Abstract: Using the Author Co-citation Analysis and the analysis tools of Bibexcel, SPSS and Ucinet, the co-occur matrix of highly cited authors is constructed. It’s data are from the open innovation correlative literature collected in the Web of Science database. Then the visualized knowledge maps are made in the field of open innovation after the multivariate statistical analysis and social network analysis. The study results show that foreign open innovation are divided three parts: the integrated perspective, the open source software perspective and the external perspective. The integrated perspective studies the concept of open innovation, applicable conditions, knowledge management, value network, intellectual property, enterprise innovation performance, user innovation, etc. The open source software perspective studies open source software community, while the external perspective is focus on how to acquire the external technology and knowledge. Meanwhile, it summarizes and expounds the connotations of each schools of foreign open innovation research.

Key words: open innovation, author co-citation analysis；multivariate statistical analysis, social network analysis