Open innovation is about firms' external relations with other firms and organisations. The authors examine four key issues: differences between firms in open innovation practices, public funding to enhance external relations, R&D outsourcing of firms, and the role of human resources in R&D and innovation.

Contents: Foreword Introduction Part I: Firms React Differently when Managing Open Innovation 1. Open Innovation and the Relation between Innovative Activities and Firm Performance 2. Firm-level Effects of Incoming Knowledge Spillovers, Research Collaboration and Strategic Appropriability 3. A Comparative Analysis of Open Innovation and the Relation between Research Intensity and Product Innovativeness Part II: Open Innovation and Public Funding Practices 4. Public Intervention and Innovative Networking: Firm-level Evidence on the Opening-up of the Innovation Process 5. Public Funding for Innovation and Research Cooperation 6. The Impact of Public Funding for Research on Private-Public Research Cooperation Part III: A Closer Look at Open Innovation: R&D Outsourcing 7. The Impact of Internal R&D, Strategic Appropriability and Cooperation on R&D Outsourcing 8. Managing R&D Outsourcing and the Impact on Firms' R&D Employment Part IV: The Role of Human Resources in Open Innovation Practices 9. The Impact of Occupation and Education of R&D Personnel on Knowledge Exchange 10. Research Experts' Role in Knowledge Development and Exchange in Formal Research Cooperation General Conclusions References Index

'Research on open innovation has developed exponentially in the last five years, but strong empirical evidence on several research questions is still lacking. The authors offer, via detailed large scale empirical research, interesting answers on how to manage open innovation and how to shape policy conditions that lead to more open innovation.' -- Wim Vanhaverbeke, University of Hasselt, Belgium

Andre Spithoven, Belgian Science Policy Office and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Peter Teirlinck, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel and Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Dirk Frantzen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium