Open Innovation – The Good, The Bad, The Uncertainties

Given the limited amount of research written about the open innovation practices of companies located in Romania, we consider of high weight the need to stress on the benefits, the barriers and the drawbacks entailed by open innovation projects.. What allures firms to embrace open innovation is their resource deficiency, insufficient abilities to explore and exploit technology, knowledge gaps and financial constraints. The extensive literature written on open innovation subjects highlights the motives, the benefits and the barriers these but the studies focusing on the risks of open partnerships are scarce. This paper draws on theoretical literature and contemporary media accounts, building the argument for a significant impact of open innovation to the current economic background. This paper both explores the motives of firms embarking in collaborative relationships, but also the diversity of risks entailed, raising awareness of this framework of uncertainties. Within the study, our work highlights that open innovation in is impeded by risks related to technology, market place, collaboration among partners, financial sources availability, clients needs, workforce, knowledge and intellectual property rights. By undertaking this study we aim to contribute to the scarce literature on open innovation risks and to shed light on the factors that a firm needs to approach in order to foster a culture for open innovation and, in the same time, to reduce the drawbacks of open innovation.