Open Innovation: a competitive advantage for small and medium enterprises

The dynamics of the market and the competition between companies cause them to develop actions and adopt strategies to maintain a market-oriented position. This research aimed to identify how open innovation was related to the competitive advantage for small and medium enterprises in existing studies, as well as to provide an agenda for future research. Thus, through a theoretical bibliographical survey in newspapers and magazines relevant to this area of knowledge, we identifiedthe following topics: competitive advantage in organizations; small and medium enterprises in the business environment; open innovation; and open innovation: a competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises. From this perspective, it is possible to perceive a new model of competition in small and medium-sized companies, in addition to bringing exceptional benefits and advantages to management, among them a great variety of ideas and generated knowledge, radical solutions discovery, legitimacy in the external environment, in addition, the external partners can be better equipped for the commercialization of inventions for mutual interests, besides the use of third-party complements, access to resources and knowledge. Other benefits are the prospect of lower costs in innovation, companies have a chance of reducing risks with other companies, exploiting the resources of other companies cause these to reduce the risk of market entry and the development time of a new product.