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Creation nets: Getting the most from open innovation

• Most executives are by now familiar with open innovation: the idea that companies, by looking outside their own boundaries, can gain better access to ideas, knowledge, and technology than they would have if they relied solely on their own resources.
• Despite the attractions of open innovation—and its successes in areas such as open-source software development—few companies believe that they know the best way of creating value with the open model of innovation.
• Companies must go to the peripheries of today's commercial and scientific endeavors, where hundreds and even thousands of collaborators from diverse institutional settings are participating in innovative "networks of creation."
• Managers can use the principles and mechanisms of "creation nets" to profit from open innovation and to create more value than would be possible with the closed model of innovation.