Integrated roadmaps for open innovation

In the context of open innovation, firms increasingly acquire technologies from external sources. Moreover, many firms have recently started to actively commercialize technologies, for example, by means of outlicensing. While some pioneering firms realize enormous benefits from this, many others experience major difficulties in managing external technology exploitation. To overcome these challenges, firms need to establish appropriate strategic technology-planning processes. Such processes include the extension of product-technology roadmapping to integrated roadmaps for open innovation processes, including external technology exploitation. This has a number of implications for technology managers, including the need to consider potential returns from a technology as a whole rather than from product sales alone.