Open innovation

Open innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, adjunct professor and faculty director of the Center for Open Innovation at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, in a book of the same name, though the idea and discussion about some consequences (especially the interfirm cooperation in R&D) date as far back as the 1960s. The term refers to the use of both inflows and outflows of knowledge to improve internal innovation and expand the markets for external exploitation of innovation.