Marketing Techniques enhance Closed Innovation to form Open Innovation

The paper highlights the role that marketing plays in bringing to market, products and services based on innovative technologies. There are envisioned the implications of marketing techniques in the transformation of Closed Innovation models to Open Innovation models. This study brings to light new approach to explaining Open Innovation in terms of marketing science. Marketing, one of the youngest sciences, has contained in its intrinsic nature, the fact of major changing all sciences that interfere with. This is easily observable in the field of inventions. The newest practice of bringing in a short time the new findings on the market is to use models based on Open Innovation. The study conducted, presents Open Innovation beyond the definitions generally accepted among specialists. Working hypothesis is putting into question the fact that Open Innovation is actually Closed Innovation enhanced by well-applied Marketing Techniques. Exploratory research undertaken was qualitative and consisted of discussions through in-depth interviews with a group of 36 inventors of Closed Innovation generation, which try to adapt themselves to Open Innovation, the quickly new way to innovate. Were also consulted the opinions of other actors involved in bringing innovation to market: representatives of certification bodies and licensing, members of companies' management, end-users. Results of the research confirm largely that interference of the marketing techniques in inventor's domain has led to the emergence of models based on Open Innovation. Marketing instrumentation properly used, complements and strengthens all research and development departments' works. Marketing strategies and techniques can be implemented at every step of its development efforts on new products or services, through the identification and appointment of the optimal solutions and ideas of the moment, coming from outside the companies. This produce an immediate impact in decreasing the time to market for innovations and a substantial increase in profits. Using marketing techniques, companies identify latest opportunities that their clients want to benefit of and thus, can adjust their own findings with those developed outside the company. The results reached in this way are beneficial for both companies and end consumers. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.