Triangulating relations to explore openness of innovation

Paper in proceeding, 2009

In a longitudinal study of an open innovation arena, we study how the leadership practices come to focus on managing relations rather than processes in innovative work. The arena, which is called SAFER, engages world leading companies in automotive safety to jointly develop both innovations and methods to improve the competitiveness of its constituents, who are often each other’s most fierce competitors. The set up allows us to explore how the innovation collaboration develops from several of the collaborating parties’ viewpoints. We aim at develop a multifaceted understanding of how open innovation practices are managed on three leadership levels, from the perspective of the arena itself, as an intermediary in the process, and from the perspectives of the collaborating parties. Exploring openness of innovation by triangulating relations is…blurry. Patterns develop over time, and there is no chance that a snapshot gives you the whole picture.