Editorial Local Open Innovation (March 2013).docVIP

Technology Innovation Management Review March 2013 Editorial: Local Open Innovation Chris McPhee, Editor-in-Chief Christophe Deutsch, Guest Editor From the Editor-in-Chief From the Guest Editor Welcome to the March 2013 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. This months editorial theme is Local Open Innovation. It is my pleasure to welcome our guest editor, Christophe Deutsch, who is co-founder of En Mode Solutions () and RD Manager at Telops (), in Quebec City, Canada. The authors of the five articles in this issue provide diverse international perspectives on local open innovation; the issue also includes a report on a recent TIM Lecture on the same topic, given by Chris- tophe and one of his co-founders at En Mode Solutions, Philippe Dancause. You might be surprised by the title of this issue – Local Open Innovation – because it mixes two concepts that seem to be in opposition. Why should you stay local when open-innovation techniques allow you to access the world? How can open innovation benefit from be- ing local? These are some of the questions the authors explore through their articles in this special issue. As stated by Frank Piller (2012; /d4w286m), one of the biggest benefits for a company participating in open innovation is the chance to explore new domains of knowledge to help them solve problems or develop new opportunities. However, many open-innovation projects never concretize themselves because the solu- tion provider is too far away, not only geographically, but also in culture, background, or capability to collab- orate with the solution-seeking company. Here is the first reason why local open innovation enables new pos- sibilities: the solution provider is next door, speaks the same language, and shares common values. It is much easier to concretize a project and benefit