The Social Science Research Network published a paper by Teppo Felin and Tod Zenger which discusses open innovation from the perspective of problem-solving and the theory of the firm. Open, distributed and user innovation, crowdsourcing, peer-based systems, innovation prizes, and various new forms and models of production are raising questions about the emergent nature of innovation, the purpose of organizational boundaries and associated implications for the theory of the firm. The paper provide a comparative framework for managing innovation, which delineates and discusses four forms of open innovation (partnership, markets, contests and tournaments and user or community innovation) and compares them with each other and with internal development or hierarchy.
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