E-mail: ijimt@ejournal.net
Abstract—The concept of open innovation is gaining
popularity in both the world of engineering and management.
However, despite this growing interest, most existing studies
tend to focus mainly on large companies. Thus, the purpose of
this paper is to explore the drivers of the implementation of the
open innovation concept in SMEs. This study uses a survey
carried out through an online questionnaire that was sent to
some Portuguese SMEs. The results show that there is a high
level of receptivity to implement open innovation. The findings
also suggest the existence of a positive relationship between the
application of open innovation and the level of satisfaction with
the R&D unit’s performance. Overall, SMEs seem to be more
motivated to apply open innovation to improve their innovation
process and capacity than to reduce costs, share innovation
risks, or improve reputation. Moreover, findings also
demonstrate that the main drivers for the adoption of open
innovation vary along with company size. For micro-enterprises,
the main driver is to complement internal skills. Small
enterprises look for the most effective way to develop new
products and services whilst medium-sized enterprises are
mainly driven to monitor market trends and improve their
innovation process.
Index Terms—Innovation, open innovation, innovation
implementation, innovation drivers, innovation benefits, SMEs.
Jorge Julião and Inês Ferreira are with Católica Porto Business School,
Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal (e-mail: jjuliao@ucp.pt,
resgroup.cpbs@porto.ucp.pt).
Marcelo Gaspar is with School of Management and Technology,
Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal (e-mail:
marcelo.gaspar@ipleiria.pt).
Cite: Jorge Julião, Inês Ferreira, and Marcelo Gaspar, "Why do SMEs Implement Open Innovation? The Case of Portugal," International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 58-63, 2022.
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