Opening up boundaries assessment

: the case of Logoplaste Group

Abstract

This study analyses the implementation stage of an open innovation initiative in the Portuguese rigid plastic manufacturing group, Logoplaste. It assesses whether the group has the needed structure to sustain the changes that come along with it, both in terms of organizational capabilities, project decisions and individual attitudes levels. It is a 360º degree judgment of the business unit Logoplaste Innovation Lab, in which the initiative will have its initial pilot testing, and in which success is dependent the expansion of the project to the whole group. Based on the literature on the open innovation implementation topic, a survey tool was constructed, based on a structural framework with the main areas of concern in the implementation processes, developed by Lichtenthaler (2011) – the organization as a whole, the processes management of the projects and the company’s employees, which contribute to the initiative. The survey was sent to Logoplaste Innovation Lab employees and their results served as a support for the conclusions achieved. The results of this work indicate that Logoplaste is not internally prepared to adopt an open innovation business model in their structure: there are some improvements to be achieved, namely in the individual attitudes level, which is often mentioned in the literature as either a very important contributor or preventer to this type of projects’ success. Based on this conclusion, a set of suggestions is put together being supported by the best market practices and the particular case of this company, so that the implementation of the open innovation model goes for the best.

Date of Award	17 Sept 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo Amaral (Supervisor)