Frontiers in Education 01 frontiersin.org Research trends around open innovation in higher education: advancements and future direction Alejandro Valencia-Arias 1 *, Ledy Gómez-Bayona 2 , Gustavo Moreno-López 3 , Noelia Sialer-Rivera 4 , Olga-Vélez Bernal 3 , Ada Gallegos 5 and Francisco Javier Arias-Vargas 6 1 Escuela de Ingeniería Industrial, Lord of Sipan University, Chiclayo, Peru, 2 Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, University of San Buenaventura Medellin, Medellín, Colombia, 3 Coordinación de Investigación, Marco Fidel Suárez University Institution, Bello, Antioquia, Colombia, 4 Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Lord of Sipan University, Chiclayo, Peru, 5 Instituto de Investigación y Estudios de la Mujer, Universidad Ricardo Palma, Lima, Peru, 6 Universidad de Medellín, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia Open innovation in higher education has emerged as a vital approach, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to foster collaboration, knowledge exchange, and address challenges in the academic sector. This study investigates the impact of open innovation on entrepreneurial skills, value co-creation, and technology transfer barriers by examining collaborations between universities and industries in emerging economies and knowledge absorption in SMEs. Additionally, it underscores the significance of open innovation in enhancing teaching and learning quality and aligning with Sustainable Development Goals. To address research gaps, a bibliometric study using VOSviewer software is proposed, aiming to analyze co-occurrence between keywords and explore the relationships between variables. Following the PRISMA statement’s parameters for systematic literature review, the methodology ensures a comprehensive and replicable approach for accurate findings. The study reveals an increasing trend in literary production, with the United Kingdom and Spain leading academic progress. Prominent research trends include technology transfer through open innovation strategies, diversification of business models due to innovation policies, factors influencing collaboration between companies and universities, and the emergence of Education 4.0 with novel educational systems leveraging technology. These findings have implications for supporting the education sector, benefiting students, graduates, and the broader community. KEYWORDS open innovation, PRISMA, higher education, knowledge transfer, knowledge management 1. Introduction In the current context, open innovation in higher education is positioned as an important tool for analysis, as it promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing among diferent actors, both inside and outside higher education institutions, and has been a protagonist both in the period of the pandemic by COVID-19 and in the post-pandemic period, since it speaks of the need to adapt to new forms of teaching and learning (Tejedor et al., 2021), so diferent paradigms OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Alejandro Silva Cortés, Metropolitan Institute of Technology, Colombia REVIEWED BY Vanessa García, Corporación Universitaria Americana, Colombia Rodolfo Casadiego Alzate, Politécnico Grancolombiano, Colombia *CORRESPONDENCE Alejandro Valencia-Arias valenciajho@crece.uss.edu.pe RECEIVED 18 January 2023 ACCEPTED 20 July 2023 PUBLISHED 09 August 2023 CITATION Valencia-Arias A, Gómez-Bayona L, Moreno-López G, Sialer-Rivera N, Bernal O-V, Gallegos A and Arias-Vargas FJ (2023) Research trends around open innovation in higher education: advancements and future direction. Front. Educ. 8:1146990. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1146990 COPYRIGHT © 2023 Valencia-Arias, Gómez-Bayona, Moreno-López, Sialer-Rivera, Bernal, Gallegos and Arias-Vargas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Systematic Review PUBLISHED 09 August 2023 DOI 10.3389/feduc.2023.1146990