TY - JOUR

T1 - Appropriation strategies and open innovation in SMEs

AU - Freel, Mark Stephen

AU - Robson, Paul

PY - 2017/8/1

Y1 - 2017/8/1

N2 - Drawing upon data from the 5th UK innovation survey, our goal is to shed light on how management choices on the nature of appropriation relate to management choices on the degree of openness within SMEs. To this end, our findings indicate a threshold effect of both informal and formal appropriation mechanisms on the likelihood of engaging in both coupled and inbound open innovation. That is, an emphasis on appropriation appears to be important in shifting firms from a closed to an open strategy. There is, however, little evidence that either approach to appropriation increases the extent of open innovation. In this, only informal IP protection mechanisms associate with an increasing extent of inbound open innovation. The implications of our findings are discussed.

AB - Drawing upon data from the 5th UK innovation survey, our goal is to shed light on how management choices on the nature of appropriation relate to management choices on the degree of openness within SMEs. To this end, our findings indicate a threshold effect of both informal and formal appropriation mechanisms on the likelihood of engaging in both coupled and inbound open innovation. That is, an emphasis on appropriation appears to be important in shifting firms from a closed to an open strategy. There is, however, little evidence that either approach to appropriation increases the extent of open innovation. In this, only informal IP protection mechanisms associate with an increasing extent of inbound open innovation. The implications of our findings are discussed.

KW - cooperation

KW - innovation

KW - intellectual property

KW - search

KW - small firms

U2 - 10.1177/0266242616654957

DO - 10.1177/0266242616654957

M3 - Journal article

VL - 35

SP - 578

EP - 596

JO - International Small Business Journal

JF - International Small Business Journal

SN - 0266-2426

IS - 5

ER -