Benefiting from External Knowledge in Open Innovation Processes

The importance of knowledge management for organizations has been widely discussed in recent years. Today, only few firms can sustain their competitiveness and innovativeness by focusing exclusively on internal knowledge sources. Managing highly specific knowledge from customers, technologies, markets, etc. is now a key to innovation. However, integrating external knowledge to foster innovation faces companies with a number of challenges. This study examines the role of external knowledge in the field of open innovation. By carrying out a systematic literature review the author develops eight categories with 19 sub-categories of potential external knowledge sources. A systematization of the identified sources investigates assets and drawbacks that can be associated with the integration of such knowledge. Thereby, the article shows that research on open innovation is highly concerned about the role of external knowledge, but mainly focuses on just a few categories and tends to neglect positive and/ or negative influences on competitiveness and innovativeness.