The content

Open Innovation is the practice of companies to exchange innovative ideas with others, for example by trading processes or inventions (such as patents) with companies or other stakeholders. The underlying idea of open innovation is that, in a world of widespread knowledge, companies can no longer rely fully on their own internal sources of knowledge. The concept of open innovation has become very popular over the past decade. An increasing number of SMEs are embracing OI practices in order to gain competitive advantage.

The book is one of the first books to deal with open innovation for small and medium-sized enterprises. The reader will learn about the status of open innovation in SMEs, the introduction of open innovation in SMEs, inter-organisational networks and innovation ecosystems, sectoral patterns of open innovation in SMEs and the measurement, evaluation and promotion of open innovation in SMEs.

The authors

Wim Vanhaverbeke is a professor at the University of Hasselt (Belgium). He was named by the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT) as one of the top 50 authors of technology and innovation management in the period 2008-2012.

Federico Frattini is a professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano (Italy). In 2013, he was nominated by the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT) as the top 50 scientists in the field of technology and innovation management worldwide.

Nadine Roijakkers is associate professor of Open Innovation at the Open University in Heerlen, the Netherlands. Before her career in the academic world, she was a senior strategy consultant at KPMG Consulting in the Netherlands, where she advised global companies for a number of years on their collaborative strategies and practices. Nadine has published numerous articles and books on alliance management and innovation management.

Muhammad Usman is a PhD student with a research focus on strategy and open innovation. Its academic research aims to explore open innovation with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises.

Examples (available for download)

Introduction (pdf)
Chapter 1: A systematic review of the literature on open innovation in SMEs (pdf)

Dr. Nadine Roijakkers