Challenges to open innovation in traditional SMEs: an analysis of pre-competitive projects in university-industry-government collaboration

Abstract

Governments are increasingly focusing their efforts on stimulating innovation within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a result, university-industry-government collaboration is gaining importance among the agenda of policymakers to enable open innovation in SMEs. However, these inter-organisational relationships often fail to meet expectations, especially when projects are oriented to pre-competitive R&D. Nevertheless, the literature has not yet provided sufficient evidence of the challenges related to the participation of traditional SMEs (i.e., low- and medium-low tech SMEs) in this specific type of collaboration. We collected qualitative data to analyse longitudinally three pre-competitive projects, exploring the main challenges faced by traditional SMEs. We have bracketed the projects in four phases: initiation and planning phase, execution phase, closing phase, and monitoring and control phase. For each of these phases we have individuated firm- and project-level challenges, providing practical and theoretical insights for open innovation scholars.

Coupling Coordination between Technology Transfer in Universities and High‐Tech Industries Development in China

“…Both the system of TTU and HTID not only depend on external conditions but also influence the external conditions through their development, and then influence the other system. e TTU-HTID Coupling System also produces coupling with other external bodies including government (government support (gover) is an important part of the scientific and technological innovation system and promotes scientific and technological innovation by formulating policies, supporting funds, government procurement, innovation subsidies, and tax incentives) [60], sci-tech intermediaries (development of sci-tech intermediary (interme) integrates information and resources based on their intersecting position between supply and demand, which can help high-tech industries identify nonredundant information, expand resource acquisition channels, and promote the introduction, transfer, and diffusion of regional scientific and technological achievements) [61], sci-tech finance (sci-tech finance (fina) is an important part of the national sci-tech innovation system and financial system) [62,63], and other research institutions (other research institutions (insti) correspond to the "research" in the sci-tech innovation system, which is an important part of the system) [64]. ese bodies form an integrated sci-tech innovation system of "government-industry-university-research-financeintermediary.…”

Open innovation factors for higher education institutions

“…It must create a culture in the organization, in which knowledge is shared among its members. Staff who provide their knowledge should be rewarded and encouraged to use it by others [33].…”

Open Innovation—An Explorative Study on Value Co-Creation Tools for Nation Branding and Building a Competitive Identity

“…Since the concept of open innovation was introduced by Chesbrough [22] in 2003, a considerable amount of research that remarks the importance of the scientific field have been published on the concept of open innovation [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. While certain scholars [32][33][34][35][36] specifically aim at researching the benefits of an integration of external inputs on innovation performance and rather focus on the innovation process, others discuss the concept with a specific focus on business strategies and managerial implications [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. From their perspective, open innovation is beneficial or can even be interpreted as prerequisite for a company's dynamic capabilities.…”