Unveiling the Black Box of Open Innovation in SMEs: Evidence-based Key Success Factors and Challenges

The aim of this paper is to present the key success factors and challenges faced by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) that adopt Open Innovation (OI). As the phenomenon needs to be explored at the level of decision-making in SMEs, the concept of OI moves is considered. An OI move consists of two integrally linked core aspects of OI: (a) the type of partner collaborating with an SME (who is making the cake) and (b) the exploitation mode (who is eating the cake). The coalescence of these two core aspects formulates a typology of OI moves used in this research as a coding framework. Drawing from a dataset of 106 in-depth case studies of innovation projects of European SMEs, this research enables the discovery of evidence-based key success factors and challenges, the knowledge of which can benefit SME managers. In addition to generic tactics for success for each type of OI move, this paper outlines three lessons for SME managers engaging in OI: (a) OI managerial skills alone are not sufficient-an open social attitude must be developed; (b) an OI project is a learning journey; (c) starting with the aim of 'solving a problem' and, in turn, 'finding a problem' (worth solving) is a recipe for success.