Open Innovation in SMEs: Exploring Inter-Organizational Relationships in an Ecosystem

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2018, Forthcoming

45 Pages Posted: 5 May 2018

See all articles by Agnieszka Radziwon

Agnieszka Radziwon

Aarhus University; University of Southern Denmark - Mads Clausen Institute for Product Innovation

Marcel Bogers

Eindhoven University of Technology; University of Copenhagen; University of California, Berkeley

Date Written: April 13, 2018

Abstract

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face the inherent tension of depending on external partners to complement their internal innovation activities while having limited resources to manage such open innovation processes. Given the importance of collaborative efforts between multiple stakeholders, we address the open innovation challenges from the SME perspective at the business-ecosystem level. We present an inductive case study of a particular regional ecosystem and focus on the inter-organizational collaboration between SMEs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem. With this focus, we explore how SMEs perceive, organize, and manage open innovation through strong collaborative ties with other ecosystem members. We identify a particular set of challenges for the SMEs due to the misalignment between their business model and that of their ecosystem. Specific findings include the link between innovation type expressed by diverging understandings of the notion of innovation across the ecosystem and the innovation form (here, open innovation), which should be organized and managed on multiple levels of analysis (SME, inter-organizational, and ecosystem). These findings highlight specific attention points for managing and developing open innovation in a regional business ecosystem, and they contribute both to the business-ecosystem literature as well as open innovation literature.

Keywords: Open innovation, Ecosystem, SMEs, Multilevel perspective

Suggested Citation

Radziwon, Agnieszka and Radziwon, Agnieszka and Bogers, Marcel, Open Innovation in SMEs: Exploring Inter-Organizational Relationships in an Ecosystem (April 13, 2018). Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2018, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3164950

Agnieszka Radziwon

Aarhus University ( email )

Nordre Ringgade 1
Aarhus, 8000
Denmark

University of Southern Denmark - Mads Clausen Institute for Product Innovation ( email )

Denmark

Marcel Bogers (Contact Author)

Eindhoven University of Technology

Den Dolech 2
Eindhoven, North Brabant 5612 AZ
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://www.tue.nl

University of Copenhagen ( email )

Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO)
Rolighedsvej 23
Copenhagen, 1958
Denmark

University of California, Berkeley

Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation
F402 Hass School of Business, #1930
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

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