Abstract Maritime ports are under growing pressure to reconcile operational efficiency with environmental and social sustainability. This paper investigates how open innovation can accelerate sustainable transformation across port ecosystems by proposing the integrative paradigm of Open Sustainable Innovation (OSI). The study adopts a semi-systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (2014–2024). Bibliometric mapping techniques were combined with qualitative synthesis to identify recurrent practices and trends. Comparative evidence from leading European ports complements the analysis. The findings reveal that OSI practices—such as open data initiatives, incubators, start-up challenge programs, and multi-stakeholder governance intermediaries—support improvements in process efficiency, environmental performance, and digital capability building. At the same time, significant barriers persist, including institutional inertia, fragmented funding, regulatory misalignment, uneven digital maturity, and limited impact assessment. Evidence from Rotterdam, Valencia, Barcelona, and Motril demonstrates that the orchestration capacity of port authorities and intermediaries, supported by robust digital infrastructures and inclusive innovation cultures, determines the scalability of OSI initiatives. Conceptually, OSI is positioned as the coupling of cross-boundary knowledge flows with triple-bottom-line objectives. The article concludes by outlining a future research agenda focused on ecosystem governance, value distribution, and long-term impact evaluation. By consolidating fragmented knowledge, this study contributes to both academic discourse and managerial practice, providing guidance for ports seeking to move beyond isolated pilot projects towards systemic, sustainability-aligned innovation.
Cabrita et al. (Sun,) studied this question.