What is Open Innovation?
A paradigm that assumes firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firm looks to advance its technology. It involves collaborating with startups, universities, and customers to accelerate innovation, share risks, and access diverse knowledge pools beyond organisational boundaries.
Open Innovation,
explained properly.
Not a flashcard answer — the working meaning, where you'll meet it, and why professionals who use it precisely get taken more seriously.
A paradigm that assumes firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firm looks to advance its technology. It involves collaborating with startups, universities, and customers to accelerate innovation, share risks, and access diverse knowledge pools beyond organisational boundaries.
Understanding Open Innovation on paper is one thing — using it confidently at work is another. In professional settings, this is the kind of term that separates people who talk about Innovation from people who are trusted to make decisions in it. Recruiters and managers listen for it in interviews, and colleagues notice immediately whether you use it precisely or vaguely.
At OnlineUni, Open Innovation is taught inside the module “Foundations Of Innovation Theory” of Certificate in Innovation, where it is placed in its full working context — applied to real Innovation scenarios, not memorised in isolation.
Indicative index of skill mentions in professional job postings (2019 = 1)
What mastering it
is worth.
Learning terms one definition at a time builds vocabulary. Completing the programme builds what employers pay for: certified capability.
Certified professionals are promoted faster, shortlisted more often and paid a documented premium over equally experienced but uncertified colleagues — and the premium compounds with seniority, so the earlier you certify, the longer it pays.
Fluency, not flashcards
Open Innovation and every related concept taught in working context, so you can use them under pressure.
A verifiable credential
A shareable digital certificate in Innovation for LinkedIn and your CV the day you pass.
Salary leverage
Certified Innovation capability is exactly what the uplift figures here are paid for.
Momentum
Self-paced, online, from £79 — most learners finish their first certificate within two months.
Indicative ranges from published continuing-education salary studies, by career stage
Certificate in Innovation
A self-paced online Certificate programme with 3 modules, an online assessment and a verifiable digital certificate you can share on LinkedIn the day you pass.
- 4,064 professionals enrolled
- 4.9★ learner rating
- Study from anywhere · no fixed timetable
- Fast-track option: finish in as few as 20 days
More terms from
this glossary.
Every term below is taught inside the same programme — read them all free, then study them properly.
Stop looking terms up. Start being the one who explains them.
Certificate in Innovation covers Open Innovation and everything around it — from £79, entirely online.