Title: Open innovation in Korean SMEs: trends and financial performance

Authors: Taewan Kim; Byungku Lee; Byungheon Lee

Addresses: Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship Department, Kania School of Management, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA ' Department of Management and Leadership, College of Business and Public Management, University of La Verne, La Verne, CA, USA ' School of Management, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, South Korea

Abstract: While open innovation has gained much attention, few studies have examined this perspective in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The motivation of this study is to fill this gap by examining SMEs' strategic approaches toward inbound open innovation and in-house R&D. Drawing on a sample of 3,175 SMEs in South Korea, we used cluster analysis to identify groups of SMEs pursuing homogenous innovation strategies. We also examined the effect of SMEs' innovation strategies on financial performance. The results of this study shed insights about how SMEs should develop innovation strategy to improve financial performance.

Keywords: inbound open innovation; in-house R&D; small and medium enterprises; SMEs; cluster analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCI.2019.106386

International Journal of Services Sciences, 2019 Vol.7 No.1, pp.1 - 16

Received: 26 Jun 2015
Accepted: 12 Mar 2016

Published online: 06 Apr 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article