ABSTRACT
The concept of open innovation, launched by Chesbrough (2003) and others, has gained interest and acceptance among researchers and practitioners in recent years. It builds upon earlier ideas of "interactive innovation", and "innovation networking". The literature on regional innovation systems emphasizes the influence of the institutional environment on knowledge networks and regional innovativeness. There are indications that open innovation thrives in a culture characterized by cosmopolitanism, openness for global interaction and social tolerance. Regional culture, thus, will enhance and enable open innovation if it encourages collaborative attitudes and trust-based networking in a competitive environment. Regional policies aiming to create conditions for open innovation, need to address both "hard" economic and "soft" cultural issues. Main mechanisms of open innovation are innovation networks based on formal and informal cooperation especially in the pharmaceutical subsector and the different (open) innovation strategies of the leading companies in the Basel region.
