Open innovation in the performing arts. Examples from contemporary dance and theatre production

Abstract

Scholarly work about open innovation examines the different components of opening up the innovation process of firms, where the most important feature is sourcing in knowledge. In this paper I examine the implications of adapting an open innovation frame to a field in which it has not been investigated before: the performing arts (contemporary dance and theatre). I draw on case studies and demonstrate that open innovation strategies are viable for use in artistic production. Independent companies purposefully mine external knowledge in production and commercialize on the spillovers of their body of knowledge, putting themselves in the category of firms who are adopting and adapting to open innovation.