Implementation of open innovation practices in Swedish manufacturing industry

The notion of open innovation has quickly gained interest of both practitioners and researches. However, there is a lack on studies on this research topic. Thus, the main purpose of the study is to get a deeper understanding of how can large firms can implement open innovation practices. This purpose will be achieved by first, understanding the current innovation process and second, focus on critical aspects such as, partners, capabilities, and role of SMEs which can be important for implementing open innovation practices. The study is based on qualitative data from two companies from Swedish manufacturing industry. The results show that both companies don’t fully practice open innovation approach. Moreover, partnering with customers and universities are highly preferred compared to having suppliers involved in the development process. The ability to absorb external knowledge and gain from inter-firm relationships were vital for effective open innovation practices. Finally, role of SMEs in the open innovation practices large firms was not clearly visible