Is open innovation supporting sustainable innovation? Findings based on a systematic, explorative analysis of existing literature

Abstract

Open innovation (OI) and sustainable innovation (SI) are concepts that are contested, but widely used, both in business practices as well as in management science. This systematic, explorative analysis of literature focuses on the clarification of the concept of OI for SI from a company perspective and provides a comprehensive literature review. By qualitatively analysing 19 papers that were published between 2003 and 2015, we show that OI is an important concept for SI, although its concrete application and impacts still remain debatable. The analysis presented contributes to existing research by linking OI and SI and clarifying the concepts. Our results imply that future research areas of interest include the social dimensions of SIs or OI in the context of life-cycle-thinking, but also support practitioners by providing a discussion of practical cases whereby OI practices have been applied within a sustainability context.