Academic community perceptions of Open Innovation: An exploratory study

Abstract

This study seeks to assess the academic community’s knowledge and perception of open innovation. While the so-called “closed innovation” is rooted in the discourse of future managers, open innovation, being a relatively recent paradigm, may be an unknown form of innovation and therefore its potential is underused. What is the perception of open innovation among students and faculty at a private Portuguese university? The technical procedure was based on a survey, and 64 responses were obtained (the population corresponds to 3666 people). It was shown that the theme of open innovation, despite being recognized in the academic world, is still little known in the community. Although Portugal is a country of meager funds for innovation, which should lead to a greater focus on open innovation, this may not be happening due to the lack of trust in strangers that exists culturally in Portugal, and that may be currently hindering open innovation partnerships. Finally, in order to identify possible relationships between gender and perceptions regarding open innovation, we applied the chi-square test of independence (X2) in relation to gender. This exploratory study verified the existence of gender equality regarding the variables analyzed on open innovation.