Researching Open Innovation in SMEs

Wim Vanhaverbeke, Federico Frattini, Nadine Roijakkers, Muhammad Usman

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9789813230989
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

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The concept of open innovation (OI) has become a very popular topic during the last decade, with increasing number of SMEs embracing OI practices to gain competitive advantage. This edited volume is a timely opportunity to gather research on OI in SMEs, to investigate how OI is managed and implemented to determine the peculiarities compared to OI management in large companies, and to specify the consequences for future OI research.

The book offers insights into the following topics: The state of the art on open innovation in SMEs; adopting open innovation in SMEs; interorganizational networks and innovation ecosystems; sectoral patterns of open innovation in SMEs; and measuring, evaluating and stimulating open innovation in SMEs.

--> Contents:

• Introduction (Federico Frattini, Muhammad Usman, Nadine Roijakkers & Wim Vanhaverbeke)
• State of the Art on Open Innovation in SMEs:
  • A Systematic Review of the Literature on Open Innovation in SMEs (Muhammad Usman, Nadine Roijakkers, Wim Vanhaverbeke and Federico Frattini)
  • The "Hidden Costs" of Open Innovation in SMEs: From Theory to Practice (Cristina Marullo, Alberto Di Minin, Chiara De Eleonora Marco and Andrea Piccaluga)
• Adopting Open Innovation in SMEs:
  • An Open Innovation Model for SMEs (Barbara Bigliardi and Francesco Galati)
  • Adoption of Open Innovation by Small Firms to Develop Frugal Innovations for Inclusive Development (Mokter Hossain)
  • How Do Entrepreneurial Leaders Promote Open Innovation Adoption in Small Firms? (Joon Mo Ahn, Tim Minshall and Letizia Mortara)
  • How Do SMEs Use Open Innovation When Developing New Business Models? (Robert William Anderson, Nuran Acur and Jonathan Corney)
• SMEs in Inter-Organizational Networks and Innovation Ecosystems:
  • Managing SMEs' Collaboration Across Organizational Boundaries Within a Regional Business Ecosystem (Agnieszka Radziwon and Marcel Bogers)
  • Open Innovation Within the Low-Technology SME Sector (Lawrence Dooley and David O'Sullivan)
• Sectoral Patterns of Open Innovation in SMEs:
  • Open Innovation Practices of Clustered SMEs: The Intermediate Role of Cluster Governance (Anne Berthinier-Poncet, Simona Grama-Vigouroux and Sana Saidi)
  • Exploring Collaborative Practices Between SMEs and Designers in the Italian Furniture Industry (Claudio Dell'Era, Stefano Magistretti and Roberto Verganti)
  • The Link Between Entrepreneurial Attributes and SME Ecosystem Orchestration: A Case from the Dutch HR Services Industry (Oana-Maria Pop, Nadine Roijakkers, Diana Rus and Marjolein Hins)
  • Crowdfunding of SMEs and Startups: When Open Investing Follows Open Innovation (Giancarlo Giudici and Cristina Rossi Lamastra)
• Measuring, Evaluating and Stimulating Open Innovation in SMEs:
  • Measuring Open Innovation in SMEs (Dylan Jones-Evans, Aineias Gkikas, Martin Rhisiart and Niall G MacKenzie)
  • The Open Innovation Project Canvas for SMEs (Marc Steen and Wim Vanhaverbeke)
  • Open Innovation and Public Policy in the EU with Implications for SMEs (Henry W Chesbrough and Wim Vanhaverbeke)

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--> Readership: Undergraduate students, graduate students and researchers in the field of open innovation. -->
Keywords:Open Innovation;SME;Entrepreneur;Innovation Ecosystem;Licensing;Ip;Collaboration;Market Partner;Partnerships;Innovation Management;Business ModelReview: Key Features:

• Systematically addresses open innovation in SMEs
• Introduces specific theoretical frameworks that help us in understanding the specifics of OI in SMEs
• Focuses specifically on the need to integrate open innovation in SMEs with the entrepreneurship literature and the business model (innovation) literature

Part I

State of the Art on Open Innovation in SMEs

Chapter 1

A Systematic Review of the Literature on Open Innovation in SMEs

Muhammad Usman,* Nadine Roijakkers,
Wim Vanhaverbeke and Federico Frattini

*[email protected]

Abstract

This chapter provides a systematic review of the open innovation (OI) research carried out within the context of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). The chapter should provide an accurate understanding of current literature about OI in SMEs, and it elaborates many future research avenues. The recent increase in the number of publications in this field shows that it has gained the attention of the academicians. The existing research shows that SMEs organize and manage OI in an entirely different way from large companies. SMEs get involved in OI based on their own strategic needs, and OI mechanisms have to be designed differently for SMEs.

The chapter maps the research through Web of Science — Core Collection database. We investigated the “OI in SMEs” literature from January 2003 till June 2017. A total of 118 articles, eight book chapters, and six books are analyzed. The discussion is mainly categorized into six broad themes: adoption of OI, the benefits of OI, challenges, role of networking, sectoral patterns, and the role of policymaking. The chapter concludes with several avenues for future research in the field.

1.1.Introduction

This chapter provides a systematic review of the open innovation (OI) research carried out within the context of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). As such, the chapter builds on and extends the work carried out by Brunswicker and Van de Vrande (2014) who have equally conducted a literature search and have identified several interesting themes for further research, such as the important role of SMEs as coordinators/orchestrators of their OI relations and how to optimally fulfill this role. Furthermore, they have concluded that, while the literature on OI has grown exponentially ever since Henry Chesbrough published his groundbreaking work in 2003 (Chesbrough, 2003), SMEs have received only little attention. Most researchers have studied large multinationals and their OI practices, and the lessons drawn from these cases and studies cannot be easily transferred to SMEs; SMEs represent unique contexts in terms of their resource endowments, skill sets, the tight connection between the entrepreneur and the (OI) strategy of the company, etc. (Van de Vrande et al., 2009; Vanhaverbeke, 2012). An explicit focus on the specifics of the SME context when studying these companies is thus warranted. Hence, for the purpose of this book, this chapter extends the efforts of Brunswicker and Van de Vrande (2014) and Hossain and Kauranen (2016) with respect to mapping the OI in SMEs research field, albeit with a focus on the themes covered in subsequent chapters of this edited book.

SMEs are crucial catalysts of both developed and developing economies, accounting for over 99% of all businesses and more than 60% of all jobs created, as well as important sources of innovation (Audretsch, 1995; Muller et al., 2015). As such, governments are searching for ways to increase the productivity of SMEs. Several researchers have identified OI as an important strategy to overcome typical SME weaknesses such as resource (time, money, etc.) constraints and skill gaps (Bougrain and Haudeville, 2002; Dahlander and Gann, 2010; Edwards et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2010; Rahman and Ramos, 2010; Wynarczyk et al., 2013). In order to optimally benefit from OI, however, companies need to develop completely new skill sets (e.g., orchestration capabilities) and create the right atmosphere (e.g., open culture) within their firms. While researchers have generated best practices and lessons on how to bring these changes about within the context of large companies, the insights on SMEs are still relatively thin. This chapter intends to remedy this gap, and one important first step is to map the existing work on OI in SMEs, on the basis of which valuable new insights can be generated. The aims of this chapter are thus twofold:

•mapping the existing literature in the OI in SMEs field so as to provide a basis for subsequent chapters;

•identifying promising areas for future research that subsequent chapters connect to.

In terms of methodology, we conducted a thorough review and analysis of papers published on Web of Science (Core Collection) during the period starting January 1, 2003 till June 19, 2017, following established approaches for systematic literature reviews by many authors (Pittaway et al., 2004; Rousseau et al., 2008; Spender et al., 2017). Our review is concentrated not only on the field of innovation management but also includes related fields (e.g., strategic management) where appropriate. The following methodological steps were taken:

(1)The identification of keywords based on authors’ prior experience, an initial assessment of the literature, and brainstorming sessions. Identified keywords include “open innovation,” “SMEs,” “collaborative innovation,” “strategic alliance,” “innovation,” “small businesses,” etc. These keywords were then organized into search strings, for example: [*open innovation* OR *collaborative innovation* AND *small and medium-sized enterprises* OR *SMEs* OR *small businesses*].

(2)The carrying out of a preliminary search on Google Scholar using the basic search strings. This initial search was used for identifying additional keywords for the main search. Additional keywords include, for example, “inbound innovation,” “outbound innovation,” “coupled innovation,” “entrepreneurial ventures,” etc.

(3)The use of the basic search string *open innovation* and *SMEs* in the Web of Science — Core Collection (search engine) database to identify the key citation indexes for review. The selection was made based on the volume of citations relevant to the basic search string. The citation database, Web of Science, was then reviewed using the search strings identified in steps 1 and 2.

(4)The review of identified citations according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria summarized in Table 1.1. Two stages were undertaken to reduce the number of citations. In the first stage, we analyzed the titles of articles according to the exclusion criteria; in the second stage, we analyzed the abstracts according to the inclusion criteria. We then cross-checked the reference sections of the included articles to assess the search strategy.

(5)The review of 126 citations that met the search criteria. These publications were organized into different categories according to frequently addressed issues. As such, a list of themes was compiled that is relevant to the remainder of this book. The themes and relevant publications under each theme were then summarized and discussed.

The remainder of this chapter is structured as follows. In the Section 1.2, we present the results of our descriptive and content analyses. Next, we describe the main research themes identified. Finally, we present interesting avenues for further research.

Table 1.1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

No.	Criteria	Reasons
Inclusion criteria
1	Studies focusing on innovative SMEs considering collaboration/strategic alliances/partnerships as a tool or source for innovation	Since the OI phenomenon is new, studies on collaborative innovation, strategic alliances, and partnerships where it leads to innovation for SMEs were also considered
2	Studies focusing on OI that consider SMEs as their point of analysis or vice versa	To keep in line with the overall theme of this book
3	Theoretical, conceptual, empirical, qualitative, quantitative methodologies, literature reviews	The aim was to include almost all relevant academic publications in this study
4	Articles/book chapters published/indexed in Web of Science — Core Collection along with other books published on OI in SMEs	All the main journals and other outlets are indexed in the Web of Science — Core Collection database
Exclusion criteria
1	Studies published on related area before year 2003	OI concept was coined in 2003; so, studies only after 2003 are taken into consideration
2	Simple collaboration arrangements	Only studies on collaborations that lead to innovation were considered
3	Conference papers, business magazine articles, editorials, or similar publications were not considered	Only journal articles, books, and book chapters were taken into account
4	Linguistic expression	Articles published in English were only considered; due to linguistic constraints, publications in other languages were not considered

1.2.Descriptive and Content Analysis

In this section, we present the results of our review of the 126 publications considered in this study. Out of these 126 publications, 118 are published in various journals, while 8 publications are published as book chapters. In addition to these 126 publications, six books that are published on OI in SMEs, to date, are also included in our analysis and are also separately discussed in Section 1.4. Below is a descriptive and content analysis of our sample research.

1.2.1.Descriptive analysis

Figure 1.1 illustrates the number of relevant publications that have appeared in the field of OI in SMEs since 2003.

The figure shows that the study of OI in SMEs is a fairly recent phenomenon. It is particularly worth noting that the first publication, which is an empirical study discussing university and industry collaborations for innovating SMEs (Fontana et al., 2006), appeared in 2006. The first articles actually mentioning OI in SMEs have only started to appear from 2009 onward. Batterink (2009), for example, discusses the adoption of OI in SMEs as well as in larger companies. Lecocq and Demil (2006) study OI in a low-technology setting and discuss OI strategy from the viewpoint of new entrants to the industry in relation to incumbents that are practicing openness. As important early publications have shown that SMEs adopt OI in a unique way and in relation to different strategic needs than large firms, academics have started to pay more attention to the specific SME context as is evidenced by larger numbers of publications and an increasing citation count.

Figure 1.1. Number of publications on “OI in SMEs” per year.

Figure 1.2 presents the citations per year to these 126 publications. The citations are growing exponentially over the years. This is the result of a combination of a growing number of publications over time and an increase of citations per publication as time progresses.

Figure 1.3 shows the impact of the 126 publications for the period 2009–2014 by showing the number of citations per publication in the three years following the publications published in a particular year. The articles published after 2014 are excluded since they do not have a window of three years for the citations. The figure, in general, shows the importance of some early publications in this area in 2009 and 2010. We see a higher average citation rate for publications in 2009, 2010, and 2012. This is the result of some highly cited publications — there is highly skewed distribution of the citations across the publications. Therefore, we highlight the most cited publications in Table 1.2.

Figure 1.2. Number of citations per year.

Figure 1.3. Citations per publication for the 126 publications under study (till t + 3).

Table 1.2 shows the topmost cited publications from our sample. The most cited article is from Van de Vrande et al. (2009) on the motives and challenges faced by S...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I State of the Art on Open Innovation in SMEs
• Part II Adopting Open Innovation in SMEs
• Part III SMEs in Inter-organizational Networks and Innovation Ecosystems
• Part IV Sectoral Patterns of Open Innovation in SMEs
• Part V Measuring, Evaluating and Stimulating Open Innovation in SMEs
• Index