Open for growth? Evidence on EU countries and sectors

The Open Innovation (OI) concept has pervaded the academic and policy debate due to its potential to further stimulate the circulation of knowledge between business partners and institutions and, consequently, to increase their innovation potential. This paper studies the relationships between OI and innovation and economic returns at the ‘aggregate’ level, i.e. at the country and industry levels. It exploits three waves of the Community Innovation Survey to conduct an empirical analysis on sectoral data for 16 EU countries. Results confirm the role of OI in stimulating – even at the aggregate level – innovation, with returns increasing at diminishing rates. OI also has an indirect impact on value added by strengthening the positive effect exerted on aggregate economic performance by R&D expenditure. The mutual reinforcement of R&D intensity and collaborations between companies and business partners is coherent with the principles underlying ‘smart specialization’ policies of the European Union.