Table 2: Describe the status of Open Innovation in your organisation
In the early rollout and adoption stages Not yet involved
Optimising an on-going program Re-launching a program
43.5% 37.6% 17.6% 1.2%
Participants showed that SMEs were in various stages of rolling out Open Innovation, with about 44% indicating early stage roll- out and just under 38% indicating not being involved in Open Innovation. It must be noted that some of the roll-out activity might only be on an ad-hoc basis, making use of Open Innovation methods when required, rather than in a formal Open Innovation programme (table2). When asking the participants if they consider Open Innovation to be an effective innovation method, 75% agreed slightly or strongly.
Survey participants indicated that they
are most likely to utilise collaboration as an innovation method in the next 18 months, (table 3). with 46% choosing very likely as their response. Customer immersion ranked second highest. The option selected as least likely Open Innovation method was IP or technology in-licensing or acquisition. Although IP in and out-licensing is seen as a growing Open Innovation trend internationally, the South African survey is showing reluctance to follow these approaches.
Migrating from a closed innovation organisation to an Open Innovation organisation will take time and commitment from business owners. This transition will however face challenges, and participants were asked what they consider to be the three biggest barriers to using Open Innovation in their organisations. By far the biggest concerns were about resources – money, time and people (table 4).
The barriers question was taken from an Open Innovation research study on Dutch SMEs12
. The study indicated Organisation/
Culture as the main and Administration as the second highest barrier. It is interesting to note that intellectual property rights (IP) were not rated as a significant barrier, although this area receives a lot of attention in the public press as an Open Innovation barrier.
Participants indicated a neutral view on their ability to pursue Open Innovation initiatives without assistance. There is a definite need for support to SMEs in assisting them to set up and execute Open Innovation in their organisations (table 5).
Customers were indicated as the most likely collaboration partner to develop new innovations with, with suppliers coming in second (table 6). This could be due to the strong relationships already established by the organisation with these parties. Government development agencies and competitor companies were at the bottom of the list as ideal partners.
Table 3: Which of the following OI approaches are you planning to use in the next 18 months?
Answer: Collaboration
Customer immersion Idea competitions Platforming Lead users
Innovation networks
IP or tech out-licensing or selling Innovation intermediaries
IP or tech in-licensing or acquisition 72 Management Today | September 2012 Highly unlikely 5%
11% 22% 23% 22%
Unlikely Likely Very likely
14% 35% 46% 12% 50% 27% 26% 11% 22%
26% 41% 33%
26% 24% 23%
16% 21% 43% 21% 32% 30% 21% 17% 27% 38%
31% 31% 11% 34% 23%
5% The Innovation Journal
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