Trust embeddedness within an open innovation mindset

This paper explores the role of trust under the prism of open innovation. There is a vast discussion about open innovation and the need for collaboration and knowledge sharing; however, in the process of building up an open and innovative organisation, trust does not yet seem to have a place in this process. The approaches of current literature fail to denote the relationship between the importance and impact of trust within an open and collaborative environment under an organisational perspective. The objective of this conceptual paper is to elevate trust as a core element of open innovation, perceived as an organisational mindset, by proposing a conceptual model leading to a re-contextualisation of the current approaches to open innovation.