Beyond Innovation Theatre: A Multiple Case Study on the Roots of the Open Innovation Stall

Open Innovation frequently generates visible activity, proofs of concept, startup scouting, pilot programs, without converting that activity into deployed, revenue-generating outcomes. Practitioner evidence indicates that a large share of initiatives stall between experimentation and scale-up, a pattern the literature associates with ceremonial adoption and an underdeveloped capacity to measure Open Innovation's real effectiveness. This thesis examines that stall through the case of Maize, an intermediary designing Open Innovation programs for corporate clients, and identifies a specific gap: existing literature explains that initiatives stall, but not the organizational mechanics behind it. Drawing on a structured, qualitative multiple case study comparing successful and unsuccessful engagements from Maize's portfolio, the research investigates how governance design, budget-ownership timing, escalation mechanisms, sponsor seniority, and the discrepancy between innovation referents and budget owners interact to determine whether an initiative crosses the threshold from proof of concept to market deployment, moving analysis beyond innovation theatre toward its underlying causes.