Open innovation in SMEs: a study of the Swedish bio-pharmaceutical industry

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs) utilize open innovation in practice. Open innovation has become a well-used rhetorical concept among key bio-pharmaceutical spokespersons, suggesting that it would help to renew the stagnated industry. We report a survey (N = 104) on Swedish SMEs in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, where we shed light on how widespread the knowledge and practical uses of open innovation activities actually are. The findings not only show that very few respondents are aware of the open innovation concept, but also that open innovation-related activities are to a large extent integrated within their ordinary innovation practices. The study also suggests that firms that are engaged in open innovation activities tend to be more innovation-productive than those who do not. Based on these findings, we propose that there is a casual relation between open innovation and entrepreneurial growth, in which open innovation activities can act as accelerators for entrepreneurial growth. At the same time, much ‘openness’ is still performed on informal and ad-hoc basis by SMEs in the industry.L\u27objectif de cet article est d\u27examiner la mani\ue8re dont les petites et moyennes entreprises (PME) ont recours \ue0 l\u27innovation partag\ue9e en pratique. L\u27innovation partag\ue9e est devenue un concept rh\ue9torique chez les porte-paroles cl\ue9s de la biopharmacie, ce qui laisse entendre qu\u27elle pourrait revitaliser cette industrie stagnante. Nous rendons compte d\u27une enqu\ueate (n = 104) sur les PME su\ue9doises engag\ue9es dans l\u27industrie biopharmaceutique, sur laquelle nous apportons un \ue9clairage en ce qui concerne l\u27ampleur r\ue9elle des connaissances sur les activit\ue9s d\u27innovation partag\ue9e et leur utilisation pratique. Les r\ue9sultats montrent que tr\ue8s peu de r\ue9pondants savent l\u27existence du concept d\u27innovation partag\ue9e, mais \ue9galement que les activit\ue9s qui sont en lien avec elle tendent \ue0 \ueatre plus productives, en termes d\u27innovation, que celles qui ne le sont pas. Sur foi de ces r\ue9sultats, nous \ue9mettons l\u27hypoth\ue8se qu\u27il existe un rapport informel entre l\u27innovation partag\ue9e et la croissance entrepreneuriale, en ce sens que les activit\ue9s de la premi\ue8re peuvent jouer un r\uf4le d\u27acc\ue9l\ue9rateur de la seconde. Dans le m\ueame temps, beaucoup de \uab partage \ubb est encore r\ue9alis\ue9 sur une base informelle et ad hoc par les PME dans cette industrie