In this podcast, Dr. Joel West, an associate professor at San Jose State University's College of Business, talks about the open innovation paradigm for technology development. His teaching and research focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. Along with Henry Chesborough and Wim Vanhaverbeke, West is editor of the book, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

Working and living in the heart of Silicon Valley, Dr. Joel West cannot get away from technology innovation. In fact, his course offerings and research at the San Jose State University's College of Business focus on technology innovation and strategic management in technology companies. San Jose State University ranks at one of the top 25 research business schools in the U.S.

Dr. West's interest goes beyond traditional innovation to the concept of open innovation. He defines it as the idea of using the market rather than the internal hierarchy, both as a source of innovation and a way to commercialize innovation. Open innovation also means treating innovation like anything else -- something that can be bought and sold on the open market, not something that happens within a company. He says that a company can no longer depend on its internal resources to drive its innovation efforts.

His research in open source computing led him to look at open innovation and a book on the subject. He was one of the co-editors with Henry Chesborough and Wim Vanhaverbeke on the book, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm (2006). He also writes several blogs about open innovation, including openinnovation.net, which describes his research and provides comments on other academicians' research projects.

In this podcast, Dr. West explores what powers the concept of open innovation and how it differs from traditional innovation efforts, such as research and development. He says that open innovation raises the question about how those companies that practice it differ from those organizations that have research and development programs. Henry Chesborough explored this in the first book on open innovation published in 2003.

West says, "Companies that practice open innovation will do the same things they did before they adopted it. They might have a research and development department. Chesborough went one step further by looking at the revolutionary nature of open innovation. According to him, open innovation is a process that enables a company to find the best sources of innovation, and to find the best paths to commercialize that innovation. The company might accomplish these goals looking within company and looking outside the company. They might take other paths that they would not have considered if they did not know about open innovation."

Dr. West has two important takeaways for chief information officers, chief strategy officers, and chief technology officers: look for external resources who know how to make your products better or who have new products ideas, and find the best ways to bring these resources into your organization. He says, "You might look at university students, your suppliers and customers, or an open innovation community. You might have to look at all of these possibilities to find out which class of individuals or position in the value chain will provide the best ideas you want. Money does not always motivate people to share their ideas with you. Many people like the idea of a challenge to compete for recognition. You might have a contest to find the best ideas."

Bio

Dr. Joel West is an associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Department of Organization and Management in the College of Business at San Jose State University. His research, teaching, and industry experience center on global technology industries, which provide the lifeblood of Silicon Valley.

His research findings have appeared in Asian Survey, Information Systems Research, Management International Review, R&D Management, Research Policy, Telecommunications Policy, and The Information Society, among other journals. He has won best-paper awards for tracks of the Academy of Management and HICSS conferences, and has been active in service to the research community. Along with Henry Chesborough and Wim Vanhaverbeke, West is editor of the book Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

West earned a Ph.D. in management from the University of California, Irvine.

Resources

Joel West's Personal Blog

http://http://blog.openinnovation.net/2010/02/joel-open-innovation-podcast.html

Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm

http://www.openinnovation.net/Book/NewParadigm/

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis