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Module 7: Building your Open Innovation ecosystem |
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Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou, Panagiotis Kallianis, Stylianos Portokalidis, Maria Symeonidou |
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Open Innovation Ecosystem Managing to build an Open Innovation ecosystem, is certainly an important opportunity for SMEs in the agri-food sector to extend their value as businesses. The Open Innovation strategy will help them on this process via many ways. Following this strategy means that it will assist in developing IT skills and improving the digitalization of a business by using the opportunities given from Open Data and Big Data. Apart from that, the most important aspect to be prioritized is Networking Development. Through networking, one can extend their collaborations, exchange innovative ideas with other SMEs and co-operate with public actors, such as chambers, municipalities, universities etc. Furthermore, Open Innovation strategy will assist in selecting the appropriate partners for entering wider markets and being more competitive, by doing strategic choices for every issue and by taking advantage of every opportunity given. |
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Upon completing this module, you should be able to: |
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Collaboration
Because of limited resources, SMEs must find ways to reach production economies of scale and to market their products effectively. Collaboration with other partners is at the core of OI paradigm.[12] Collaborating with other organizations is one method to follow. Another method is to collaborate with both large firms and SMEs. Every type of company can offer other important benefits through a cooperation. For instance, SMEs are flexible and more innovative in new areas but can lack resources and capabilities. On the other hand, large firms may have lack of flexibility, but they tend to have more resources to develop new products. Strong ties with larger firms may limit the opportunities and alternatives of SMEs but can extend the knowledge. However, innovative SMEs are more likely to make external networks with other SMEs or institutions such as universities, and private research establishments.[13] This is more possible to happen, because they will give the same motivation to create something new.
With new innovations and technologies, it is important to adapt new business models and cultures.
Companies today open themselves up to risk when increasing their degree openness and sharing their knowledge and technology with others. However, it can be useful for a firm to collaborate with competitors, customers or suppliers.
To be more specific, there are many companies that switched their closed business models and started to cooperate with other stakeholders, accomplishing results such as: new products, better performance, or more sustainable business (P&G, Lego, Samsung etc.).[14] These examples show the path to success through a beneficial and suitable cooperation.
There are some collaboration models below which have various combinations of actors and ties among them. Firstly, the exploration stage is the stage that SMEs are most likely to use external partnerships so they can concentrate on retaining high levels of internal competence in a limited number of technology areas, although they show their preference for networking with public research institutes and universities because of the fear of giving away their technology to competitors. Exploitation stage is the second one, where SMEs attempt to create value by entering supplier-customer relationships with large firms, outsourcing agreements or strategic alliances with other SMEs.
An alternative model is a network, which has been described as a special type of relationship combining a set of people, objects or events. Well-constructed and managed networks can offer clear benefits to SMEs, helping them decode appropriate flow of information such as technological changes, sources of technical assistance, marketing requirements and strategic choices of other firms, thus strengthening their competitive advantage. In addition, network members are influenced from other’s experiences, for promoting future innovations. Furthermore, in a network SMEs may enter wider markets and so competing against their large competitors. This brings them further business opportunities.[15]