Open innovation: status quo and quo vadis - an analysis of a research field

Open innovation is now a widely used concept in academia, industry, and policy-making. According to the recent report “The Open Innovation Barometer”, released by the Economist, 90% of organizations have either adopted or are planning to implement key open innovation practices by opening up their organizational boundaries to collaborative innovation in the next three years (The Economist Group 2022). However, the social and economic changes imposed by the emerging processes of transition towards a more digital and sustainable society raise questions on how the open innovation field of studies is evolving to meet new, emerging needs. By combining bibliometric techniques and content analysis, this study illustrates how this research community has evolved in the last 12 years. More specifically, this study provides a descriptive analysis of the literature on open innovation, defines its knowledge structure, and illustrates a representative picture of the theoretical landscape. Our analysis shows that attempts to consolidate established topics and theoretical approaches in this field of studies go hand in hand with the emergence of new conversations about unexplored dimensions of open innovation. We conclude this article by outlining some avenues for future research on how to conceptualize, theorize, and research (methods and analytical techniques) open innovation.