This study explores the organization and management of the innovation process in Irish food firms, with a specific focus on the internal and external interactions across the different phases of the innovation value chain. Recent research highlights the benefits of open innovation. However, many firms don’t practice open innovation or only leverage external resources and skills to a very limited extent; and prior research using Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data suggests that this is particularly the case for Irish firms. In this study the organization and management of innovation activities of Irish firms is analysed using CIS data and interview data from eight Irish food firms. In each firm multiple senior managers are interviewed about the origin of an innovative idea, the management of the innovation, and the role of external organisations in the innovation process. The analysis suggests that the organisation and management of the innovation process is contingent on both the stage of the innovation process and on managerial perceptions of the risks associated with open innovation. Contributions include extending existing research on open innovation by using the innovation value chain to show that the nature and extent of openness of the innovation process varies within a firm across the different stages of the value chain. Additionally, the context for the research, food firms, is under-represented in research on the emerging open innovation paradigm