In spite of the growing interest in open innovation, one of the core questions that remain unanswered is how different kinds of openness affect innovation performance. Moreover, the impact of the geographical dispersion of partners also needs further investigation, while there is a tension between the motives for global search and the needs for proximity in innovation processes. In this paper we will research the relationship between openness and performance outcome in manufacturing companies when taking the localisation of partners into account. The study is based on survey data from 415 companies. The openness is defined by three dimensions: partner breadth, partner depth and phase depth. Performance is measured in terms of cost, risk and time-to-market, innovativeness and economic performance. The results of this study confirm and illustrate the localisation dilemma. For manufacturing companies using a global approach, it seems advisable to collaborate more intensively with a reduced number of partners. In contrast, the companies applying a more spatially balanced approach could collaborate with an increased number of partners and still be innovative and cost efficient. This implies that different localisation strategies for external partner collaborations require different integration approaches in order to be successful.