SSEES PhD student George Apostolakis defended his thesis, titled “Openness Propensity in European Innovation Systems: A Multidimensional Framework for Analysing Systemic Collaboration and Innovation Dynamics”, in front of an examination committee comprising of Prof. Rainer Kattel Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, UCL, and Dr Marion Frenz, Birkbeck Business School, Birkbeck, University of London.
His thesis, supervised by Prof. Slavo Radosevic and Prof. Randolph Luca Bruno, investigated openness in innovation systems, introducing the concept of Openness Propensity to capture how collaboration takes shape across countries and industries. Using European innovation survey data, Apostolakis showed how openness is not a simple firm-level choice but emerges from the interaction of institutions, technologies, and firms. The findings highlight cross-national and sectoral differences in openness and demonstrate its importance for understanding innovation outcomes and guiding effective policy.