Ricerc@Sapienza

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a new statistical approach to evaluate complex open innovation projects on a quantitative basis. In certain circumstances, open innovation entails a radical change of policy that involves various different functions of a company such as R&D, production, and management over a period of years and gives rise to mechanisms of mutual interaction with several business partners, such as collaboration with other companies, universities and R&D institutions, and new suppliers.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of boundaries management when firms should implement open innovation. The paper is based on: the review of relevant literature on strategic management, firm’s boundaries and open innovation fields; a survey of a sample of Italian listed firms. Findings show, from a side, that open innovation and many modern paths growth are connected to the firm’s boundaries and, on the other side, that boundaries management play a key role for the implementation of open innovation.