Enhancing SMEs’ Digital Innovation Capabilities: Experimental Evidence from a User Experience Design Challenge

Davide Azzolini, Nicola Doppio, Luca Mion, Iunio Quarto Russo and Alessio Tomelleri

No 2024-01, FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers from Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation

Abstract: Innovating product design is crucial for firms operating in the digital sector as it is closely linked with innovation capability and, therefore, with firm performance and productivity. In this paper, we run a randomized controlled trial to assess if participating in an open innovation initiative increases SMEs’ capability to design more competitive digital products. More specifically, the intervention aimed at increasing firms’ knowledge of the Design Sprint and their readiness to implement user-centered design techniques. 190 SMEs based in 7 different European countries took part in the field trial in spring 2021. We find that the intervention increased participants’ knowledge about user-centered design methods, although no statistically significant effects are found on participants’ intention to adopt that in their firms. This may be traced back to organizational and financial constraints typically related to the small-sized firms involved.

Keywords: Open Innovation; SMEs; Randomized Controlled Trial; User Experience Design; Design Sprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 M31 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-des, nep-eec, nep-ent, nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-ino and nep-sbm
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://irvapp.fbk.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WP_IRVAPP_2024_01.pdf (application/pdf)

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:fbk:wpaper:2024-01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers from Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alessio Tomelleri () and Daniela Anesi ().