The impact of Open Innovation on SMEs’ innovation outcomes: new empirical evidence from a multidimensional approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of open innovation (OI) cooperation strategies on innovation outcomes of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), considering the mediating effect of firm age. The data come from six Spanish regions in the period 2009–2011. The authors analyse the impacts of two different types of innovation cooperation (with market and institutional agents) on four types of innovation outcomes: product, process, organisational and marketing. Design/methodology/approach The analytical method is based on logit regressions in order to assess the impact of OI variables on SMEs’ innovation outcomes. The regressions include a number of control variables related to the characteristics of the business, the entrepreneur and the environment. Findings The empirical results show that OI plays a significant role in explaining the innovation outcome of SMEs. Firm age is found to moderate this relationship. R&D cooperation with market agents exhibits the highest relationship to innovation, while the impact of institutional cooperation is comparatively lower. Originality/value There are few studies on OI addressing OI practices in SMEs. This research contributes to shedding light on the role of OI in innovation processes in SMEs. It also shows how this relationship changes depending on the partner, the type of innovation and the age of the firm.