From Closed to Open Innovation: The Evolving Nature of Teams and the Use of Information Technology - Information Technology and Product Development - page 147

Thus, the relationship between the level of innovativeness and the speed-to-market
in open innovation require additional investigation.
Next, questions exist as to whether or not existing technology is sufficient for
new collaboration settings and new working structures. Researchers need to better
understand the role of IT - both how it works in the open innovation context and
where the gaps are likely to be in terms of technology-based capabilities. What is the
impact of different types of IT-based collaboration tools on innovation productivity,
extent of creativity or innovativeness, and other innovation outcomes? How should
companies select and deploy IT-based tools to maximize open innovation outcomes?
Researchers continue to investigate the ability of virtual workspaces to replace or
complement face-to-face meetings in innovation projects. Researchers also need to
focus on the usage behaviors (e.g., communication mode repertoires), productivity
outcomes, and collaboration challenges associated with such virtual environments.
7.6.3 Team Management
While the concept of open innovation may be appealing, this model also has its per-
ils. Costs of open innovation, such as management distraction and lost intellectual-
property rights, are not nearly as well studied as its benefits (Vaitheeswaran, 2007).
It still remains unclear what capabilities companies will need, or how they will
organize those capabilities in order to take advantage of the benefits that this
model offers.
The role of the CEO and CIO appears to be crucial to both the adoption and
long-term success of this innovation model. Moving to open innovation requires
managing a cultural change and retooling a company's approach to innovation with
full support from upper management (McGregor et al., 2007)
Knowledge flow barriers exist in an organization regardless of its level of open-
ness, and these barriers will not be broken by technology alone. In addition,
organizations unable to move past their closed innovation practices cannot blame
the absence of participative technologies (Enterprise 2.0 technologies such as wikis
and blogs), as simply embracing this type of technology will not dissolve an exist-
ing organizational hierarchy. In the event, knowledge does flow fluidly among all
innovation partners; there remains the risk and complication of an overwhelming
amount of data requiring proper storage, distribution, and analysis.
Incentives and innovation metrics form another valuable research area. Few
companies today link incentives and success metrics together. Managers will need
to understand how to incentivize external partners to contribute to the innovation
project and also how to keep both core and peripheral members engaged throughout
the innovation process. Questions remain as to how managers measure the contri-
butions of collaborators and how project success will be determined. What metrics
will be employed and how will organizations know which ones to use given the var-
ious types of innovation projects? How will tasks, risks, and rewards be equitably
divided and what supporting rules, guidelines, and processes are required? Most
importantly, technology can play in making such incentive system more transparent.