Abstract
The corona virus, as a pandemic disease, has exposed the world to difficult and critical conditions. In the meantime, the health service delivery system has been at the forefront of confronting and controlling this crisis. Given the special circumstances of the crisis and the threat to public health in Iran, the need for creativity and innovation to manage the corona crisis is more pressing than ever. Open innovation is a phenomenon that significantly influences the innovation cycle and increases the research and development costs, as well as scarcity of resources. By leveraging these benefits and using new ideas, it is possible to manage the crises and reduce damage, especially the COVID -19 crisis and the damage caused by it.
The open innovation paradigm increases the success of the organization by using external and internal ideas. The basic idea behind open innovation is that there is an extensive knowledge that an organization cannot access to through its own proprietary research. Therefore, it must leverage other research through licensing, patenting, or purchasing them from other companies. In this model, organizations outsource some parts of the R&D process, use external ideas, constantly monitor the new products of competitors and leading companies and, in some cases, collaborate with competitors and other research centers (1,2). According to the studies investigating the process of innovation, the field of health and treatment has an open nature, and partnership with external organizations has become a key factor and vital capability (3,4). That way, valuable ideas can originate from outside the organization, and a successful activity process can be completed through partnerships with external factors (5). Open innovation has different meanings in the field of health (6), including the following:
• Technical and clinical innovations: New therapeutic drugs, diagnostic tests, medical devices, software, surgical techniques;
• Process and service innovations: Institutions, business models, service models, clinical pathways, roles, education;
• System innovations: Policy innovation, system reform.
The COVID- 19 virus is testing the responsiveness of the countries' public health systems. As a matter of fact, the health care systems of Iran and many other countries around the world are grappling with one of the most critical conditions in their history. As an emerging disease, the virus has not only challenged several achievements of the medical and health sciences, but has also transformed significant parts of the social and political foundations (7,8). The rapid spread of the virus and the need for comprehensive responses have made conventional patterns of technology development and innovation management unresponsive to the current situation. These constraints are the main reasons justifying the need to revise the current innovation model (9).
Given the above discussion, this study aimed to address the key question “what is the role of the open innovation paradigm in the face of the COVID-19 crisis?” Developing innovative solutions and initiatives has been stimulated by the need for knowledge about the status of the COVID-19 epidemic in the international community, from infectious disease modelers to government officials and international organizations, as well as people who are in quarantine or have to maintain social distance.
When the COVID-19 crisis arose, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy published all studies on COVID-19 and the SARS viruses in order for encouraging the researchers, physicians, and laboratories to resolve the crisis (8,10). NASA also launched an open innovation challenge for the general public and received thousands of suggestions from individuals about the various methods for addressing the risks of virus-infected air (8). At the same time, there were numerous sources of treatments for COVID-19 disease and methods for designing and making masks, hand sanitizers, and even ventilator modifications to support several patients simultaneously (10). To provide the inside-out knowledge flows in the b2b context, Amazon famously offered its internal IT infrastructure to host external customers' websites and fulfill their IT needs. During COVID-19 disease, Medtronic opened its ventilator design to manufacturers and waived its intellectual property rights in the design (8,10). To fight against epidemics effectively and respond to them quickly, however, there is a pressing need for obtaining more information. The openness of information and innovation has led to the creation of knowledge in different places, and it has increased the speed of learning and dealing with the disease. Openness uses the available human capital worldwide to fight the disease and facilitate testing possible solutions quickly by providing the access to physical capital (e.g., equipment and requirements). COVID-19 has influenced the intellectual property management of innovation and innovative ideas. A group of scientists and jurists in the United States and Europe have initiated the "Open COVID Commitment" that pledges to relinquish their intellectual property rights to others seeking solutions to the epidemic (10). The World Health Organization has proposed granting patents for all those working on the COVID-19 initiatives. In other words, innovators, companies, and universities have been encouraged to publish their intellectual property in order to fight against COVID-19 because hoarding of intellectual property is useless in the normal circumstances and even more difficult to justify in the circumstances of crisis (8,11). The openness of innovation is essential to respond to the epidemics like COVID- 19, normal circumstances, and other critical issues. There are some suggestions regarding the application of open innovation for managing COVID-19 crisis in the aftermath of the crisis:
1- Laying the groundwork for safely exchanging the information and sharing it with physicians and engineers to facilitate the establishment of deep interaction with the scientific community. That way, they can start and share their experiments and learn from the experiments of others (8).
2- Cooperating with the legal team to manage and expand intellectual property in addition to enjoying the benefits received by the work owner, and to let others benefit from it (8).
3- Paying special attention to the companies (e.g., technology and knowledge-based companies, start-ups, and creative and innovative accelerators in the field of health) (12).
4- Raising the awareness of managers about the fact that the crisis can be managed through open innovation, flexibility, and planning (13).
Paying attention to and using new ideas in critical situations can reduce vulnerability in society. In this regard, the paradigm of open innovation through testing and researching the public health system of the country creates the possibilities of using internal and external knowledge as well as accelerating the development of services to overcome bottlenecks and crises that endanger public health.
In open innovation, moreover, not only the intellectual property of the innovation is maintained exclusively, but it also is managed in such a way that it improves the business model of the owner and increases the profitability for others. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to start-ups that rely on technology and knowledge bases of small and medium sized businesses.
Considering our results, it was suggested that the researchers should examine the impact of open innovation on crisis management in different industries as well as compare the results form countries in different geographical areas when the COVID-19 crisis was over. Finally, it was hoped that the world would learn from the common experience of new Corona virus and recognize the possibility of overcoming the greatest challenges by using speed, power, creativity, innovation, and shared knowledge.