A preliminary study into research about open innovation with focus on the field of computer science

This paper describes preliminary results regarding research on Open Innovation (OI) in peer reviewed literature. Special focus is put on the field of computer science as compared to other fields using the categorization scheme of Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science Core Collection (ISI Core Collection). The study was triggered by the observation that peer reviewed literature on OI seems to have a less distinct growth in recent years than publications included in Google Scholar which involves non-peer reviewed literature to a much larger extent. When analyzing peer reviewed literature on OI, we observed that the field of Computer Science seems to have significantly less diversity than all other fields with more than ten publications indexed in the ISI Core Collection. Our preliminary interpretation of this observation is that the topic ‘Open Innovation’ has not yet been researched and discussed in depth and breadth comparable to other fields, in particular Business Economics, Engineering, and Operations Research Management Science.