Today, technology and innovation management are inseparable connected with open innovation due to increased technological complexity and shorter product lifecycles. Many companies realise that valuable ideas do not only come from the inside of the organisation but many experts around the world can have valuable ideas for these companies. Different organisations in high technology industries use open innovation models to exploit and explore ideas from outside the company boundaries. Solar PV as one of the electricity sources for the future, could especially reduce GHG emissions, secure energy security and economic growth, but needs to become cheaper to compete with conventional electricity sources. Currently there are many limitations in the solar PV innovation process such as narrow programs, poor co-ordination across organisation boundaries and lack in knowledge distribution. Therefore, this report will follow the research question if open innovation can have accelerating effects on the technology development in the solar PV industry. The aim is to set up a causal loop model following the principles of system dynamics to understand the complex innovation system. By using a literature review to understand the solar PV industry better and two case studies from large technology companies (Evonik Industries AG and Siemens AG) the variables and feedbacks for the model were identified. The model was developed to address the current limitations of the solar PV innovation process. A positive feedback loop additional to the innovation process of the solar PV was identified. It is developing technology and business but also filling knowledge gaps by collaborating with universities and other large and small size organisations aiming at every phase of the innovation process. Open innovation looks at the business model as a whole not purely at technology development. Evonik showed how ideas that are out of scope of the main business become part of the company to tap into new markets. Siemens developed a virtual collaboration community to solve problems faster and avoid double R&D efforts. One negative loop was discovered that will slow down the development process, caused by organisational culture shock and resource intensive open innovation programs to set up both virtual and physical infrastructure. Open innovation seems inevitable to increase development in the area of solar PV especially when pursuing radical innovation that come from the intersections between industries and therefore might have accelerating effects on the technology, but also business development in the industry. Further research is necessary to quantify the causal loop model, to simulate the system and further test it in practice
