Examining the benefits, challenges, and drivers of open user innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises operating in low R&D industries

Mana Alyami; Muhammad Faisal Javed; Ahmed Wa Hammad; Assed Haddad

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24684

Examining the benefits, challenges, and drivers of open user innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises operating in low R&D industries

Heliyon. 2024 Jan 18;10(2):e24684. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24684. eCollection 2024 Jan 30.

Authors

Mana Alyami¹, Muhammad Faisal Javed², Ahmed Wa Hammad^{3

4}, Assed Haddad⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Civil Engineering, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, Swabi 23640, Pakistan.
³ Macroview Projects, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Programa de Engenharia Ambiental, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-901, Brazil.

Abstract

Recent studies have indicated that many challenges exist in implementing open user innovation in SMEs. As a more advanced paradigm of traditional innovation, open user innovations are developed by users and other stakeholders who share tasks and costs of innovation development and then freely unwrap results. The work presented in this article examines the main factors driving open user innovation in SMEs, operating in industries with low investment in R&D. The work accounts for differences in the economics categorisation of the countries in which the organisations operate in (developing vs developed), and how that impacts various factors related to open user innovation adoption. The findings of this study indicate that differences between Australian and Kuwaiti SMEs exist, in terms of perceptions of success, benefits, challenges, and ease of implementation related to open user innovation. In addition, some differences are observed in the drivers for sensing open user innovation opportunities between the two countries examined.

Keywords: Developed countries; Developing countries; Open user innovation; Open user innovation drivers; SMEs.