Should 'open innovation' change innovation policy thinking in catching-up economies? Considerations for policy analyses.

This paper provides a review of the current state of academic and policy-level debates on 'open innovation' by elaborating on the relevance of the concept of open innovation for innovation policy-making in catching-up economies. The paper shows that paradoxes and contradictions exist between the 'mainstream' innovation discourse and the development challenges of the catching-up countries that have lead to 'de-contextualization' of the innovation policy discourse. The paper argues that applying the concept of open innovation in its ideal-type form to the catching-up context is likely to reinforce these de-contextualization tendencies. This problem can be remedied by more conscious attention to the basic contradictions and paradoxes, which requires a more comprehensive and systemic analytical focus on innovation and technological development at the levels of firm, industry and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]