Exploring Open Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Over the past years, research in open innovation has !ourished and the analysis of open innovation has been extended to various topics. However, a large proportion of open innovation research of the last decade concentrates on large and multinational "rms while innovation has become a more level playing "eld. #erefore, one would assume open innovation to be bene"cial for large "rms as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Chesbrough, 2006c). Prior work on innovation and SMEs emphasizes the role of inter-organizational relationships and external sources of innovation, and indicates that innovation in SMEs “by nature” has an external focus (Baum et al., 2000; Edwards et al., 2005). Nevertheless, SMEs have been excluded from the mainstream discussion in open innovation research (Lee et al., 2010; Wynarczyk et al., 2013). Only recently, researchers have started to investigate the relevance and the speci"c nature of open innovation in SMEs (Lee et al., 2010; van de Vrande et al., 2009b; Vanhaverbeke, 2012; van der Meer, 2007; Spithoven et al., 2013). #ese studies con"rm that small "rms do engage in di%erent types of open innovation practices and that openness drives innovation performance in SMEs (van de Vrande et al., 2009b; Parida et al., 2012; Brunswicker, 2011). Moreover, recent work provides a clear indication of the speci"c nature of how SMEs can bene"t from opening their business models and using in!ows and out!ows of knowledge (Lee et al., 2010), suggesting that existing "ndings on open innovation in large "rms cannot be directly transferred towards the SME sector. #ese "rst lessons learned provide the argument for studying open innovation in the SME sector in more detail. In addition, the economic relevance of SMEs further emphasizes the importance of research on open innovation strategies in SMEs. In Europe, for example, more than 60% OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, Mon Aug 04 2014, NEWGEN