For Open Innovation

In this chapter, we argue in favor of Open Innovation (OI). In favor of the idea that firms can intention-ally appropriate complementary knowledge from external sources. OI considers inbound and outbound activities—for profit or not— to access, transform, use, or release knowledge, through the establishment of partnerships and alliances. We suggest that OI should not be considered as an independent theory, but rather as an evolution of the line-ar (closed) innovation process—a strategic response to profound transformations of technological, social, and economic regimens. However, regardless of its growing popu-larity as a strategic tool for value creation, OI is not yet a formal activity in firms, and therefore it does not have a considerable effect in their operational performance. In this context, organizational culture plays a key role. We argue that once formalized, OI can be a powerful strategic asset to develop new business models for products and services.