Jonathan Langlois' paper co-authored with Sihem Ben Mahmoud-Jouini and Romaric Servajean-Hilst was awarded second place in the best doctoral paper competition organized by Berkeley University.

The literature has often presented secrecy and openness as mutually exclusive processes in innovation management. The paper by Jonathan Langlois and his co-supervisors proposes a more nuanced approach to secrecy in open innovation processes by drawing on philosophy and sociology. The authors conducted a two-year research program in the defense industry, collecting data on concealment practices in open innovation activities. "Actors use the reversible nature of secrecy, by playing on the inclusion and exclusion of knowledge in innovation collaborations, to achieve goals that sometimes go beyond simply protecting knowledge," explains Jonathan.

This work opens up research perspectives on the strategic management of secrecy in innovation processes, beyond the legal angle of intellectual property, under which secrecy is often apprehended.

The WOIC (World Open Innovation Conference) which distinguished Jonathan Langlois is the international reference conference in management on the theme of open innovation. It is organized by the Haas School of Business at Berkeley University and in particular by Henry Chesbrough.