Despite providing us with a good understanding of how firms use certain mechanisms to benefit from open innovation strategies, current research provides only limited insights into how barriers internal to the firm may hamper knowledge transfer and limit effective utilization of external knowledge sources.

The Influence of Internal Barriers on Open Innovation proposes a dynamic perspective that addresses this gap and aims at stimulating this discussion in two ways. First, by looking at how the way firms structure their internal (innovation) activities may (unintentionally) create barriers to the incorporation of external knowledge. Second, by reflecting on how internal barriers might be coupled to firm decisions aimed at the optimization of innovation processes, like the balance between exploration and exploitation strategies.

The chapters of this book provide detailed conceptualization and investigation of organizational characteristics and practices that influence internal barriers to open innovation. The diverse set of studies described in the chapters of this book will help open innovation scholars to better understand the challenges that firms face when dealing with internal barriers that affect their external knowledge search and knowledge sourcing.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Industry and Innovation.