Technological innovation typologies and open innovation in SMEs: Beyond internal and external sources of knowledge

Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver, Francisca Sempere-Ripoll and Carles Boronat-Moll

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2021, vol. 162, issue C

Abstract: SME inbound open innovation has primarily received attention for new product development, overlooking the fact that SMEs may also pursue process or, simultaneously, product and process innovation. We posit that different technological innovation typologies (product vs process) are related to distinct search strategies. Focusing on 3,867 innovative SMEs, results indicate that inbound open innovation is not only related to internal resources of innovation but also to the type of technological innovation chosen by firms. Our results disentangle a rather more complex and comprehensive view of SME inbound open innovation that prevents the fragmentation of results. It is not just about being more or less innovative, but about how SMEs innovate differently, developing distinct internal and external activities.

Keywords: Inbound open innovation; Technological innovation; Innovation strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L20 L26 M20 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520311641
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:162:y:2021:i:c:s0040162520311641

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120338

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().