Open Innovation in an Intermediate City of Colombia

Objectives: This article describes the process of introduction of an open innovation strategy in an intermediate city of Colombia. Methods/Analysis: A questionnaire to 460 companies in the region was applied, some important findings were detected: 74% of the companies have not participated in open innovation processes and 71% of these companies do not count with an innovation model, innovation management model, or innovation management system. To face these findings, some criteria for the selection of the platform to be implemented were identified; ten platforms were established and analyzed. Findings: After analyzing ten open innovation platforms and according to the criteria established at the beginning, SUNN platform was selected as the platform to be implemented as part of the open innovation strategy in the region. Some of most important achieve got during the implementation of the open innovation strategy were: lot of companies in the region produce new technologies or innovative solutions for solving internal problems, but they did not realize the value of the knowledge they generated until they started to use the open innovation platform. Through an open innovation paradigm supported by a platform such as SUNN, this project achieved to generate an innovation culture in the region. The SUNN platform allowed connecting companies, research groups, and startups of Quindio, with accessible costs. Novelty /Improvement: The implementation of an Open Innovation strategic in a small city of Colombia, the new ecosystem is composed by micro and small enterprises connected with the world by a technology platform.