Laursen and Salter (2014) examine the paradox of openness in innovation, where firms need to both seek external knowledge and protect their innovations. Using data from the UK Innovation Survey, they find a concave relationship between firms' appropriability strategies and the breadth of external search and formal collaboration. This relationship is stronger for formal collaboration than external search. The study also suggests that the relationship is weaker when firms do not collaborate with competitors. The findings highlight the trade-off between openness and protection in innovation strategies. The results support the idea that firms need to balance openness with appropriate mechanisms to protect their innovations. The study contributes to the literature on open innovation and innovation strategy by showing how firms' openness choices are linked to their need to protect knowledge. The results suggest that firms should carefully manage their openness to external actors to ensure they can effectively protect and commercialize their innovations. The study uses econometric analysis to test hypotheses about the relationship between appropriability strategies and openness, finding partial support for the hypotheses. The results indicate that the strength of appropriability strategies has a concave relationship with the breadth of external search and formal collaboration. The study also finds that the relationship is weaker when firms do not collaborate with competitors. The findings have implications for innovation strategy and open innovation practices.Laursen and Salter (2014) examine the paradox of openness in innovation, where firms need to both seek external knowledge and protect their innovations. Using data from the UK Innovation Survey, they find a concave relationship between firms' appropriability strategies and the breadth of external search and formal collaboration. This relationship is stronger for formal collaboration than external search. The study also suggests that the relationship is weaker when firms do not collaborate with competitors. The findings highlight the trade-off between openness and protection in innovation strategies. The results support the idea that firms need to balance openness with appropriate mechanisms to protect their innovations. The study contributes to the literature on open innovation and innovation strategy by showing how firms' openness choices are linked to their need to protect knowledge. The results suggest that firms should carefully manage their openness to external actors to ensure they can effectively protect and commercialize their innovations. The study uses econometric analysis to test hypotheses about the relationship between appropriability strategies and openness, finding partial support for the hypotheses. The results indicate that the strength of appropriability strategies has a concave relationship with the breadth of external search and formal collaboration. The study also finds that the relationship is weaker when firms do not collaborate with competitors. The findings have implications for innovation strategy and open innovation practices.