Options
2013
Journal Article
Titel
Managing open innovation in SMEs: A good practice example of a German software firm
Abstract
In recent years the open innovation paradigm has gained great attention in research on innovation and strategic management. Current research indicates that firms are opening up their innovation processes and adapt their business models to benefit not only from internal but also from external ideas and knowledge. So far, most of the research on open innovation has been focused on open innovation practices in large firms and has not considered open innovation in SMEs adequately. For this reason, our paper investigates organizational capabilities for managing open innovation in SMEs. Based on a case study analysis of the company CAS Software AG the researchers argue that SMEs have to build up new managerial capabilities within six dimensions of an integrated managerial system for open innovation. In addition the paper reveals the prosperous transformation process of the CAS Software AG towards an open innovator highlighting its characteristic of a guided evolution by means of a maturity model.