Open Innovation Practices and Open Innovation Culture in the Life-Sciences Clusters. The Case of AstraZeneca

Abstract

The study contributes to the emerging debate on the open innovation ecosystems by sharing insights and knowledge on the open innovation practices in life sciences sector, using the example of Cambridge cluster and its linkages with AstraZeneca. The authors applied descriptive data analysis and case study method. The study shows that decentralisation of corporate R&D process and investments into building an open innovation culture enabled AstraZeneca to exploit its local knowledge and information more effectively. The example of AstraZeneca allows to understand better the phenomenon of open innovation and shares some of the open innovation instruments, which could be adopted by other firms.