OS CONCEITOS DA INOVAÇÃO ABERTA E O DESEMPENHO DE EMPRESAS BRASILEIRAS INOVADORAS

Abstract

Closed innovation was the pattern adopted by companies until the early 2000s, where R&D activities were carried out exclusively in their own laboratories. This model is being replaced by open innovation, where firms seek ideas, not just internal, by taking advantage of the creative capacity from other sources, such as customers, suppliers, universities, research institutes or independent inventors, with whom they establish partnerships. By this means, firms can get better and cheaper innovations in a shorter time, and also offer to the market their internal inventions that are not used, generating income. Among the most relevant aspects of the open innovation concept are the changes in the organizational culture, in the business model, and in the management of intellectual property (IP), thus resulting in new ways to create value and identify external knowledge useful to the company. This paper studies three Brazilian firms from different sectors that use open innovation as a strategy to increase their competitiveness, aiming to verify the consistency between their practices and the model assumptions, regarding the three aspects mentioned above. The research method was the multiple case study, using primary (interviews) and secondary data (companies’ annual reports, theses, academic papers, articles in newspapers and business journals) through bibliographical and documental research. The results show that business practices do not show complete adherence to the theoretical concepts of open innovation. Key