Abstract

The concept of open innovation has attracted great interest from the academic and industrial sectors alike.Despite the ongoing debate, we can see some lack of consistency of its principles. The purpose of this paper is toset out a conceptual reflection on the foundations of innovation and its process and discuss new proposals fromthe literature on open innovation. We question whether this concept is really a new model, or if it is nothingmore than a recent combination, sponsored by academics. We have examined Chesbrough’s six principles ofopen innovation, showing how they are based on a false dichotomy that opposes necessarily closed innovationto open innovation. We show how this new paradigm lacks conceptual clarity confusing innovation withinnovation process, resurrecting the linear view, and ignoring many earlier studies. We hope to contribute to thediscussion on innovation management and to enrich understanding for all concerned.

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