Going Open: Does it Mean Giving Away Control?

Conventional research on open innovation and collaboration examines how organizations open up the innovation process and how they control the collaboration with others. The research also identifies the need for governance models and architecture of participation in collectives that embrace open innovation practices to help maintain momentum and ensure continuity. Existing research on systemic innovation and platform ecosystems helps us understand the structure of platform-complement product systems (Boudreau and Hagiu, 2009: tinyurl.com/a3xc7xj; Baldwin and Woodard, 2009: tinyurl.com/aceg9ac; Dahlander and Gann, 2010: tinyurl.com/chacrs9). Studies examine the types of relationships and information transactions among the members of a platform ecosystem, the importance of platform owners as regulators of the ecosystem, and regulatory instruments available to them.