New Perspectives on Open Innovation: Sources of Openness for Innovation in UK high-tech SMEs

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fuel economies around the globe and outweigh their large counterparts, not only in number but also in overall impact on society. At the same time, uncertainty in the global marketplace has given rise to a fundamental change in innovation strategies, causing Open Innovation (OI) to develop into standard practice in many organizations. However, the focus of OI studies on large multinational companies (MNCs) has led to an unfortunate bias within the literature. This study addresses this gap in current research by analysing the sources of openness for innovation in the context of UK high-tech SMEs. Theoretically, the paper refers to the resource-based view and stresses the importance of internal capabilities in OI activities. The research is based on three case studies of SMEs in the Cambridge technopole region, a mature high-tech business eco-system in the East of England. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews as well as in-depth research into the case-companies. The data was then coded and categorised in order to identify common sources of openness for innovation. The main findings reveal that while SMEs are generally open towards OI activities key differences remain within the OI process compared to larger companies. Credibility and trustworthiness of external actors involved seems essential to OI implementation in SMEs. Moreover, sources of openness for innovation in SMEs seem to be rather external compared to MNCs, which benefit from a more sophisticated internal eco-system. These differences are represented in a preliminary framework of OI implementation derived from the qualitative research. It is important to state that this is initial exploratory research with limits in terms of generalisablity, written as a grounded starting point for further research in the area of OI in SMEs.