Retailers’ assessment

: guidelines for open innovation partnerships

Abstract

During times of economic turmoil, and times of strong development and movement of information technologies and communication techniques, there is a call for stronger commitment, innovation and adaptability at the organizational level. Inter-organizational collaborative innovation is currently mandatory for companies that want to become competitive. This dissertation sets to understand, through the construction of an evaluation tool (Coding Scheme), how can a retailer choose with whom it can develop an Open Innovation partnership model. This is achieved through a study of the criteria used to assess retailers’ performance in several business fields. The aim is to understand the methodology used to assess the performance of other companies in the same business, being these companies in the same business and possible future partners. Exploring this topic of Open Innovation is extremely relevant for diverse reasons. Firstly, because studying the macro and micro environment where a firm is operating it is possible to realize how it acquires and develops new competences and communicates with the outside. Then, it is important to understand that multi approaches to Open Innovation can coexist within the same company, with successful results. Finally, this study can provide managers who have not yet implemented Open Innovation in their organizations with helpful knowledge and concepts that can be a tool to identify growing opportunities in their business.

Date of Award	1 Jul 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Céline Abecassis-Moedas (Supervisor)