ .
• Boots Centre For Innovation: ‘we help entrepreneurs turn concepts into successful products and reach millions of customers.’
• CloroxConnects:  A site which seeks to source ideas from customers, partners and staff.
• first direct lab:  ‘a place where you can view new ideas and test-drive brand new first direct innovations before we release them..’
• General Mills G-Win: Site which seeks out ideas in the categories of  products, packaging, processes, ingredients, technologies and digital.
• Glaxo Smithkline. Innovation at GSK: ‘Open innovation is our process for linking your ideas or innovative technology with GSK R&D and Commercial team members responsible to grow our global brands.’
• Intuit Collaboratory: ‘is the place to work together on new ideas. Find out what we’re looking for in our Challenges or tell us via Brainstorm if you have a novel idea that we can develop together.’
• Ideas Project: ‘is an online community for everyone from around the world to brainstorm. It enables the two-way exchange of ideas between users and developers around innovation powered by Nokia.
• Lego Cussoo: ‘Create a project, share your product concept, and see what other people think’.
• Local Motors: A community with designs and develops cars.
• Procter & Gamble, P&G Connect & Develop: ‘our version of open innovation, the practice of accessing externally developed intellectual property and allowing your internally-developed assets and know-how to be used by others.’
• Quirky: Open innovation product development site.
• Reckitt Benckiser: RB Idealink: ‘If you have a new technology product that’s close to market, or you want to license one of our brands, you have come to the right place’.
• SAP Community Network: ‘is SAP’s professional network. It provides trusted connections to our dynamic community of SAP customers, partners, employees and experts.’
• Tate & Lyle: ‘We are a leading global provider of three main types of speciality food ingredients. if you have a new product or technology in one or more of these areas – or a new food technology altogether – we would love to hear from you’.
• Unilever: ‘Smart collaboration between us and our partners allows us to leverage a greater mix of technologies and speed up time to market to deliver value non of us could achieve on our own.’
• VJAM: ‘is all about co-invention with Virgin Atlantic’s customers and it blends topics that our customers are interested in with opportunities that make travel more social.’

Examples of public services and government sites

• Challenge.gov:  US Government challenge site

Reports and papers

• Open Innovation and Public Policy in Europe. Henry Chesbrough and Wim Vanhaverbeke. Esade Business School, Science Business Innovation Board. 2011.
•  Embracing Open Innovation in Europe. A Best Practices Guide on Open innovation Policies
•  “Henry Chesbrough about the Future of Open Innovation”, Karin Wall
•  “How Open Innovation can help Firms during the Downturn”, Wim Vanhaverbeke
•  “Connect + Develop with P&G”, James Joia
•  Good Reads On Innovation, Stefan Lindegaard
• Steps for Implementing Open Innovation: Recommendations from Our Community, Stefan Lindegaard
• “Use the creativity of users to develop better innovations “, Karin Wall
•  “We are in a major paradigm shift” , Karin Wall
•  Open Innovation And Intrapreneurship For Small And Medium Sized Companies, Stefan Lindegaard
•  The Promise (and Perils) of Open Collaboration, Andrea Gabor
•  Open Innovation Starts With A Why, Stefan Lindegaard

Books

1. Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company’s Future
   – by Patricia B. Seybold
   Patricia Seybold argues that companies should seek innovation by actively engaging and bringing their customers into the product development process.
   —
2. Motivation in Open Innovation
   – by Robert Motzek
   Robert Motzek’s study investigates the motivational profiles of user innovators from a manufacturer’s point of view, focusing on lead users and tool kit users. The analysis is supported by two exploratory case studies of Spreadshirt and Threadless.
   —
3. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology
   -by Henry Chesbrough
   Chesbrough suggests that companies make themselves more permeable to the flow of knowledge through such strategies as hiring professors and grad students as summer consultants, sponsoring university research, investing in and partnering with high-tech startups and venture capitalists, and disseminating their own innovations through spin-off companies or even by publishing it in the public domain.
   —
4. Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm
   – by Henry Chesbrough, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Joel West
   Offering theoretical explanations for the use (and limits) of open innovation, the book examines the applicability of the concept, implications for the boundaries of firms, the potential of open innovation to prove successful, and implications for intellectual property policies and practices.
   —
5. Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape
   – by Henry Chesbrough
   Chesbrough is not the first academic to grasp the superior economic value of intellectual over tangible property in today’s economy. But he may be the one who has thought most deeply about its consequences for business.
   —
6. Democratizing Innovation
   – by Eric Von Hippel
   “Von Hippel presents a persuasive case for the benefits of encouraging lead users to innovate and a truly intriguing look at what they’ve contributed to the world so far”
   Downloadable for free: here.
   —
7. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
   – by Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams
   As a proponent of peering, sharing, and open-source thinking, Don Tapscott has presented a clear and exciting preview of how peer innovation will change everything.
   —
8. Innovation Happens Elsewhere: Open Source as Business Strategy
   – by Ron Goldman, Richard P. Gabriel
   It’s a plain fact: regardless of how smart, creative, and innovative your organization is, there are more smart, creative, and innovative people outside your organization than inside. Open source offers the possibility of bringing more innovation into your business by building a creative community that reaches beyond the barriers of the business.
   —
9. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
   – by Yochai Benkler
   Yochai Benkler shows us how the Internet enables new commons-based methods for producing goods, remaking culture, and participating in public life.
   Downloadable for free: here
   —
10. Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
    – by Keith Sawyer
    A pioneering expert on creativity and innovation shows the power of collaboration for individual organizational creativity.
    —
11. The Wisdom of Crowds
    – by James Surowiecki
    While our culture generally trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses, New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues that “under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them.
    —
12. We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business
    – by Barry Libert, Jon Spector, Don Tapscott (foreword)
    In We Are Smarter Than Me, you will discover exactly how to use social networking and community in your business, driving better decision-making and greater profitability. The book shares powerful insights and new case studies from product development, manufacturing, marketing, customer service, finance, management, and beyond.
    —
13. The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World
    – by Satish Nambisan, Mohanbir Sawhney
    Nambisan and Sawhney have written a book that constructs a truly effective bridge between network driven innovation and its application. A refreshing look at innovation and its practice.