Relational Drivers of Open Innovation Alliances in Biochemistry

This chapter focuses on relational drivers of open innovation regarding biomass-related strategic alliances in the emerging field of biochemistry. Around the world, significant steps are being taken to move from today’s fossil-based economies to more sustainable economies based on biomass (De Jong and Jorgensen, 2012), driven by a growing need to address major societal challenges, such as climate change, energy security, and resource scarcity, and the desire to profit from economic growth opportunities (Odegard, Croezen, and Bergsma, 2012; Sanders, Langeveld, and Meeusen, 2010). This process is called biomass valorization (Wubben, Runge, and Blok, 2012), which means creating value from biomass by making it available for economic purposes via innovative products and/or processes. Biomass includes materials from crops growing on land or sea and residues from forestry, agriculture, the food industry, and other industrial sectors (Koppejan et al., 2009). Bio-based products are already used in construction and insulation, packaging, and automotive and consumer goods. An analysis of the European market for wholly or partly biomass-based products in 2005 indicates 780 bio-based product categories, representing a joint production value of 450 billion euros (Nowicki et al., 2008). Biomass may be used for nonfood applications, such as materials, chemicals, transport fuels, and energy (Annevelink and Harmsen, 2010). Europe’s potential market size of bio-based (parts of) products is already calculated to rise up to roughly 315 billion euros per annum (Nowicki et al., 2008).