Open Innovation, R&D Collaboration and Global Strategy in Hightech SMEs: Focused on R&D Collaboration Mode

This paper explores which mechanism is involved between firms' global strategy and R&D collaboration mode. Innovation is originally linked to the role of R&D which is the most significant strategy in technological companies (Yip, 1989; Conte & Vivarelli, 2014). To penetrate global markets, firms, especially, SMEs select local partners for R&D to minimize risks and save cost, whereas few firms choose global partners. It would be easy if we could collaborate with global partners who are in the target market and understand their market needs. However, global collaboration is challenging for SMEs, which is why most fail global partnerships. There are certain criteria involved when firms select partners or conduct in-house R&D. To examine this phenomenon, we select high-tech firms who export and collaborate R&D with local and/or global partners. The purpose of our study is to encourage SMEs to achieve globalization and benefit from collaboration with local and/or global partners. The impact of collaborative innovation on SMEs and how it influences globalization is valuable to examine. We used the Upsala model for understanding the steps of globalization, and 'Global Strategy' theory (Laanti, Gabrielsson, & Gabrielsson, 2007) to analyze each firm's global strategies. Our study explores this phenomenon for the first time: How do SMEs leverage globalization successfully through different R&D collaboration modes? At the end of our study, we recommend an appropriate collaboration mode for each firm based on the firms' circumstances and the decision of globalization strategy.