Open Innovation, coined by Henry Chesbrough in 2003, is a paradigm that assumes firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they advance their technology. It contrasts with the traditional closed innovation model where R&D is conducted entirely in-house. Open Innovation encompasses practices such as technology licensing, spin-offs, corporate venturing, crowdsourcing, and open-source collaboration. It is widely applied in technology industries, pharmaceuticals, and public sector innovation. It is particularly relevant in Business, Software Engineering, Public Policy and Manufacturing.

Open Innovation supports open source, crowdsourcing, co-creation and interdisciplinary collaboration and is suited for organizational settings, multi-organization networks and community-scale initiatives in remote, hybrid and in-person settings.

Open Innovation is an established framework with a solid track record of use across multiple contexts. Key concepts include Knowledge spillovers, Technology licensing, Innovation funnel, Absorptive capacity.