Engaging Open Innovation in Ireland
Companies that engage in innovation are three times as successful as those that do not, according to a new report from business development body InterTradeIreland.
‘Leveraging the Innovation Ecosystem for Business Advantage’, covered the experiences of more than 1,100 firms on the island of Ireland. It focused on their engagement with the innovation ecosystem and on their capabilities.
The survey also found that almost 50% of the companies that innovated did so by leveraging external resources. More specifically, they apply open innovation strategies to idea generation, development, and launch/commercialization.
Surprisingly, researchers discovered that it was the larger firms (55%) that were more likely to be outward-looking than the smaller ones (36%).
However, the report also revealed that just over half of all firms innovate without resorting to external partnerships or knowledge sources, despite there being numerous incentives to do so.
Open Innovation Incentives
One of the problems, according to Aidan Gough, strategy and policy director with InterTradeIreland is that networking needs to be improved. This was a theme he touched on in an article that appeared in the Irish Times:
“The ecosystem is being used quite narrowly and its full breadth is not being fully exploited. We need to get this message across. Thankfully, getting firms to engage in innovation is a relatively easy sell.
“We just have to ask them if they want to grow and succeed and point to the finding that innovative firms are three times as successful as firms which do not engage in innovation to get their attention.”
To read the full Irish Times article click here.
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