How open innovation strategy is reflected in the firms R&D efficiency DEA ranking?

Open innovation model, which refers to the use of external technology and environment, has boosted the technology developing speed to a large extent. The term “Open Innovation” was launched by Chesbrough. In open innovation model, firms utilize a wide range of both internal & external sources and channels to commercialize their ideas. Technology market is complicated. Therefore, open innovation is not a single, unique strategy. There are many different moves and approaches that can all lead to firm´s success in innovation competition. Previous studies have done in this field were usually in qualitative way. In this paper, we are aiming to study open innovation approach with a qualitative method, Data Envelopment Analysis. 18 companies, which are recognized as pioneers in open innovation, have been selected in our study for R&D efficiency evaluating and open innovation strategy discussion. Since R&D efficiency is always a key part of innovation process, the objective of this paper is to analyze how company´s choice in open innovation strategy model will influence its R&D efficiency DEA ranking, and how its R&D efficiency at different stages can be aligned with its open innovation strategy.