IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v119y2020icp230-244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From closed to open: A comparative stakeholder approach for developing open innovation activities in SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Grama-Vigouroux, Simona
  • Saidi, Sana
  • Berthinier-Poncet, Anne
  • Vanhaverbeke, Wim
  • Madanamoothoo, Allane

Abstract

Recent literature on open innovation (OI) highlights the need for studies regarding the factors that influence firms to switch from a closed to an OI strategy. At the same time, stakeholder literature points out the scarcity of knowledge regarding antecedent factors fostering collaboration with the firm's stakeholders and their engagement for higher value creation. To fill these gaps, we propose an analytical framework for implementing a strategic OI process through the development of stakeholder engagement. Our framework comprises 17 factors grouped in five levers: knowledge, collaboration, organizational, strategic, and financial. We empirically applied this framework to two industrial SMEs. A qualitative study was conducted based on semi-structured interviews with internal and external stakeholders of both firms. The results show that one company successfully implemented the OI process, while the other struggled to evolve from a traditionally closed innovation model to a more open model. Analyzing the results, we identified several aspects that could explain this difference. These aspects concern the OI activities performed by both firms, the combination of the five levers into a coherent OI approach, stakeholder engagement, and the characteristics of the CEOs. The current study contributes insights for theory and practice, especially as it proposes an original framework for developing a strategic OI process that integrates a stakeholder approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Grama-Vigouroux, Simona & Saidi, Sana & Berthinier-Poncet, Anne & Vanhaverbeke, Wim & Madanamoothoo, Allane, 2020. "From closed to open: A comparative stakeholder approach for developing open innovation activities in SMEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 230-244.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:119:y:2020:i:c:p:230-244
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.08.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319304862
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.08.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ranjay Gulati, 1999. "Network location and learning: the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 397-420, May.
    2. Markovic, Stefan & Bagherzadeh, Mehdi, 2018. "How does breadth of external stakeholder co-creation influence innovation performance? Analyzing the mediating roles of knowledge sharing and product innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 173-186.
    3. Elfring, Tom & Hulsink, Willem, 2003. "Networks in Entrepreneurship: The Case of High-Technology Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 409-422, December.
    4. Muhammad Usman & Nadine Roijakkers & Wim Vanhaverbeke & Federico Frattini, 2018. "A Systematic Review of the Literature on Open Innovation in SMEs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Wim Vanhaverbeke & Federico Frattini & Nadine Roijakkers & Muhammad Usman (ed.), RESEARCHING OPEN INNOVATION IN SMEs, chapter 1, pages 3-35, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Bruno Cassiman & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2002. "R&D Cooperation and Spillovers: Some Empirical Evidence from Belgium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1169-1184, September.
    6. Ulrich Lichtenthaler & Eckhard Lichtenthaler, 2009. "A Capability‐Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive Capacity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(8), pages 1315-1338, December.
    7. Michelle Greenwood, 2007. "Stakeholder Engagement: Beyond the Myth of Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 315-327, September.
    8. Beringer, Claus & Jonas, Daniel & Kock, Alexander, 2013. "Behavior of Internal Stakeholders in Project Portfolio Management and Its Impact on Success," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 63280, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    9. Elena P. Antonacopoulou & Jérôme Meric, 2005. "From Power to Knowledge Relationships: Stakeholder Interactions as Learning Partnerships," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Maria Bonnafous-Boucher & Yvon Pesqueux (ed.), Stakeholder Theory, chapter 8, pages 125-147, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Ayuso, Silvia & Rodriguez, Miguel A. & Ricart, Joan E., 2006. "Using stakeholder dialogue as a source for new ideas. A dynamic capability underlying sustainable innovation," IESE Research Papers D/633, IESE Business School.
    11. Henkel, Joachim & Schöberl, Simone & Alexy, Oliver, 2014. "The emergence of openness: How and why firms adopt selective revealing in open innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 879-890.
    12. Jérôme Méric & Elena Antonacopoulou, 2005. "From power to knowledge relationships: Stakeholder interactions as learning partnerships," Post-Print hal-02089098, HAL.
    13. Simona Grama & Anne Berthinier-Poncet & Sana Saidi, 2017. "Convergences ou divergences de vues ? L’effet sur l’innovation des différences de perception entre gouvernance et entreprises d’un technopôle," Post-Print hal-02493007, HAL.
    14. Grando, Alberto & Belvedere, Valeria, 2006. "District's manufacturing performances: A comparison among large, small-to-medium-sized and district enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 85-99, November.
    15. Susan K. McEvily & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt & John E. Prescott, 2004. "The global acquisition, leverage, and protection of technological competencies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(8‐9), pages 713-722, August.
    16. Nick Bontis & Mary M. Crossan & John Hulland, 2002. "Managing An Organizational Learning System By Aligning Stocks and Flows," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 437-469, June.
    17. Bruce Kogut, 2000. "The network as knowledge: generative rules and the emergence of structure," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 405-425, March.
    18. Christensen, Jens Froslev & Olesen, Michael Holm & Kjaer, Jonas Sorth, 2005. "The industrial dynamics of Open Innovation--Evidence from the transformation of consumer electronics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1533-1549, December.
    19. Kaufmann, Alexander & Todtling, Franz, 2001. "Science-industry interaction in the process of innovation: the importance of boundary-crossing between systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 791-804, May.
    20. Neubaum, Donald O. & Dibrell, Clay & Craig, Justin B., 2012. "Balancing natural environmental concerns of internal and external stakeholders in family and non-family businesses," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 28-37.
    21. Morgan Miles & Linda Munilla & Jenny Darroch, 2006. "The Role of Strategic Conversations with Stakeholders in the Formation of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 195-205, December.
    22. de Faria, Pedro & Sofka, Wolfgang, 2010. "Knowledge protection strategies of multinational firms--A cross-country comparison," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 956-968, September.
    23. Raghu Garud & Praveen R. Nayyar, 1994. "Transformative capacity: Continual structuring by intertemporal technology transfer," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 365-385, June.
    24. Laursen, Keld & Salter, Ammon J., 2014. "The paradox of openness: Appropriability, external search and collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 867-878.
    25. Fu, Xiaolan, 2012. "How does openness affect the importance of incentives for innovation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 512-523.
    26. André Spithoven & Wim Vanhaverbeke & Nadine Roijakkers, 2013. "Open innovation practices in SMEs and large enterprises," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 537-562, October.
    27. Beringer, Claus & Jonas, Daniel & Kock, Alexander, 2013. "Behavior of Internal Stakeholders in Project Portfolio Management and Its Impact on Success," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 63318, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    28. Drechsler, Wenzel & Natter, Martin, 2012. "Understanding a firm's openness decisions in innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 438-445.
    29. Maurizio Zollo & Sidney G. Winter, 2002. "Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 339-351, June.
    30. Julia Roloff, 2008. "Learning from Multi-Stakeholder Networks: Issue-Focussed Stakeholder Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 233-250, September.
    31. Erik-Hans Klijn & Jasper Eshuis & Erik Braun, 2012. "The Influence of Stakeholder Involvement on The Effectiveness of Place Branding," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 499-519, May.
    32. Wim Vanhaverbeke & Federico Frattini & Nadine Roijakkers & Muhammad Usman (ed.), 2018. "Researching Open Innovation in SMEs," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 10733, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cahn, Amir & Katz, David & Ghermandi, Andrea & Prevos, Peter, 2023. "Initiating data-as-a-service adoption in water utilities: A service design approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Allal-Chérif, Oihab & Costa Climent, Juan & Ulrich Berenguer, Klaus Jurgen, 2023. "Born to be sustainable: How to combine strategic disruption, open innovation, and process digitization to create a sustainable business," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Duc Anh Nguyen & Liliana Mitkova, 2024. "Recent research trends in open innovation in SMEs: a bibliometric literature review," Post-Print hal-04712830, HAL.
    4. Baira Faulks & Yinghua Song & Moses Waiganjo & Bojan Obrenovic & Danijela Godinic, 2021. "Impact of Empowering Leadership, Innovative Work, and Organizational Learning Readiness on Sustainable Economic Performance: An Empirical Study of Companies in Russia during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-27, November.
    5. El Maalouf, Nicole & Bahemia, Hanna, 2023. "The implementation of inbound open innovation at the firm level: A dynamic capability perspective," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    6. Hannu Littunen & Timo Tohmo & Esa Storhammar, 2021. "Innovation among SMEs in Finland: The impact of stakeholder engagement and firm-level characteristics," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 17(4), pages 157-196.
    7. Duc Anh Nguyen & Liliana Mitkova, 2024. "Recent research trends in open innovation in SMEs: a bibliometric literature review," Post-Print hal-04712828, HAL.
    8. Ioannis Lysaridis & Panos T. Chountalas & Anastasios I. Magoutas, 2023. "Critical Success Factors in the Technology Commercialization Process: A Comparative Case Study of International Licensing Alliances among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    9. Stefan, Ioana & Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, Pia & Vanhaverbeke, Wim & Oikarinen, Eeva-Liisa, 2022. "The dark side of open innovation: Individual affective responses as hidden tolls of the paradox of openness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 360-373.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Radziwon, Agnieszka & Bogers, Marcel, 2019. "Open innovation in SMEs: Exploring inter-organizational relationships in an ecosystem," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 573-587.
    2. Lingyan Meng & Md Qamruzzaman & Anass Hamad Elneel Adow, 2021. "Technological Adaption and Open Innovation in SMEs: An Strategic Assessment for Women-Owned SMEs Sustainability in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, March.
    3. Jinhyo Joseph Yun & Xiaofei Zhao & KyungBae Park & Lei Shi, 2020. "Sustainability Condition of Open Innovation: Dynamic Growth of Alibaba from SME to Large Enterprise," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-24, May.
    4. José Plaza-Úbeda & Jerónimo Burgos-Jiménez & Eva Carmona-Moreno, 2010. "Measuring Stakeholder Integration: Knowledge, Interaction and Adaptational Behavior Dimensions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 419-442, May.
    5. Secundo, Giustina & Del Vecchio, Pasquale & Simeone, Luca & Schiuma, Giovanni, 2020. "Creativity and stakeholders' engagement in open innovation: Design for knowledge translation in technology-intensive enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 272-282.
    6. Leckel, Anja & Veilleux, Sophie & Dana, Leo Paul, 2020. "Local Open Innovation: A means for public policy to increase collaboration for innovation in SMEs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    7. Idika Awa Uduma & Andy Fred Wali & Len Tiu Wright, 2015. "A quantitative study on the influence of breadth of open innovation on SMEs product-service performance: The moderating effect of type of innovation," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1120421-112, December.
    8. Franzò, Simone & Doppio, Nicola & Natalicchio, Angelo & Frattini, Federico & Mion, Luca, 2023. "Designing innovation contests to support external knowledge search in small and medium-sized enterprises," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    9. Miozzo, Marcela & Desyllas, Panos & Lee, Hsing-fen & Miles, Ian, 2016. "Innovation collaboration and appropriability by knowledge-intensive business services firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1337-1351.
    10. Crass, Dirk & Valero, Francisco Garcia & Pitton, Francesco & Rammer, Christian, 2019. "Protecting Innovation Through Patents and Trade Secrets: Evidence for Firms with a Single Innovation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 117-156.
    11. Waseem Ul Hameed & Muhammad Farhan Basheer & Jawad Iqbal & Ayesha Anwar & Hafiz Khalil Ahmad, 2018. "Determinants of Firm’s open innovation performance and the role of R & D department: an empirical evidence from Malaysian SME’s," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 8(1), pages 1-20, December.
    12. Upadhayay, Neha B. & Rocchetta, Silvia & Gupta, Shivam & Kamble, Sachin & Stekelorum, Rebecca, 2024. "Blazing the trail: The role of digital and green servitization on technological innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Stefan, Ioana & Bengtsson, Lars, 2017. "Unravelling appropriability mechanisms and openness depth effects on firm performance across stages in the innovation process," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 252-260.
    14. Arora, Ashish & Athreye, Suma & Huang, Can, 2016. "The paradox of openness revisited: Collaborative innovation and patenting by UK innovators," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1352-1361.
    15. Schrettle, Stefan & Hinz, Andreas & Scherrer -Rathje, Maike & Friedli, Thomas, 2014. "Turning sustainability into action: Explaining firms' sustainability efforts and their impact on firm performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PA), pages 73-84.
    16. Milanov, Hana & Fernhaber, Stephanie A., 2009. "The impact of early imprinting on the evolution of new venture networks," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 46-61, January.
    17. Gabriele Santoro & Alberto Ferraris & Elisa Giacosa & Guido Giovando, 2018. "How SMEs Engage in Open Innovation: a Survey," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(2), pages 561-574, June.
    18. Casanueva, Cristóbal & Gallego, Ángeles & Castro, Ignacio & Sancho, María, 2014. "Airline alliances: Mobilizing network resources," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 88-98.
    19. Bos, Brenda & Broekhuizen, Thijs L.J. & de Faria, Pedro, 2015. "A dynamic view on secrecy management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2619-2627.
    20. Lu, Qinli & Chesbrough, Henry, 2022. "Measuring open innovation practices through topic modelling: Revisiting their impact on firm financial performance," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:119:y:2020:i:c:p:230-244. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.