How SMEs Engage in Open Innovation: a Survey

Although open innovation has gained more and more attention in innovation management, even for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), still lack heterogeneous explanations on how smaller firms do engage in open innovations and which source of knowledge they exploit most. In this context, this paper investigates if SMEs from different industries participate in open innovation, highlighting the role of internal and external sources at introducing new products and services. Our study shows that SMEs of Piedmont still have a closed approach to innovation and mainly rely on internal sources to develop new products and services. Moreover, with regard to external sources of knowledge, they primarily rely on one source, the customers.