Thanks to the many books on open innovation and to the prominence of open-source software projects such as Linux, most executives have at least a passing familiarity with the subject. Its central idea is that when companies look outside their own boundaries, they can & gain better access to ideas, knowledge, and technology than they would have if they relied solely on their own resources.

Some executives may even be familiar with the many variants of open innovation, a number of which stray a considerable distance from traditional "closed" models of innovation management. Despite the familiarity of these ideas, persistent doubts and misunderstandings often make it hard to generate value from them. At one extreme, many people ask whether distributed models of innovation aren't notoriously hard to control, manage, and commercialize. At the other extreme, open innovation may seem to be mostly about narrowly defined joint ventures or transactions to acquire intellectual property created by others. If so, what's all the fuss about?

In truth, except for narrowly scoped forays (such as the licensing of technology) outside the confines of the enterprise, few top executives believe that they understand how best to create value with the open model of innovation. This uncertainty prevents many of them from taking advantage of the very real opportunities it presents.

The lack of confidence is understandable: although the roots of open innovation go back at least as far as the Italian Renaissance—when networks of apparel businesses in Piedmont and Tuscany were responsible for rapid innovation in techniques for producing silk and cotton fabric—today's variants on the model are anything but mainstream. That's why companies must visit the peripheries of today's commercial and scientific worlds to recognize the patterns that emerge across very diverse domains.