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This paper contributes to the understanding of the context dependency of open innovation. It does so by empirically analysing the relationship between innovation activities, firm characteristics and the degree of innovation openness of manufacturing companies in three European countries with varying degrees of technological development. Logistic regression analysis is used to study CIS data from Germany, Portugal and Bulgaria. In line with the contingency approach to open innovation, the results suggest that the appropriate open innovation strategy is context dependent, with similar practices and firm characteristics obtaining opposite relationship signs in different countries. Hence, it is important to take country idiosyncrasies into account when designing policies to promote open innovation.