Assessing The Openness Degree Of Knowledge Supply Chains

Organizations need to engage in collaboration networks to develop innovations. Such networks are defined as Knowledge Supply Chains (KSCs) and the involved collaborations as Knowledge Supplies (KSs). The paper proposes a methodology to map the KSs that an organization needs in developing innovation and to assess its openness degree, an evaluation in turn depending on the characteristics and the criticality of each supply. By taking into consideration different dimensions of the KSs and providing a measurement of their criticality, the methodology contributes to make the concept of openness clearer. The methodology can also be used by organizations to support (i) decision making and priority assessment in the allocation of resources, (ii) ex-post learning (lesson learnt) as to the knowledge acquired and used during New Product Development (NPD) and the degree, if any, of openness adopted.