Open innovation is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly important for the theory and the practice in recent years. The reasons for this can be found in the new innovation cycles, industrial research and escalation of development costs and also the lack of resources. The phenomenon of open source has attracted researchers and practitioners of innovation. The era of open innovation starts when companies understand that if they want to commercialize their ideas, they should look for a way to bring them to the market of ideas. They need to deploy the roads outside the current businesses and to realize that their center, where the knowledge is created, does not always equal the innovations that need to be found within the company. The approach of open innovation enables innovations to move easily between the external environment and the internal process of innovation of the company. How often open innovation approach is put into practice and whether there are recognized patterns are issues that are examine by our empirical studies.
Keywords: Competition, Customers, Management, Market, open innovation, suppliers
