Open Innovation Practice: Channels for Collaboration and Opportunities for Ukraine

Abstract

Open innovation practice is an effective tool for collaborative work between different agents involved in the process of innovation creation (science, business, government, and civil society). It enhances knowledge creation, diffusion, and use; intensifying technology transfer and commercialization of scientific results. In this context, the paper aims to explore and profile the nature of open innovation practice and its implementation in Ukraine. In the article, the essence of open innovation practice has been considered. The types of open innovation have been identified, taking into account inbound (outside-in), outbound (outside-out), and coupled open innovation. The channels of purposive knowledge outflows and inflows as elements of the open innovation mechanism have been presented in the paper. It has been identified, that the coupled open innovation is more suitable for business and science collaboration. Inbound open innovation is often used as well for collaboration between representatives of business and science and can bring fruitful outcomes. However, the type of open innovation that combines inbound and outbound open innovation is more effective for business and science partnerships. Outbound open innovation is more suitable for business organizations, which decide to share unused internally developed ideas and assets with external parties to use in their activity. The article highlights the main tools of open innovation practices in Ukraine. The different online platforms have been overviewed. It has been found, that in Ukraine an efficient tool for the implementation of open innovation practice is e-infrastructure. After the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, open innovation practice in combination with different online platforms can be used to find innovative solutions for rebuilding Ukraine during the war and post-war period.