Crossing horizons. Leveraging cross-industry innovation sourcing in the front-end of the innovation process

"Open innovation" and external idea sourcing are central topics in the recent discourse in innovation research [1]. Companies can tap into a range of external sources to search for and source new ideas [2; 3] - ranging from customers, consumers [4; 3] suppliers to universities [2; 5]. Whilst it is widely acknowledged that novel ideas often emerge from the combination of distant pieces of knowledge and that analogical thinking can provide totally new problem solutions [6], the current discussion on open innovation pays only little attention to sourcing among cross-industry partners. This paper addresses cross-industry innovation sourcing in the front-end and discusses dimensions of a management framework for systematic cross-industry innovation sourcing. Building upon a review of relevant concepts a piloted methodology is presented that supports firms to develop a cross-industry innovation sourcing strategy and to systematically exploit cross-industry actors as source for innovation inputs - going beyond technological solutions.