Open Innovation in Digital Start-Ups

How do digital start-ups innovate? This is one of the main questions that the present report seeks to shed some light into. Using Henry Chesbrough's pioneering work as a starting point, the author sets out to determine how five digital start-ups from the North-East of England manage their innovation processes, and if, eventually, they practice Open Innovation. The research method that was used in the present dissertation is a multiple case study, in which the managers of all five enterprises, which consist mainly of mobile application and software developers, were thoroughly interviewed. Among the main contributions provided by this book is the adaptation of the much discussed Open Innovation paradigm to a small and medium start-up setting rather than a large and well established corporation, as has usually been the case. Furthermore, the author tackles key issues that are gaining relevance in the digital start-up sector, such as entrepreneurship, creative clusters and open sourced software.

Autorentext

Santiago Laserna Fernández is a Bolivian economist who has dedicated large part of his academic career to innovation and the creative economy. He obtained his Licenciatura in Economics at Universidad Privada Boliviana and did his MA in Arts, Business and Creativity at Newcastle University in England. He lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia.