<p>It is visible in the innovation literature the tendency to evolve the innovation process into a moreopen and flexible model where innovators of all types can interact freely. This fairly recentparadigm known as Open Innovation is a phenomenon with still a considerable amount of opengaps and challenges. Therefore the question of how integration is achieved between differenttypes of outside innovators remains unanswered. Many organizations, some in more extent thanothers, are already applying Open Innovation within networks; however there is still not a clearunderstanding or a formal theory that describes the mechanisms that can help integrate theinnovation activities with other actors. To address this challenge, we conducted an exploratorystudy in 7 different organizations representing two types of innovators (private firms andacademic institutions) and a nexus agency that acts as an integrator between them. The first partof the results consist of an extensive list of 27 integration mechanisms applicable in openinnovation projects later categorized in 5 new main categories for their practical study anddiscussion. More abstractly, as relationships between these integration mechanisms and interorganizationalnetworks have not been analyzed yet, we want to propose a framework that canprovide an initial notion of their role and interaction in Open Innovation Projects. Thisframework is valuable to consider the applicability of the proposed integration mechanismscategories in different OI settings and supports the understanding of how the harmonization ofOI efforts occurs with different types of innovators. Having a framework of this typeconsiderably extends the understanding of integration in the Open Innovation field and providesas well a guide for organizations to identify how to integrate open innovation efforts.</p>

It is visible in the innovation literature the tendency to evolve the innovation process into a moreopen and flexible model where innovators of all types can interact freely. This fairly recentparadigm known as Open Innovation is a phenomenon with still a considerable amount of opengaps and challenges. Therefore the question of how integration is achieved between differenttypes of outside innovators remains unanswered. Many organizations, some in more extent thanothers, are already applying Open Innovation within networks; however there is still not a clearunderstanding or a formal theory that describes the mechanisms that can help integrate theinnovation activities with other actors. To address this challenge, we conducted an exploratorystudy in 7 different organizations representing two types of innovators (private firms andacademic institutions) and a nexus agency that acts as an integrator between them. The first partof the results consist of an extensive list of 27 integration mechanisms applicable in openinnovation projects later categorized in 5 new main categories for their practical study anddiscussion. More abstractly, as relationships between these integration mechanisms and interorganizationalnetworks have not been analyzed yet, we want to propose a framework that canprovide an initial notion of their role and interaction in Open Innovation Projects. Thisframework is valuable to consider the applicability of the proposed integration mechanismscategories in different OI settings and supports the understanding of how the harmonization ofOI efforts occurs with different types of innovators. Having a framework of this typeconsiderably extends the understanding of integration in the Open Innovation field and providesas well a guide for organizations to identify how to integrate open innovation efforts.