An empirical investigation on the relationship between open innovation and innovation performance

Open innovation as a multilateral form of cooperation has become a growing trend across industries, as companies are increasingly searching for new innovation opportunities in their external environment. The aim of this thesis was to analyze whether companies that emphasize open innovation can positively influence their innovation performance and which open innovation activities contribute the most. The study distinguished between the core processes of open innovation. R&D cooperation with different stakeholders was analyzed by regarding the outside-in process, and additional commercialization channels for internal knowledge were analyzed by examining the inside-out process. The study included firms¿ internal perspective, which encompasses internal teamwork and the corporate innovation culture. Web 2.0 and social networking technologies were also considered, as their use has steadily increased in recent years.