In a fast-paced world where the entrepreneur is king, collaborative innovation is frequently hindered by issues of intellectual property and restrictions around knowledge-use. Open innovation is countering this closed model of knowledge-production, seeking to bring openness to research and facilitate opportunities for impact and value creation for cross-sectoral stakeholders.
The QUT Institute for Future Environments (IFE) Transforming Innovation Systems Platform hosted a business breakfast and research workshop last week exploring current ideas and future opportunities of open innovation. Both events were supported by the QUT Design Lab, QUT Business School and IMCRC Design Robotics Open Innovation Network. The events sought to connect research and industry, sparking opportunities for collaborative research partnerships.

Left to right: Lisa Cavallaro, David Chuter, QUT Vice-Chancellor Margaret Sheil, the Hon. Kate Jones MP, Professor Marcel Bogers, and Dr Ian Dover.

 
Visiting Professor Marcel Bogers of the University of Copenhagen enriched both events with his insights about the design, organisation and management of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Open innovation has become a new paradigm for organizing innovation … Open innovation assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal as well as external paths to market, as they look to advance their innovations.”

  • Bogers et al. (2018)

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Research Workshop

Research into Open Innovation is emerging mainly from the business sphere, but it presents exciting possibilities when it comes to collaboration between industry and design researchers. This benefit is mutual, with design able to enrich innovative business models as an inherently user-centric form of practice.
During the “From Open Innovation to Open Research” workshop, over 20 researchers came together, including Dr Prithika Randhawa from the University of Technology Sydney, Business School who assisted in facilitating the event.
Participants discussed the detrimental impact of “silo thinking” as a barrier to Open Innovation, as opposed to models that embrace a diverse range of disciplinary knowledge and skills. “It was great to see different researchers brought together from disciplines such as business and design,” Glenda Caldwell of the Design Robotics team said, “we found common ground through this concept of Open Innovation, and were quickly able to overcome any disciplinary boundaries.”

We are looking inside out and also outside in when it comes to openness and participation between organisations

  • Marcel Bogers

Participants also grappled with the complexities of engaging multiple stakeholders with diverse interests, as well as the impact of institutional aspects of policy-making and participatory governance. Open Innovation was frequently described as a form of ecosystem in which the key to success is in striking a balance between value creation and empowerment for each of the stakeholders.

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Business Breakfast

The Open Innovation Breakfast was hosted on 15 February at QUT by the IFE Transforming Innovation Systems Platform, bringing together over 80 industry, government and academic representatives.

The Hon. Kate Jones MP

 
Opened by the Honourable Kate Jones, Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development, and attended by QUT Vice-Chancellor Margaret Sheil the event linked research, practice and policy. Speakers included Dr Ian Dover, CEO of METS Ignited, Lisa Cavallaro, Industry Development Manager of Brisbane Marketing, David Chuter, CEO Managing Director, Innovative Manufacturing CRC, and Professor Marcel Bogers provided a fresh outlook on the current challenges and future opportunities for Open Innovation.
 
Reference: Bogers, M., Chesbrough, H., Moedas, C. (2018). Open Innovation: Research, Practices, and Policies. California Management Review, __60(2), 5-16.