Abstract
This paper provides key results from an exploratory research study aimed at understanding the current landscape in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa with regard to their appetite for, and use of, open innovation. The survey, which was conducted within a contained group of SMEs that belong to business network groups on LinkedIn, explored the current use and perception of open innovation. It was found that collaboration is the approach most preferred by the SMEs surveyed, with customers and suppliers as their preferred innovation partners. Based on the findings of the survey, this paper proposes 25 design requirements, grouped into five functional categories, for an open innovation approach. The design requirements have been developed as a primer to a more complete open innovation approach for SMEs.
Highlights
The term ‘open innovation’ was introduced in 2003 by Professor Henry Chesbrough of the University of California in Berkley
The authors received feedback from participants indicating that, they use open innovation approaches in their companies, they did not know that what they were doing was open innovation
The selection of customers and suppliers as the preferred innovation partners make sense when considering that collaboration and customer immersion were selected as the top open innovation approaches
Summary
The term ‘open innovation’ was introduced in 2003 by Professor Henry Chesbrough of the University of California in Berkley. Chesbrough [1] defined open innovation as “a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”. Since 2003 the popularity of open innovation has grown, promising to increase the effectiveness and speed of innovation. This concept was adopted mostly by larger organisations such as Phillips and Procter and Gamble, where open innovation is seen as a strategic differentiator. SMEs are looking to improve how they can innovate and reduce cost while reducing time to market, in order to become more competitive. Open innovation can be considered “an important mechanism for SMEs to gain access to knowledge and technology otherwise not available within their own organisational boundaries, resulting in improved innovation performance” [4]
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