Identification and search for suitable Open Innovation partners

Abstract

The main goal of this thesis is to find innovation-partner search approaches. The found approaches will be assessed regarding their suitability in Open Innovation, and then adapted to their implementation into SOI. This will respond to the demands from industry for a methodical support in finding partners for OI. The main questions stated for this research are:  How can a firm identify suitable partners for OI collaboration within all SH/people and firms involved in the innovation process?  Are there specific approaches for specific type of partner?  What are the requirements for an “OI-partner search approach”?  How can search approaches be looked for in a methodical system?  How can these approaches be assessed regarding OI in order to classify them?  How can these OI partner-search approaches be implemented by firms?