Open Innovation Process for Inter-Organizational Projects

Open Innovation (OI) research has covered various organizational forms in dimensions of durability (permanent versus temporary organizing) and organizational scope (intra- or inter-organizational). Inter-organizational forms - both temporary and permanent – are regarded mainly as modes of OI. However, these organizational forms also act as initiators of OI activities to extend knowledge transfer across the inter-organizational consortium borders, which is hardly researched. To address this gap, the research presented in this article develops an OI process for inter-organizational projects (IOP) as initiators of OI. The initial model is developed by action research with an IOP of museums and educational institutions implementing a series of hackathons. The model’s applicability is then evaluated for other IOPs by a survey, indicating the model’s suitability for practitioners. Findings point to the importance of collaborative activities for aligning the OI initiative with both individual partners’ and common project goals, while outbound activities are regarded least important despite the time-limitation of the project. The research is limited by its focus on the specific IOP environment of EU-funded projects and the small scope of the survey.