Open Innovation Across the Innovation Value Chain: An African Perspective

Although the successes and benefits of Open Innovation are widely spoken about in literature across the globe, there’s very little understanding of the role open innovation plays across the innovation value chain, particularly in African contexts. This theoretical paper interrogated existing innovation and entrepreneurship literature to provide a conceptual model depicting the role of open innovation across the innovation value chain from an African perspective. Investigating the various academic and industry texts regarding open innovation and the innovation value chain leads to an in-depth understanding of what is needed to bridge the gap from invention or idea to market. An open innovation value chain model which includes 3 distinct support mechanisms for the value chain is proposed. The model derived helps government stakeholders, industry and entrepreneurs across Africa in making better decisions about what is needed in fostering total early-stage entrepreneurial activity.