Exploring Open Innovation Practices in Social Enterprises
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
n today‟s competitive era, merely innovating within firm itself is not enough to achieve the
competitive edge. Rather firms need to collaborate with external sources beyond their organizations
in order develop new products as well as solutions. Open innovation practices play a major role in
nurturing different types of innovations within firms. Large scale firms highly adopt open innovation
practices. In the context of social enterprises, their use of open innovation practices is still under
researched. Main focus of this research is to identify the most important external sources used by
social enterprises, most common ways of collaborating with external sources and to identify the
different types of innovations which result from adopting open innovation practices. Sampling frame
consisting of 10 social enterprises was drawn using maximum variation sampling technique. Primary
data were collected using semi structured interviews. Based on the information given, the researcher
has developed the research. The researcher has used thematic analysis method to analyze the data using
NVivo 12 software. The findings reveal that social enterprises in Uva province commonly use
employee involvement, inter organizational networking, outsourcing R&D, direct outreach,
international exposure, participation in other firms and customer involvement in order to nurture
innovations. Therefore, this research emphasizes that social enterprises can nurture innovations and
several other advantages by using open innovation practices.
Keywords: Innovations; Open innovations; Open innovation practices; Social entrepreneurship;
Social enterprises
Description
Keywords
Business Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprises, Innovation