Open innovation opens up organizational boundaries so that a company can use and combine internal and external knowledge to develop and commercialize its own innovations, and can take its internal knowledge to market through external channels to generate additional value. There are many studies on large companies that use open innovation in order to develop their products, and keep up with rapid economic changes which affect their businesses. However there are not many studies on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in terms of open innovation. SMEs are crucially important in global economy and innovation. They account for a large proportion in the global economy and create a large number of employment opportunities. They are more innovative than larger companies due to their flexibility and ability to quickly and efficiently integrate inventions created by their development activities. Nonetheless they lack of resources and appropriate structures. Accordingly innovation processes and strategies used for product development by large companies may not be appropriate for them. This study examines if SMEs should adopt open innovation activities for their product development and suggests that SMEs should adopt open innovation activities as complementary approaches to their internal R&D for their product development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-97928 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Kuhakarn, Ravinda |
| Publisher | KTH, Affärsutveckling och Entreprenörskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Examensarbete INDEK ; 2012:54 |
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