Identifying the functions of open innovation intermediaries with the Focus Group approach

According to the theory of open innovation, organizations are better off to open their doors and interact with their environment to innovate and compete in the market. According to this principle, organizations do not need to do all activities related to the research and development of their products or technologies within the organization, but can collaborate with their environment in this respect. However, observing the environment, identifying all the required technologies of the organization, and even identifying customers to sell the unused technologies of the operating organization is very difficult and less organizationally able to carry out these processes alone. As a result, they need a bridge called intermediaries to link organizations to the environment. In this paper, we intend to check the origin of the intermediaries from the two dimensions of open innovation and markets, as well as the analysis and categorization of intermediary functions in the process of technology and innovation management. Finally, with the focus group method and through expert's opinions, the key function for intermediaries was extracted.