Innovation workshop to foster international collaboration

Senior managers from corporations including IBM, HP and Thomson Reuters are meeting with scholars from universities across the world at the Open Innovation workshop to discuss the role that sharing innovative ideas and practices can play in helping firms compete in a globalised and technology-driven world.

Such issues as the role that research institutions can play in renewable energy innovations and the sharing of novel practices between collaborators on large engineering projects are amongst the topics being debated.

By bringing together young scholars, established researchers and business leaders in fields from politics to computer sciences the organisers hope to encourage the exchange of knowledge and provide a platform for shared research projects into open innovation.

Dr Michael Kitson, Director of the Programme on Regional Innovation and Lecturer in International Macroeconomics, said: “This workshop will examine the relevant research issues and the managerial implications to be considered when designing business models for open innovation. This knowledge exchange highlights the increasing role of universities and business schools in the innovation ecosystem.”

The workshop is being held in response to recent changes in industry innovation.

There has been a move away from the traditional approach to innovation, which saw firms working internally and rarely sharing their ideas. A new, more open approach to innovation has allowed businesses to take advantage of discoveries made by others and to use third parties to commercialise their own innovations.

As a result, these firms are able to innovate more quickly and put themselves in a stronger competitive position.

The greater mobility of capital, labour and knowledge brought about by globalization has increased business opportunities for firms that can innovate quickly, whilst technological developments have made open innovation a necessity.

Short life cycles for electronic products and the complexity of the R&D process mean that no firm can keep up with developments alone. As a result, businesses have become keen to learn from each other and pass on commercialisation of their ideas to other companies, whose business models may be better adapted to such work.

Dr Chander Velu, Lecturer in Marketing at Judge Business School, said: “Many established firms are trying to build capabilities for open innovation and are asking some fundamental questions on the appropriateness of their business models in a collaborative world. This raises many questions such as what conditions are necessary for firms to embrace the open innovation model and what processes are needed for this to be successful.”