Open Innovation research: trends and influences – a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a bibliometric analysis about open innovation research is developed, covering the period of 2003-2013 (using the Scopus database) and carried out in three steps: 1) characterization of the research on the main trends of open innovation; 2) analysis of the theoretical influence on the open innovation research; 3) analysis of the influence of open innovation literature on other research areas and disciplines. The main conclusions are: open innovation research is mostly focused on the analysis of the U.S.A. and European countries reality; analysis by time periods shows an increase on the number of target countries and regions of open innovation research; the origins of open innovation were influenced by several areas of economics and management, developed over the last decades; there is a lack of research regarding open innovation outside the firm environment, such as in clusters/networks, innovation systems, public policies or at individual level; open innovation research is influencing a growing number of areas outside business, management and engineering; new research methodologies should be used by open innovation scholars in order to deepen the existing knowledge.

Keywords

• innovation
• open innovation
• research trends
• research areas
• open innovation impact
• bibliometric analysis
• theoretical review
• theoretical influence
• influential authors
• time periods
• longitudinal analysis