Abstract
Due to the globalization and rising penetration of ICT technology developed economies such as Germany and Japan have to face an intensive completion. As a result, the markets are shifting to emerging countries and operating margins in established business sectors are getting continuously smaller. Innovation is one way to differentiate and to achieve premium earnings. However the cost of innovation is significantly rising and with the ambition to lower the R&D cost the industry tend nowadays to cooperate. But some of such cooperation’s and mergers failed in history, because of lack of benefit for all parties. Cooperation means working together to achieve results or helping each other out to achieve a common goal. Furthermore the potential of a conflict of interest should be avoided. Complementary partnerships along a value or knowledge chain are benefitual. Within this talk the complementary approach of cooperation will be demonstrated and principles of open innovation introduced.