Many organisations are embracing the open innovation approach. However, becoming open to ideas coming from outside requires a revision of their innovation processes in order to integrate external and internal ideas effectively. The aim of this chapter is to explore why and how firms are coping with managing new external ideas from their customers and what they are learning from these ideas. Using information gleaned from interviews with ten organisations which have set up IT application for eliciting feedback from their customers, we found that much of the ideas obtained have led to exploitative learning. Only small firms (with fewer than ten employees) have learned ideas from their customers that have led to exploratory activities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
