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While the benefits to applying the open innovation model are numerous, scholars have yet to address how this model can be applied effectively to boost process innovation in process-oriented industries. In this paper we extend the open innovation model both theoretically and practically by identifying the boundary conditions that motivate firms and the approaches that have been implemented in practice in applying this model in a process-oriented industry. Using the upstream oil industry, as a representative of process-oriented industries, we explore how firms in this industry have evolved to apply open innovation practices over time to deal with the industry’s challenges. In our investigation, we first explored why these firms adopted the model. We argue that institutional forces represented the primary motivators to adopting open innovation in order to respond to the social and environmental concerns faced by the …