A PERSPECTIVE ON OPEN INNOVATION IN SMALL- AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES IN SOUTH AFRICA, AND DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR AN OPEN INNOVATION APPROACH (original) (raw)
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OPEN INNOVATION IN SOUTH AFRICAN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES
Over the last decade Open Innovation has grown in popularity and success to increase innovation effectiveness and speed, especially within larger organisations. A need however exists within the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector to also improve how organisations innovate and to reduce cost and turnaround times for innovation to be more competitive. Lindegaard describes open innovation as “a two-way process in which companies have an inbound process in which they bring in ideas, technologies, or other resources needed to develop their own business and an outbound process in which they out-license or sell their own ideas, technologies, and other resources.” This paper explores open innovation within the SME context and provides the results of a survey conducted under South African SMEs, assessing the appetite for and use of open innovation.
Open Innovation in South African SMEs
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Over the last decade Open Innovation has grown in popularity and success to increase innovation effectiveness and speed, especially within larger organisations. A need however exists within the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector to also improve how organisations innovate and to reduce cost and turnaround times for innovation to be more competitive. Lindegaard describes open innovation as "a two-way process in which companies have an inbound process in which they bring in ideas, technologies, or other resources needed to develop their own business and an outbound process in which they out-license or sell their own ideas, technologies, and other resources." This paper explores open innovation within the SME context and provides the results of a survey conducted under South African SMEs, assessing the appetite for and use of open innovation.
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A FRAMEWORK TOWARDS AN OPEN INNOVATION APPROACH FOR SMES
The literature indicates that implementing Open Innovation as a formal management practice in organisations remains a challenge. Open Innovation (OI) is receiving increased focus in academia and industry, but practical implementation and application guidance for users are still limited. This is even more relevant for the application of Open Innovation in small and medium sized enterprises (SME). Open Innovation is still largely an emerging field of research in academia, with larger organisations receiving most of the focus. In this paper the authors introduce a framework for the development of an Open Innovation approach for SMEs, based on models and frameworks from the literature. Following a design sciences method, the authors review various models and frameworks on innovation and general implementation best practices, and deduct core elements that can be applied in an Open Innovation Framework. The framework is based on a continuous improvement cycle that aims to mature the Open Innovation capability within the organisation through various iterations. The framework comprises of four main components, six sub‐components and twenty three core elements. The four main components of the framework are: Plan and Prepare for OI, Perform OI, Measure and Evaluate OI, and Improve and Mature OI. The framework suggested in this paper can be used towards the development of an Open Innovation approach for SMEs. Such an approach should include descriptive elements for the implementation and application of Open Innovation within the context of SMEs.
Open innovation in small and micro enterprises
Open innovation has become a key strategic element to increase the generation and commercialization of innovations among big companies. Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs), that exhibit particular characteristics regarding organization, culture and strategy, have been more reluctant to adopt this approach. Thus little research exists on the adoption of open innovation among SMEs, and small and micro companies in particular. The paper presents the results of an explorative research design based upon semi-structured and narrative interviews that investigates particularities of small and micro firms regarding the sources of innovation, the strengths and weaknesses of their innovation process, and the potential of open innovation based on Web 2.0 technologies.
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This study is a systematic literature review of three academic articles. It aims to investigate and explore the implementation of open innovation in SMEs. The review was conducted in three phases: (i) understanding the concept of innovation and open innovation; (ii) identifying references and (iii) exploring primary study which explains about the implementation of open innovation in SMEs. Finally, this paper examines how the concept of open innovation in SMEs is implemented in different countries. The result shows that open innovation in SMEs focus more on commercialization because marketing channels and global contacts to introduce them effectively to the market. Implementation of open innovation in SMEs has a significant impact to the company in the aspect of 1) motives and perceived challenges, 2) leadership, people, culture, and business improvement; 3) company size on the effectiveness of innovation endures.
Open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises: An overview
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Our introduction provides the foundation and background for this special issue on open innovation. Since the beginning of the 21st century, innovation has evolved from being the artefact of an individual or internal process within firms to an interactive process between firms and/or in collaboration with knowledge-creating institutions at both the domestic and global levels. The open innovation model suggests that firms should combine external and internal ideas and technologies as effective pathways to market when advancing and commercialising technologies. However, existing research focuses mainly on high-technology multinational firms hence, theoretically driven and empiricallybased research exploring open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises remains relatively scarce. This special issue offers a critical contribution to this gap with four articles which explore differing aspects of open innovation within smaller firms. The introduction to this special issue commences with an overview of the relevant literature; it then describes the articles and, finally, suggests potential avenues for future research.
Open Innovation in Small Businesses in the Industry and Craft Sectors
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A Critical Review of Open Innovation in SMEs: Implementation, Success Factors and Challenges
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This literature review explores the Open Innovation of SME companies, their application, success factors, impact, and challenges. The theoretical framework is built starting from the definition, a critical pillar, and Open Innovation in SME companies. The main factor in the Open Innovation process stage is finding innovative ideas and establishing network access with the external environment. Balanced, systematic, and thorough collaboration is the key to this process. Although European scholars have done it quite a lot, the study of literature on Open Innovation in SMEs still could continue to be developed. Several research results were found in studies conducted in developing countries such as China, Taiwan, and Korea, distinguishing them from similar studies in Europe.Keywords: innovation; SMEs; technology; entrepreneurship; open innovation
International Journal of Innovation Management, 2021
Open innovation (OI) assumes that businesses combine external and internal ideas as the primary means to accelerate internal innovation or access the market to commercialise their technologies. In the last decade, research interest has increased towards understanding OI in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the fast pace with which the literature has been developing in this area, there is a strong need to revisit the literature to investigate nuances, ambiguities, differences of opinion, discrepancies and omissions. This paper aims to systematically review OI in SMEs and survey the current state of his characteristics and determinants. 130 articles published in peer-reviewed journals are descriptively analysed, with results synthesised across current research themes. Findings suggest OI in an SME differs considerably from OI in a large business. Some characteristics and determinants are specific to OI in SMEs. The originality of the paper is rooted in the conceptual framework that illustrates how characteristics and determinants of OI in SME relate to each other in terms of input-output.