Understanding the Specific Characteristics and Determinants of Open Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Open Innovation (OI) assumes that businesses combine external and internal ideas as the primary means to accelerate internal innovation or access the market to commercialise their technologies. In the last decade, research interest has increased towards understanding OI in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the fast pace with which the literature has been developing in this area, there is a strong need to revisit the literature to investigate nuances, ambiguities and differences of opinion. This paper aims to systematically review OI in SMEs and survey the current state of his characteristics and determinants. 130 papers published in peer-reviewed journals are analysed. Findings suggest OI in SME differs considerably from OI in a large business, in terms of characteristics and determinants. The originality of the paper is rooted in the conceptual framework that illustrates how characteristics and determinants of OI in SME relate to each other in terms of input-output.