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Open Innovation (OI) is a growing trend as a practice to improve the Product Development Process (PDP). It is changing the way companies create new products and technology. The automotive industry is not an exception to that trend. This industry began to implement this concept many years ago but not in a homogeneous way. Now, more than ever, innovation is playing a vital role in this industry due to the technological revolution it is facing, and new innovation tools are needed. This study aims to compare OI practices in the PDP of French companies at their headquarters and at their subsidiaries located in Brazil. It presents multiple case studies based on interviews with experienced professionals from four different companies. Public documents were also used in the analysis of the innovation process in these companies. A literature review of PDP and OI is presented to ground the questions that guided these interviews. This study reveals that, in addition to stronger technology development, headquarters in France have more structured OI practices than subsidiaries in Brazil. It was found that automakers in Brazil perform some OI practices while suppliers have few to no product development. Furthermore, in both countries and industries, outside-in OI practices are much more common than inside-out ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of Sawhney, Wolcott and Arroniz (2006) shows that when a company wants to innovate its business, people should look at the organization in 12 dimensions called Innovation Radar. The research question used for this article was: Which dimensions of innovation capability are adopted by four companies in the auto parts industry located in Sorocaba? The aim was to identify the dimensions that comprise the construct of the capacity of innovation in this segment. The research was qualitative and exploratory. The method used was a multiple case study. The instrument for data collection was interview, secondary data and institutional data. The results obtained from this study allowed the understanding of innovation capacity and made it possible to build the conceptual theoretical structure and also to adapt the Innovation Radar to the companies' reality in the auto parts industry. In addition, the study also identified three new dimensions: people, organizational learning and quality of life at work. Finally, the study of the Innovation Radar in three companies of the auto parts industry, located in Sorocaba, permitted the identification of the sustainability axis permeating all the other radar dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]