Innovation Open Chains: A Model of Competitiveness for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Colombia

Innovation is the source of the competitive advantage for the companies, allowing them to obtain recognition from the differentiation in their products or services. This characterization can be with respect to quality, price, and design, among others. Such distinctions are associated to improvement processes, which are mostly developed by big companies since they have the capital to perform them, whereas the small and medium-sized companies are limited by diverse factors: economic, administrative, organizational, and so on. With the purpose of counteracting that effect in SMEs, this document shows a literature review in which it is developed the concept of innovation open chains. This concept would be an alternative to the growth of small and medium-sized companies, from the integration of their actors to solve real needs of the market. Finally, it is proposed the creation of a data base so that the information arising from the interaction among organizations can be a development tool maintained by the same.