Exploration-exploitation transitions in open innovation : from preaching to practice

This conceptual paper considers the potential for process innovation tools, such as stage-gate techniques, to ease transitions from exploration to exploitation activities in the context of Open Innovation. It contributes to the growing body of knowledge on Open Innovation by explicating some of the concerns that Open Innovation actors might experience in bringing their innovations to the market and presents the outline of a new research agenda, based upon participatory Action Research. Similarities in the findings of two separate empirical studies generated the idea of this paper; that process theories of innovation, and in particular New Product Development (NPD) techniques, can be applied to ease transitions between explorative and exploitative innovation activities in the organisational context of Open Innovation. We propose ideas for an Action Research agenda to test the propositions presented in this paper and provide an example based upon research into the temporal schema of research and commercial personnel working in commercialisation.