The concept of Open Innovation has quickly gained ground over the past decade and is now common practice within many R&D organisations. Companies no longer focus solely on internally available knowledge and skills, but increasingly engage in partnerships to gain access to valuable external knowledge. Companies which adopt a network perspective in internal and external knowledge search can achieve significant benefits in various key areas in Open Innovation.
Better usage of internally available expertise
Large amounts of knowledge and experience exist within each R&D organisation. After defining a Want in Open Innovation, the first step should be to assess whether your internal R&D population has the necessary knowledge to solve (part of) the challenge. Network analytics are key in gaining insight into the connectedness between your R&D population, thereby facilitating internal knowledge search and avoiding unnecessary investments in external searches.
Lower partner search costs
Companies nowadays focus a lot of attention on engaging in Research & Development in collaboration with external parties, including universities, public institutions, suppliers and customers. The search for a suitable partner in a specific technological area often takes a significant amount of time and effort. Kenedict’s mapping of knowledge networks enables clients to gain key insights into the most important players (up to the individual level) in chosen markets and technologies, thereby reducing partner search costs significantly.
