Open Innovation Adoption Rates Among Large Enterprises

Open innovation is no longer just a buzzword. It’s changing how large companies think, act, and compete. Instead of trying to build everything internally, many large enterprises are opening up to external ideas, partnerships, and technologies to stay ahead. Let’s explore just how deeply open innovation is being adopted, one stat at a time.

1. 78% of large enterprises report actively engaging in some form of open innovation

The Shift from Closed to Open: What This Means for Big Companies

Years ago, most companies kept innovation in-house. Everything had to be developed internally, from scratch. That has changed dramatically. Now, nearly 8 out of 10 large enterprises are working with others—startups, universities, research labs, even competitors—to create new ideas and products.

Why is this shift happening? Speed, complexity, and cost.

Modern markets move fast. No single company, no matter how big, can keep up with everything alone. So instead of fighting the tide, companies are riding it by collaborating. They’re tapping into talent and tech beyond their walls. They’re using external innovation to save time, cut risk, and explore new markets.

Practical Steps to Get Started

Audit internal capabilities: Identify gaps in your current R&D and innovation process.
Map external ecosystems: Look at industries adjacent to yours, active startups, universities, and even customer communities.
Define open innovation goals: Are you looking for product ideas, tech integration, or process improvement? Get specific.
Start small: Launch a pilot program—maybe a small startup partnership or a university research tie-up.
Assign ownership: Open innovation needs structure. Assign a team or create a dedicated innovation lead.

Open innovation is not a one-time project. It’s a mindset. If 78% of your competitors are doing it, you can’t afford to sit back.

2. 61% of Fortune 500 companies have formal open innovation programs

Why Formal Programs Matter

It’s one thing to say you believe in open innovation. It’s another to build a formal program around it. A majority of Fortune 500 companies now treat open innovation as a strategic pillar. They have processes, budgets, leadership support, and KPIs around it.

Formal programs help scale innovation efforts. They prevent random, scattered efforts and replace them with focused partnerships, clear outcomes, and measurable ROI.

Let’s say a large healthcare firm is exploring digital health. Instead of waiting for internal ideas to emerge, they create a structured innovation funnel. They run startup scouting events. They set aside funds for pilots. They assign an executive to lead partnerships. That’s a formal open innovation program.

Actionable Advice for Implementation

Design a roadmap: Decide what types of innovation you want to open up—product, process, customer experience?
Establish an open innovation team: This group can include R&D, marketing, legal, and operations.
Build innovation criteria: Not all ideas are worth chasing. Set criteria for evaluating external ideas.
Create partnership playbooks: Have templates ready for NDAs, co-development, and revenue-sharing agreements.
Incentivize internal teams: Make open innovation part of your culture. Encourage employees to suggest and scout external ideas.

Formal programs help build momentum. They show partners you’re serious. And they signal to your team that open innovation isn’t just a trend—it’s a priority.

3. 45% of global R&D collaborations now involve external partners

Collaboration is the New Competitive Edge

R&D used to be locked in corporate labs. Now, nearly half of all global R&D projects include an external partner. That’s a dramatic shift in how innovation is done.

It makes sense. R&D is expensive. Hiring top researchers, building prototypes, running trials—it adds up. By working with others, companies share the cost, the risk, and often, the reward.

But it’s not just about saving money. External partners bring fresh ideas. They offer access to new markets and emerging technologies. They can help companies stay ahead without constantly reinventing the wheel.

How to Build Strong External R&D Partnerships

Pick the right partner: Look for alignment in goals, timelines, and values. A tech startup that wants quick results may not match a slow-moving enterprise.
Be clear about IP rights: Intellectual property can make or break partnerships. Define who owns what from the beginning.
Create joint R&D governance: Set up a shared steering committee or project office.
Celebrate early wins: Highlight quick wins to keep teams motivated and attract more internal support.
Build long-term relationships: Don’t treat partners like vendors. Treat them like teammates.

Open innovation in R&D is about more than efficiency. It’s about expanding your creative bandwidth. If nearly half of global R&D work now involves outside partners, it’s time to rethink how your own R&D team operates.

4. 70% of innovation leaders cite open innovation as a key driver of growth

Open Innovation Isn’t Just About Ideas—It’s About Business Growth

When 70% of innovation leaders say that open innovation drives growth, they’re not just talking about brainstorming sessions or cool product demos. They’re talking about real, measurable business impact. New revenue streams. Faster time-to-market. Stronger customer loyalty. Even entry into new markets.

Growth in today’s world is harder than ever. Markets are saturated. Technology changes daily. Customer needs evolve fast. But open innovation offers a way out of this chaos. It brings fresh thinking and new capabilities that your company might never develop on its own.

Think of open innovation as a growth engine. Not a side project. Not a PR stunt. A real engine that can fuel your business forward.

Tactics to Turn Open Innovation into a Growth Engine

Align with growth goals: What does growth mean for you—revenue, market share, new products? Connect your open innovation projects directly to those goals.
Involve the business units: Don’t let open innovation live in a silo. Involve sales, marketing, product, and finance from day one.
Target underserved customer needs: Look outside your comfort zone. What do your customers want that you can’t currently deliver? Partner up to deliver it.
Track and publish success stories: When a partnership leads to a new product or market win, shout about it internally and externally.
Think globally: Growth often comes from new geographies. Use open innovation to test local markets through partners who know the ground.

If most innovation leaders believe open innovation drives growth, the next question isn’t “Should we do it?” It’s “How can we use it to grow faster than our competitors?”

5. 58% of large firms partner with startups to accelerate innovation

Big Meets Small: Why Corporate-Startup Partnerships Work

When a startup and a large company work together, magic can happen. The startup brings speed, boldness, and cutting-edge tech. The corporation brings resources, market access, and scale. Together, they can do what neither could do alone.

That’s why more than half of large companies are actively working with startups to drive innovation.

Startups are often willing to explore bold ideas that big firms avoid. They can move quickly, test fast, and adapt on the fly. For large firms, tapping into this agility can cut years off innovation cycles.

But these partnerships aren’t always easy. Cultural differences, speed mismatches, and process clashes can kill momentum. That’s why it’s important to approach them with the right mindset.

Tips to Make Startup Collaborations Work

Set clear expectations: What’s the goal—co-development, investment, pilot test? Align early.
Build a dedicated interface team: A startup liaison team can help bridge the culture and speed gaps.
Simplify procurement and legal: Don’t make a startup wait 6 months to sign an NDA. Streamline your processes.
Offer value, not just money: Help with mentorship, customer access, and visibility.
Be willing to adapt: Startups evolve fast. Your team should be flexible enough to evolve with them.

If 58% of large firms are doing this already, it’s not a trend. It’s a playbook. One that helps you stay nimble in a world that rewards speed.

6. 40% of large corporations co-develop products with universities or research institutions

Tapping into the Minds that Shape the Future

Universities and research institutions are where many breakthrough ideas begin. They’re full of scientists, inventors, and forward-thinkers. Large companies are realizing this and choosing to co-develop products directly with these knowledge hubs.

When you work with a university, you’re not just licensing a patent. You’re getting access to world-class minds, cutting-edge labs, and sometimes, entire teams of doctoral researchers who live and breathe your challenge.

This kind of collaboration can lead to real, usable innovation. Especially for industries like biotech, engineering, materials, and AI.

But these partnerships need structure. Academia and industry work very differently. Bridging that gap takes intention.

Steps to Co-Develop Successfully with Academic Institutions

Pick the right research partner: Look beyond reputation. Match their expertise with your actual product goals.
Define commercial goals early: Many academic teams focus on knowledge. You need to align them with product outcomes.
Create a governance structure: Regular check-ins, joint steering committees, and milestone reviews can keep projects on track.
Handle IP issues upfront: Decide who owns what. Will there be joint ownership, exclusive licensing, or something else?
Invest in the relationship: Long-term partnerships yield better results than one-off deals.

If 40% of large companies are already doing this, it means universities are no longer just a pipeline for talent—they’re now co-creators of the future.

7. 67% of open innovation initiatives are focused on product development

Product Innovation at the Core of Open Innovation

When two-thirds of open innovation efforts are centered on product development, it speaks volumes about where companies see the biggest return. After all, products are what customers touch, use, and pay for. They’re also the most visible sign of innovation.

Companies are using external input to design new features, integrate emerging tech, solve user problems, and even reinvent entire product lines. Whether it’s a co-developed smart device, a new food formulation, or a B2B platform powered by AI, open innovation is changing how products are built and improved.

The reason is simple: customer demands are evolving faster than most internal R&D teams can handle. So, instead of waiting for a breakthrough internally, companies are going outside.

How to Use Open Innovation to Supercharge Product Development

Involve customers early: Invite power users or lead customers to co-create with your team. Their input can help you avoid building features no one needs.
Scout technology partners: Explore startups and labs that specialize in areas your internal team lacks. Think sensor tech, cloud infrastructure, or even niche materials.
Use agile pilot programs: Instead of building full-scale products, co-create prototypes with partners and test quickly.
Invest in co-branding: When you co-create a product with an external partner, consider launching under a joint brand. It builds credibility and trust.
Create cross-functional teams: Your product team, marketing, R&D, and even procurement should all be part of your open innovation process. Silos kill collaboration.

Focusing on product development with external input gives your business the chance to be faster, more customer-centric, and ultimately more competitive. With 67% of open innovation efforts pointed in this direction, the evidence is clear: products are where open innovation pays off the fastest.

8. 55% of large companies report using innovation challenges or crowdsourcing

Unlocking Ideas from the Crowd

Crowdsourcing and innovation challenges have become powerful tools for companies looking to tap into fresh thinking. More than half of large enterprises are already using them to solve tough problems, generate new ideas, and connect with innovators outside their usual network.

Why does this work? Because smart ideas don’t just live inside corporate walls. They’re everywhere—among customers, students, freelancers, engineers, and even hobbyists. Innovation challenges allow you to tap into this global talent pool.

You pose a question or challenge. The world responds with ideas, prototypes, or solutions. And you get options you may never have considered.

How to Launch Effective Innovation Challenges

Define a clear problem: Vague challenges attract vague solutions. Be specific about what you want to solve or improve.
Offer the right incentives: Prizes, recognition, funding, or pilot opportunities can all motivate participation.
Choose the right platform: Use online platforms like HeroX, InnoCentive, or even your own branded page.
Involve internal teams: Let your R&D, product, or marketing teams evaluate submissions and mentor participants.
Pilot the best ideas: Don’t stop at picking winners. Test the top submissions in real scenarios and provide feedback.

Crowdsourcing can seem messy at first. You might get a flood of low-quality submissions. But if you structure your challenge well, you’ll uncover gems. Some of the best product ideas of the past decade have come from open calls. It’s a smart way to democratize innovation—and move faster than your competitors.

9. 64% of enterprises consider open innovation critical for digital transformation

Why Open Innovation is the Backbone of Digital Change

Digital transformation is more than adopting tech—it’s about changing how a business works, serves customers, and competes. And 64% of enterprises say that open innovation is key to making that shift happen.

Why? Because no company can master all the digital tools, platforms, or business models on its own. Whether it’s AI, blockchain, IoT, or automation, these technologies evolve fast. Open innovation gives companies access to external expertise, partnerships, and ready-made tools they can plug into their transformation roadmap.

Let’s say a company wants to digitize customer service using AI chatbots. Building one from scratch could take years. But by partnering with a startup or tech provider, they can roll it out in months.

Practical Tips for Using Open Innovation in Digital Transformation

Map your digital gaps: Where are your biggest needs—cloud, cybersecurity, data analytics, customer experience? Focus there first.
Scout solution providers: Use accelerators, industry events, and corporate venture arms to find partners already working on these issues.
Run integration sprints: Pilot tools or solutions with a clear timeline. Test fast. Learn. Iterate.
Train your teams: Your internal teams need to understand the external tools you’re integrating. Run joint training sessions.
Measure value clearly: Track how much faster, cheaper, or better each partnership makes your digital initiatives.

Digital transformation without external input is like trying to build a skyscraper with hand tools. If the majority of enterprises now see open innovation as the backbone of digital change, you don’t want to be the one trying to go it alone.

10. 46% of companies use joint ventures to implement open innovation strategies

Strategic Partnerships That Go Beyond Contracts

Joint ventures are like innovation marriages. Two companies agree to build something together—sharing risk, resources, and reward. Almost half of the companies diving into open innovation are now choosing this model to bring big ideas to life.

Why a joint venture? Because sometimes, a simple partnership isn’t enough. Some innovation goals are too large, too complex, or too strategic to be handled by one company alone. Joint ventures allow companies to form a separate entity, combine resources, and focus fully on a specific innovation goal.

These ventures are common in industries like automotive, energy, and telecommunications—places where technology investment is high and timelines are long. But now, even software firms and retail giants are joining hands to build platforms, ecosystems, or new business models together.

Building a Joint Venture That Actually Works

Pick the right partner: Shared values, strategic alignment, and complementary strengths matter more than size or fame.
Agree on the why: Whether it’s launching a new product, entering a new market, or building new tech, make sure both sides are aligned on the mission.
Define ownership and control: Clear rules on decision-making, IP ownership, profit sharing, and exit plans are essential from the start.
Assign top talent: Don’t fill the venture with people on rotation. Put your best players on it and treat it like a core business.
Monitor performance separately: A joint venture needs its own KPIs. Evaluate it not by legacy standards, but by what it was created to do.

Joint ventures offer scale, speed, and focus. They show that open innovation isn’t just about exploring ideas—it’s about committing to them in a way that maximizes impact.

11. 31% of open innovation efforts lead to new product launches

From Ideas to Market: Making Innovation Count

Innovation means nothing if it doesn’t reach the market. That’s why this stat matters. A full 31% of open innovation efforts result in a new product being launched. That’s not just noise—it’s outcome. It’s real value being created and delivered to customers.

This stat tells us something else too: open innovation is more than talk. It’s delivering. And even though not every initiative makes it to launch, one in three does—which is a high hit rate in the world of innovation.

But the leap from idea to launch is where most companies stumble. They get stuck in pilot limbo. Or they can’t integrate the new concept with legacy systems. Or worse, the product dies in internal bureaucracy.

What You Can Do to Turn Innovation into Real Products

Create a go-to-market team: Assign a squad responsible for moving successful innovations through the pipeline and into customers’ hands.
Design fast-track approvals: Don’t make new products go through 15 sign-offs. Design a lighter path for innovations from external sources.
Set a ‘launch or kill’ timeline: Decide within 6 to 12 months if the idea is moving forward or being shut down.
Build customer feedback into every step: Involve real users early, and let their feedback shape development decisions.
Celebrate launches publicly: Let the world—and your internal team—know when a new product results from open innovation. It builds excitement and momentum.

With 31% of efforts leading to real launches, the question becomes: Are you ready to move your best ideas beyond the lab and into the world?

12. 52% of large companies say open innovation improved time-to-market

Speed Wins. Open Innovation Helps You Get There.

In today’s business environment, speed is a competitive weapon. The faster you bring new solutions to market, the better you can meet customer needs, outpace rivals, and adapt to change. More than half of large companies report that open innovation has helped them move faster.

That’s no surprise. Working with outside experts, startups, or research teams helps companies shortcut the time it takes to develop, test, and launch new offerings. Instead of building from scratch, they integrate. Instead of researching alone, they co-develop.

This matters most in industries like tech, consumer goods, and pharma—where a six-month delay can cost millions. But it’s also critical in traditional sectors like manufacturing, where speed means operational efficiency and first-mover advantage.

How to Use Open Innovation to Move Faster

Choose quick-win partners: Don’t always go for the biggest partner. Choose those who can prototype, test, and pivot fast.
Build integration-ready systems: Make sure your infrastructure and APIs are ready to plug in external tools without massive custom work.
Train cross-functional teams: When legal, procurement, and IT understand innovation goals, you cut delays by weeks.
Cut pilot timelines in half: If a normal pilot takes 6 months, aim for 3. Create lean pilot frameworks with clear success metrics.
Scale what works fast: When a pilot shows promise, don’t wait. Give it the resources and attention needed to roll out quickly.

Time-to-market isn’t just a metric—it’s a mindset. Open innovation gives you a way to act faster and smarter. And with more than half of large firms seeing improvements, it’s clear this isn’t just theory. It’s a tested way to win.

13. 49% of enterprises report a positive ROI from open innovation programs

Measuring What Matters: Open Innovation That Pays Off

Return on investment. It’s the yardstick that decides whether something scales or shuts down. Nearly half of enterprises say their open innovation efforts are bringing a positive ROI. That’s a big deal.

Innovation is often hard to measure. It doesn’t always deliver quick profits. But when open innovation is done right—when it’s strategic, goal-driven, and focused on outcomes—it pays off. Not just in ideas, but in revenue, efficiency, and market share.

Positive ROI can come in different forms. Maybe a new product drives sales. Maybe a partnership cuts development costs. Maybe a licensing deal brings in new income. The key is to track the right indicators, and more importantly, give innovation time to mature.

How to Make Open Innovation Profitable

Link innovation to business goals: Make sure each initiative connects to outcomes like revenue growth, cost savings, or customer retention.
Track ROI from the start: Don’t wait until the end of a project. Estimate expected value and measure actual performance at each milestone.
Treat partnerships like investments: Vet them as you would a financial bet. Look at the risk, return, and timeline.
Use innovation accounting: Adopt a system to evaluate early-stage projects not just by profit, but by learning milestones and traction.
Cut what’s not working: Be honest about what isn’t delivering. Free up those resources for efforts that are.

With 49% of enterprises already seeing a return, it’s clear that open innovation isn’t a sunk cost. It’s a smart investment—when managed like one.

14. 35% of corporations use innovation labs to facilitate external collaboration

Innovation Labs: The Bridge Between Inside and Outside

Innovation labs are physical or digital spaces designed for experimentation, collaboration, and creativity. They’re where big companies meet small players—startups, designers, researchers, and sometimes even customers—to co-create new solutions.

Around 35% of corporations now use these labs to support their open innovation efforts. These labs act as safe zones for testing ideas that don’t fit within the normal business process. They create space for learning, trial, and even failure—without risking the core business.

The key value of an innovation lab is speed and flexibility. It lets you test a new idea without running it through the red tape. And when it works, you can scale it back into the main business.

Setting Up an Innovation Lab That Works

Focus the mission: Is your lab for exploring new markets? Testing tech? Partnering with startups? Be clear and focused.
Staff it smartly: Mix internal innovators with external collaborators. You need diversity of thought.
Give it air cover: Labs must have executive support to protect them from being absorbed into day-to-day operations.
Create real pathways to the business: Make sure successful experiments in the lab have a clear route to production or commercialization.
Don’t isolate it: Your lab shouldn’t be an island. Let business units visit, contribute, and benefit from its work.

Innovation labs, when designed well, create the space and structure to make open innovation real. And for the 35% of companies using them, they’re becoming central to collaboration strategies.

15. 43% of R&D budgets in large firms are allocated to external innovation

R&D is No Longer Just In-House

This stat is striking. Almost half of the research and development budget in large enterprises is now going to external innovation. That’s a massive shift in how R&D is defined, funded, and executed.

It used to be that R&D meant your own labs, your own scientists, and your own IP. Now, companies are allocating big dollars to joint research, licensing, startup collaborations, and open innovation platforms. This isn’t outsourcing—it’s expanding capacity.

By putting real money behind external innovation, companies are betting that ideas from the outside can be just as valuable—and often more efficient—than internal ones.

How to Shift Your R&D Mindset and Budget

Redefine what R&D includes: Include co-development, tech scouting, and academic partnerships in your R&D scope.
Create a mixed portfolio: Balance internal projects with external ones. Think of it like a stock portfolio with different risk profiles.
Fund experiments early: Allocate seed funding to test ideas with partners before committing to full-scale development.
Set R&D ROI benchmarks: Evaluate internal and external projects equally. This ensures fairness and performance accountability.
Reinvest savings into exploration: External innovation often costs less. Use the savings to explore adjacent markets or bold bets.

This shift in budget is more than symbolic. It shows that innovation is no longer about control—it’s about results. And putting 43% of R&D funds into external innovation proves that large firms are serious about getting those results from beyond their own walls.

16. 72% of companies report using hackathons as part of their open innovation strategy

Hackathons: Fast, Focused, and Full of Ideas

Hackathons have become more than just coding competitions. Today, 72% of companies—across industries, not just tech—are using them to solve problems, test ideas, and engage with fresh talent. And it’s working.

Why? Because hackathons compress time. They create a focused environment where people from inside and outside the organization collaborate to solve a challenge, often in just 24 to 72 hours. The energy is high. The ideas are bold. And the outcomes can surprise even the most experienced innovators.

Hackathons bring together employees, startups, students, and even customers. The result? Rapid ideation, unexpected prototypes, and real user insights that might take months in a traditional setup.

Making Hackathons Work for Your Innovation Agenda

Start with a sharp problem: Don’t just ask for “ideas.” Focus on a specific challenge with clear parameters.
Invite a diverse mix: Include internal staff, external developers, designers, and domain experts.
Set realistic expectations: You’re not building a final product. You’re looking for early-stage concepts or directions.
Follow up fast: What happens after the hackathon matters more than what happens during it. Select the most promising ideas and commit to piloting them.
Turn winners into internal champions: Use the event to identify people who can lead future innovation projects.

Hackathons are about energy, not perfection. And when 72% of companies are using them, it’s a clear sign they’ve moved from experiment to core strategy.

17. 39% of large enterprises use open APIs to foster innovation

Opening the Doors to Developers and Partners

APIs—application programming interfaces—might sound technical, but they’re at the heart of how modern innovation works. Nearly 4 in 10 large enterprises are now using open APIs to let developers, partners, and startups build on top of their platforms.

Think of open APIs as innovation gateways. Instead of controlling every piece of technology, companies allow others to plug in, extend, and create new value.

Banks are doing this with fintech startups. Retailers are opening APIs to loyalty apps. Telecom firms are allowing developers to build new messaging and voice tools. It’s all about becoming a platform others can build on.

Building an Open API Strategy for Innovation

Identify your value layers: What parts of your business could become platforms? Payments, data, logistics, or authentication?
Design with developers in mind: Provide clean documentation, sandbox environments, and real support.
Establish governance rules: Not every API should be public. Decide which are open, restricted, or internal.
Track usage and feedback: Monitor which APIs are gaining traction and why. Use that insight to guide further development.
Incentivize creation: Host developer challenges or offer revenue-sharing to attract more builders.

Open APIs turn your business into a launchpad. They let others innovate faster than you ever could alone. And for 39% of enterprises, that’s a bet that’s already paying off.

18. 59% of innovation partnerships in large companies involve digital technology providers

Digital First: The Core of Modern Innovation Collaborations

Today, innovation is digital. Whether it’s AI, machine learning, data analytics, or cloud platforms, digital technologies are embedded in almost every innovation effort. That’s why 59% of large enterprise innovation partnerships now involve digital tech providers.

This isn’t just about buying software. It’s about co-creating solutions with partners who live and breathe digital. These collaborations help companies upgrade legacy systems, deliver smarter customer experiences, and enter new digital markets.

A carmaker might partner with a mapping tech startup. A logistics company might co-develop with a drone software firm. A healthcare provider might team up with a wearables company to offer remote diagnostics.

How to Maximize Digital Innovation Partnerships

Know your digital priorities: Whether it’s automation, personalization, or analytics, be clear on your top tech needs.
Pick partners who push your thinking: Don’t just work with providers who offer plug-and-play tools. Choose those willing to build with you.
Define shared ownership: Digital IP is sensitive. Agree early on who owns the tech, the data, and the rights.
Integrate with your core systems: Don’t let digital pilots live in isolation. Plan from day one how they’ll fit with your existing tech stack.
Measure both impact and learning: Not every digital pilot will scale, but each should teach you something valuable.

With nearly 60% of partnerships tied to digital, it’s clear: the road to innovation goes through tech. And the best way to travel that road is with partners who know how to build it with you.

19. 47% of firms integrate customer feedback directly into their innovation process

Customers Aren’t Just Buyers—They’re Co-Creators

Almost half of all large companies are now putting customer feedback right into the heart of their innovation process. That’s a smart move. Because the people using your products every day often have the best ideas on how to improve them.

Gone are the days when customer input was only used at the end of a product launch, in the form of surveys or complaints. Now, companies are involving customers from the very beginning—when brainstorming, testing prototypes, or refining features.

This is more than just listening. It’s a shift in mindset. It means treating your customers like collaborators, not just consumers. And it results in products that are more useful, more user-friendly, and more successful in the market.

How to Bring Customer Feedback Into Innovation

Start early: Involve customers during ideation, not just after the product is built. Let them react to mock-ups or early concepts.
Use real conversations: Skip generic surveys. Host customer panels, interviews, and usability tests to dive deeper.
Create feedback loops: Don’t just collect input—act on it, improve the solution, and then show customers what changed.
Use digital tools: Platforms like UserTesting, Hotjar, or in-app feedback tools can give you real-time insight.
Close the loop: Always go back to customers to thank them and share how their ideas influenced the final product.

When you treat your customers like innovators, they reward you with loyalty. And in an era of product overload, loyalty is everything.

20. 50% of companies use external data sources for innovation insights

Better Data, Smarter Innovation

Innovation without data is like flying blind. That’s why half of all large enterprises are now using external data to fuel their innovation efforts. They’re looking beyond their own walls to understand trends, spot opportunities, and validate ideas.

External data can come from many places—social media trends, market research, competitor analysis, public datasets, or even partner ecosystems. It provides a broader view of what’s happening in the world and helps companies make smarter decisions, faster.

Whether you’re launching a new product, entering a new market, or adjusting strategy, external data helps you move with confidence.

How to Use External Data Effectively in Innovation

Identify strategic data sources: Look at industry reports, public databases, social media listening tools, and syndicated market research.
Blend internal and external: Use your own sales and customer data alongside third-party sources to get a 360-degree view.
Invest in analytics: Data is only helpful when it’s analyzed well. Build or partner with teams that can extract meaningful insights.
Use data to pressure-test ideas: Before launching a new concept, validate it with data from other markets or industries.
Stay current: External data becomes outdated quickly. Make sure you refresh your data streams regularly.

Innovation guided by intuition alone is risky. Innovation guided by data is sharp, timely, and far more likely to succeed.

21. 60% of enterprises say open innovation is part of their competitive strategy

It’s Not Just R&D—It’s How You Compete

Open innovation isn’t just something companies do to experiment. For 60% of enterprises, it’s baked into their competitive strategy. That means they’re using it not just to try new ideas, but to outmaneuver rivals, grow faster, and build long-term advantage.

This shift is powerful. It reflects a belief that the old way of innovating—slow, closed, and internal—is no longer enough. To truly stay ahead, you need to be open. Open to new partners, new ideas, and new ways of creating value.

Companies are now using open innovation to defend market share, win customers, and even disrupt entire categories. It’s no longer an “extra”—it’s a core tactic in the playbook.

Making Open Innovation a Competitive Advantage

Link it to business strategy: Your open innovation efforts should map to strategic goals—whether that’s digital transformation, sustainability, or growth in a new region.
Focus on differentiators: Use open innovation to build capabilities your competitors don’t have or can’t easily replicate.
Invest in unique partnerships: Look for partners that give you exclusive access to technology, insights, or markets.
Move faster than the market: Open innovation lets you react to trends and shifts quicker. Use that speed as a weapon.
Track competitor behavior: See who your rivals are partnering with or investing in. Then, position your efforts to leapfrog them.

If open innovation is how most enterprises now compete, then ignoring it isn’t just falling behind. It’s handing your edge over to someone else.

22. 42% of organizations report culture as a major barrier to open innovation adoption

Culture Can Make or Break Innovation

Even with funding, partners, and smart ideas, open innovation can still fail. Why? Culture. In fact, 42% of organizations say their internal culture is the biggest obstacle to adopting open innovation.

That’s not surprising. Traditional corporate cultures are built on control, predictability, and risk avoidance. But open innovation is messy. It involves uncertainty, outside influence, and shared success. It challenges hierarchies, invites feedback from outsiders, and pushes teams to work differently.

If your culture isn’t ready, your open innovation efforts will hit walls. Teams won’t share. Leaders won’t support. Legal teams will block partnerships. And great ideas will die in red tape.

How to Build a Culture That Embraces Open Innovation

Start at the top: Leaders need to openly support and champion open innovation. Their tone sets the culture for everyone else.
Reward openness: Recognize and reward employees who bring in external ideas or collaborate with outside partners.
Train for collaboration: Help teams develop skills in co-creation, external communication, and cross-boundary work.
Tell success stories: Share internal examples where open innovation led to a win. This builds trust and inspiration.
Be patient with change: Culture shifts don’t happen overnight. But consistent communication, training, and leadership modeling make a real difference.

Culture isn’t a soft topic. It’s the foundation. And without the right foundation, even the best open innovation strategy can’t take hold.

23. 68% of companies believe open innovation reduces R&D risk

Spreading the Risk, Multiplying the Opportunity

Developing new ideas is risky. It takes time, money, and focus. And there’s no guarantee the end result will work. That’s why 68% of companies now see open innovation as a smart way to reduce risk in R&D.

By partnering with others—startups, universities, labs, even competitors—companies don’t carry the full burden. They share the cost of experimentation. They tap into proven tech instead of starting from scratch. And they get real-world validation sooner.

Open innovation doesn’t eliminate risk. But it spreads it. And in today’s world, where failure can be costly, that’s a strategic advantage.

How to Use Open Innovation to De-Risk Your R&D

Start with partnerships: Work with startups or researchers who’ve already developed part of what you need.
Use licensing models: Instead of building every capability in-house, license proven innovations and customize them.
Co-invest in R&D: Set up shared research programs with universities or industry consortia.
Pilot before scaling: Test innovations in small markets or internal use cases before going wide.
Build a fail-fast mindset: Not every idea will work. And that’s okay. Focus on learning quickly and adjusting course.

When innovation carries less risk, it becomes easier to try bold ideas. And that’s exactly what makes open innovation so valuable to forward-thinking companies.

24. 33% of large enterprises track open innovation KPIs separately

What Gets Measured Gets Managed

Innovation is hard to manage without clear metrics. That’s why a growing number of large enterprises—33%—now track open innovation with its own set of KPIs. This helps them evaluate progress, prove impact, and refine their approach over time.

Open innovation is different from traditional R&D. It’s faster, more fluid, and often involves external stakeholders. That’s why it deserves its own scorecard—one that looks at partnerships, co-creation, pilot success, speed to market, and more.

Without dedicated KPIs, it’s hard to know what’s working. Teams might lose focus. Leaders might lose interest. And successful initiatives might never scale.

How to Build Effective KPIs for Open Innovation

Track partnership health: Monitor engagement levels, partner feedback, and collaboration frequency.
Measure idea-to-launch time: How long does it take to go from idea to prototype to market?
Look at adoption and usage: Are innovations being picked up by real users or customers?
Quantify financial impact: Track cost savings, new revenue, or risk avoidance tied to external collaborations.
Include qualitative wins: Some gains—like learning, culture change, or brand lift—are harder to measure but still matter.

If you want your open innovation program to grow and succeed, you need to track it with the same seriousness as any other business function. Because what gets measured is what improves.

25. 56% of enterprises engage in cross-industry innovation partnerships

Innovation Thrives Where Industries Collide

More than half of enterprises—56% to be exact—are reaching beyond their own industries to partner with companies in completely different sectors. These cross-industry partnerships are becoming a rich source of open innovation.

Why? Because the best ideas often come from outside your usual environment. A logistics company might learn automation techniques from aerospace. A bank might adopt customer experience practices from retail. A car manufacturer might integrate health sensors inspired by the medical industry.

Cross-industry collaboration opens your eyes to new ways of thinking, operating, and creating value. It shakes you out of old assumptions and brings in ideas that might never emerge internally.

How to Unlock the Power of Cross-Industry Innovation

Look for shared challenges: Even if you’re in different industries, you may face similar problems—like reducing waste, improving speed, or boosting personalization.
Attend cross-sector events: Conferences, accelerator demo days, and roundtables can help spark unexpected conversations and connections.
Start with joint exploration: Instead of jumping into a product, consider co-hosting a lab, workshop, or foresight project.
Blend capabilities: Pair your strengths with the other company’s strengths. For example, your distribution network + their sensor tech.
Build trust gradually: Cross-industry partnerships require time to understand differences in pace, culture, and decision-making.

The future doesn’t belong to any one industry—it belongs to those willing to mix, match, and merge. If you’re staying inside your lane, you’re probably missing the real breakthroughs.

26. 29% of open innovation programs are coordinated at the C-suite level

Leadership That Drives Innovation Forward

Innovation works best when it’s a priority at the top. Yet only 29% of open innovation programs are coordinated directly at the C-suite level. That shows there’s still a lot of room for improvement—and a lot of missed opportunity.

When executives actively lead or oversee innovation programs, it sends a clear message: this matters. It helps overcome resistance, secure resources, and integrate innovation across business units. Without that leadership, innovation often gets trapped in isolated departments with little power to scale.

The most successful open innovation efforts are those with visibility, backing, and accountability from the very top.

Making Open Innovation a Leadership Priority

Create a C-level innovation role: This could be a Chief Innovation Officer or an SVP of Strategic Partnerships who drives collaboration and owns the results.
Embed innovation in business reviews: Make open innovation part of quarterly performance reviews and leadership dashboards.
Tie executive incentives to innovation goals: When bonuses and promotions include innovation KPIs, leaders pay attention.
Encourage leaders to mentor or sponsor projects: C-suite involvement doesn’t have to be daily—it can be symbolic and strategic.
Showcase innovation wins internally: Let executives present open innovation success stories to reinforce their importance.

C-suite coordination isn’t about micromanaging—it’s about showing that innovation is a business imperative, not an experimental side project.

27. 36% of firms use venture capital investments as a tool for open innovation

Investing in the Future Instead of Building It Alone

More than a third of large firms are now using corporate venture capital (CVC) as part of their open innovation strategy. They’re not just partnering with startups—they’re investing in them.

Why does this matter? Because owning a stake means having skin in the game. It allows companies to go beyond surface-level partnerships and deeply engage with emerging technologies, business models, and markets.

Corporate VCs can give startups access to funding, customers, and credibility—while giving the enterprise early insight, influence, and a front-row seat to the next wave of disruption.

Using Venture Investment to Accelerate Open Innovation

Define your strategic thesis: Don’t just invest for financial return. Focus on startups that align with your long-term innovation goals.
Set up a dedicated CVC team: These roles require both investment knowledge and deep understanding of your business needs.
Balance ownership with autonomy: Let startups remain agile and independent, even as you support them with resources.
Establish pathways to pilot: Make it easy for portfolio companies to test their solutions inside your organization.
Leverage insights internally: Share learnings from your portfolio with internal product and strategy teams.

Using venture capital as an innovation tool lets you influence the future without having to invent every part of it yourself. And for many companies, that’s a powerful way to stay ahead.

28. 44% of large enterprises collaborate with competitors in pre-competitive research

Sometimes the Best Partners Are Your Rivals

It may sound counterintuitive, but nearly half—44%—of large enterprises now collaborate with direct competitors when it comes to pre-competitive research. These aren’t cozy friendships; they’re strategic alliances designed to tackle big, industry-wide problems.

Pre-competitive research involves early-stage exploration that doesn’t immediately create a product or give one company a unique edge. Instead, it sets the foundation for shared growth. Think sustainability efforts, regulatory frameworks, infrastructure, or scientific discovery.

This kind of collaboration saves money, accelerates breakthroughs, and allows firms to share the risk of tackling huge technical challenges. Once the research moves closer to market application, companies can go their separate ways and compete again—on stronger ground.

Making Competitor Collaboration Work

Focus on common goals: Look for areas where everyone benefits—safer technology standards, greener production, better data models.
Set clear boundaries: Define what will be shared (data, findings, methods) and what remains proprietary.
Use neutral platforms: Universities, research alliances, and think tanks can help facilitate these relationships objectively.
Create working groups: Assign experts from each company to co-lead different parts of the project.
Share the results wisely: Joint IP agreements should ensure fair access and credit without giving away future market advantages.

In the race to innovate, it turns out you don’t always have to run alone. In fact, collaborating early—even with competitors—can position everyone to win later.

29. 62% of companies see open innovation as key to sustainability initiatives

Solving Global Problems Requires Shared Innovation

Sustainability is no longer optional. Customers demand it. Investors expect it. Regulators enforce it. And 62% of companies now see open innovation as a key enabler in reaching their sustainability goals.

Why? Because creating a circular economy, reducing emissions, and improving supply chain transparency can’t be done in isolation. These are complex, systemic problems that require new materials, business models, and technology—often beyond the reach of a single company’s R&D.

Open innovation helps bring in the right partners—green tech startups, environmental NGOs, scientific labs—to co-create real solutions. And it accelerates progress by connecting companies with others tackling the same goals.

Making Sustainability the Focus of Open Innovation

Set bold, clear targets: Whether it’s net zero by 2030 or eliminating plastic waste, be specific about what you want to achieve.
Scout sustainability startups: Look for innovators in clean tech, supply chain transparency, waste reduction, or carbon capture.
Partner with NGOs and universities: These organizations often have the knowledge and credibility to drive responsible innovation.
Create challenge-based programs: Host open calls focused on green goals, inviting ideas and solutions from global innovators.
Embed sustainability in procurement: Work with suppliers and partners who share your environmental goals and are open to co-developing better practices.

When open innovation and sustainability combine, it’s a powerful force—not just for business growth, but for real global impact.

30. 48% of firms adopt open innovation platforms or software to manage collaboration

Tools That Make Openness Possible

Almost half of all firms now use platforms or specialized software to manage open innovation efforts. That’s a smart move—because as these programs grow, they become complex. You’re managing multiple partners, tracking ideas, running pilots, measuring KPIs, and sharing updates across teams.

Without structure, things slip through the cracks. Emails get buried. Feedback gets lost. Promising ideas die in chaos.

Innovation platforms—whether custom-built or from vendors like HYPE, Qmarkets, or IdeaScale—help solve this. They centralize collaboration, store knowledge, and bring visibility across departments and geographies.

How to Get the Most Out of Open Innovation Tools

Pick a platform that fits your process: Some tools are idea-centric. Others are more about project management or partnership tracking. Choose based on your workflow.
Standardize workflows: Define clear steps for submission, review, approval, and handoff of ideas and initiatives.
Train users well: A platform is only as good as the people using it. Offer onboarding, tips, and support to encourage adoption.
Integrate with existing systems: Connect your innovation tool to CRM, ERP, or other platforms to avoid silos.
Use analytics: Track engagement, speed of ideas, partner performance, and other insights that guide better decision-making.

Good platforms don’t replace creativity. They support it. And with nearly half of enterprises now using these tools, it’s clear that scalable innovation needs smart infrastructure.

Conclusion

Open innovation is no longer a fringe concept or an experimental strategy. It’s a fundamental shift in how large enterprises create, compete, and grow. From integrating customer feedback and collaborating with startups to forming joint ventures and using venture capital strategically, companies are embracing openness to move faster, reduce risk, and stay ahead.