Co-creation with customers to innovate in a service SME: insights from an action research approach

Open innovation proposes information exchanges between the company and external stakeholders to improve the results of innovation processes. In this work we adopt the open innovation approach to enhance a company's innovation performance by implementing co- creation practices with customers. To do this, we rely on design thinking, a framework focusing on the relationship with end users, and adopt action research as a research methodology. The research is carried out in a service SME, characterised by being knowledge-intensive and offering innovative and customised services with high value added. We identify several co-creation practices and examine their degree of adoption by the company and prioritise those that should be implemented. For academics, this work contributes to increase the stock of knowledge on co-creation in the context of SMEs. The study offers valuable insights to practitioners into how an innovation framework that incorporates co-creation practices helps to improve the firm's innovation results, while presenting a methodology that facilitates collaboration with researchers on innovation projects.