Challenges to open innovation in traditional SMEs: an analysis of pre-competitive projects in university-industry-government collaboration

Alberto Bertello (), Alberto Ferraris, Paola Bernardi and Bernardo Bertoldi
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Alberto Bertello: University of Turin
Paola Bernardi: University of Turin
Bernardo Bertoldi: University of Turin

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 2022, vol. 18, issue 1, No 5, 89-104

Abstract: Abstract Governments are increasingly focusing their efforts on stimulating innovation within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a result, university-industry-government collaboration is gaining importance among the agenda of policymakers to enable open innovation in SMEs. However, these inter-organisational relationships often fail to meet expectations, especially when projects are oriented to pre-competitive R&D. Nevertheless, the literature has not yet provided sufficient evidence of the challenges related to the participation of traditional SMEs (i.e., low- and medium-low tech SMEs) in this specific type of collaboration. We collected qualitative data to analyse longitudinally three pre-competitive projects, exploring the main challenges faced by traditional SMEs. We have bracketed the projects in four phases: initiation and planning phase, execution phase, closing phase, and monitoring and control phase. For each of these phases we have individuated firm- and project-level challenges, providing practical and theoretical insights for open innovation scholars.

Keywords: Open innovation; Publicly funded projects; Small and medium-sized enterprises; University-industry-government collaboration; Challenges (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11365-020-00727-1

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