The Act of Giving & Receiving : A study of the social context in collaborations

Sammanfattning: For the past decade, organisations have been recognising that they can apply open innovation, by collaborating with external parties. Open innovation, however, entails challenges and complex networks for the organisations that have traditionally worked in a different manner. Acknowledging the arising challenges, and finding success factors to match these, could, therefore, be a way to prevent these from developing. Moreover, mapping the key networks and roles could help organisations become aware of potential restrictions in the flow of information.  The findings of the thesis were obtained through a study, which consisted of interviews with six experts of open innovation, as well as a case study conducted with eight companies. These findings suggest that ideas are easy to discover in either the internal or the external network. The challenges arise when the ideas are absorbed and developed into something tangible. This is because organisations can be unaware of their need for a network to absorb the collected ideas and knowledge. This network, called the absorbent network, is where the key roles, such as: broker, connector, supporter and challenger, exist. The study outlines some of the largest challenges that large companies can face when applying open innovation, and some success factors that are required to overcome them. It also summarises the key roles and networks that arise in companies that apply open innovation.