Knowledge Management for Open Innovation: Comparing Research Results Between SMEs and Large Companies

Knowledge co-creation and effective knowledge sharing boost innovativeness in companies. However, rapidly developing technologies and constant changes in the business environment challenge the companies' practices for knowledge management (KM). The purpose of this paper is to compare the key KM practices and their effect on open innovation between the small-and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and the large companies, and as empirical focus, comparing them through quantitative survey and complementary qualitative interviews. The results indicate that large companies are more externally open to innovate than SMEs and the large companies also value open dialog and knowledge sharing more. Whereas, SMEs seem to rely more on developing their internal practices to support innovativeness. In the both company sizes technology is used rather poorly to support access to open data and networks. The identified factors provide insights for developing KM practices that support open innovation in varying sizes of companies.