ENGAGING WITH OPEN INNOVATION: A SCOTTISH PERSPECTIVES ON ITS OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES AND RISKS

With open innovation - though a label for long-existing practices gaining popularity, the question is how firms view this conceptualisation. This is of particular interest for those national economies and national innovation systems that are patchy and consisting largely of SMEs; the Scottish national innovation system is an example of this. To solicit the views of firms and actors a focus group was organised centred around the core themes of the concept of open innovation. The outcomes suggest that canonical views on 'open innovation' prevail, particularly for collaboration, even though its opportunities are well-recognised. Most interestingly, our study also reveals the concept of open innovation is not always understood what is covers. Furthermore, the some Scottish companies hold myopic views on innovation, which could be an explanatory factor for the often-discussed innovation gap.