IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ipt/iptwpa/jrc115240.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Digital platform innovation in European SMEs. An analysis of SME Instrument Business Proposals and Case Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Chiara Eleonora De Marco

    (Haas School of Business, Garwood Centre for Corporate Innovation, UC Berkeley, CA-US
    Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa)

  • Alberto Di Minin

    (Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa)

  • Cristina Marullo

    (Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa)

  • Daniel Nepelski

    (European Commission - JRC)

Abstract

The study explores how European SMEs applying to the SME Instrument (SMEi) funding scheme under Horizon 2020 innovate use the digital platform business model. The study demonstrates a widespread awareness of the digital platform concept as a tool to be applied to gain momentum and growth, taking advantage of the digital affordances. The main challenges to scale-up include how to manage external communities and orchestrate them in order to build innovation ecosystems; how to find a profitable business model; and secure funding for growth. Firms located in peripheral regions face additional difficulties in finding complementary resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Eleonora De Marco & Alberto Di Minin & Cristina Marullo & Daniel Nepelski, 2019. "Digital platform innovation in European SMEs. An analysis of SME Instrument Business Proposals and Case Studies," JRC Research Reports JRC115240, Joint Research Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc115240
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC115240
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. TEECE, 2008. "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 5, pages 67-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Daniel Nepelski, 2019. "How to Facilitate Digital Innovation in Europe," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 54(1), pages 47-52, January.
    3. Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg & Rebecca Henderson, 1993. "Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 577-598.
    4. Evans David S., 2003. "Some Empirical Aspects of Multi-sided Platform Industries," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Ron Adner & Rahul Kapoor, 2010. "Value creation in innovation ecosystems: how the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 306-333, March.
    6. Bertin Martens, 2016. "An Economic Policy Perspective on Online Platforms," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2016-05, Joint Research Centre.
    7. Adam B. Jaffe & Gaétan de Rassenfosse, 2017. "Patent citation data in social science research: Overview and best practices," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(6), pages 1360-1374, June.
    8. Erkko Autio & Laszlo Szerb & Eva Komlosi & Monika Tiszberger, 2018. "The European Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems," JRC Research Reports JRC112439, Joint Research Centre.
    9. Martin Fransman, 2014. "Models of Innovation in Global ICT Firms: The Emerging Global Innovation Ecosystems," JRC Research Reports JRC90726, Joint Research Centre.
    10. Gawer, Annabelle, 2014. "Bridging differing perspectives on technological platforms: Toward an integrative framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1239-1249.
    11. Marc Bogdanowicz, 2015. "Digital Entrepreneurship Barriers and Drivers - The need for a specific measurement framework," JRC Research Reports JRC96465, Joint Research Centre.
    12. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard R. Nelson & John P. Walsh, 2000. "Protecting Their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability Conditions and Why U.S. Manufacturing Firms Patent (or Not)," NBER Working Papers 7552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Blind, Knut & Edler, Jakob & Frietsch, Rainer & Schmoch, Ulrich, 2006. "Motives to patent: Empirical evidence from Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 655-672, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. V. I. Blanutsa, 2022. "Geographic Research of the Platform Economy: Existing and Potential Approaches," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 133-142, June.
    2. Krzysztof Bartczak & Stanisław Łobejko, 2022. "The Implementation Environment for a Digital Technology Platform of Renewable Energy Sources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Bustillo, René, 2021. "Analysis of competition policies in five countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and the post-pandemic recovery period," Documentos de Proyectos 46738, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    4. Bartczak Krzysztof, 2021. "The Use of Digital Technology Platforms in the Context of Cybersecurity in the Industrial Sector," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 117-130, January.
    5. Johan Miorner & Gabriel Rissola & Jens Sorvik & Joakim Wernberg, 2019. "Putting Digital Innovation Hubs into Regional Context," JRC Research Reports JRC117910, Joint Research Centre.
    6. DE MASSIS Alfredo & DI MININ Alberto & MARULLO Cristina & ROVELLI Paola & TENSEN Rik & CARBONE Antonio & CRUPI Antonio, 2020. "How the "EU Innovation Champions" successfully absorbed and reacted to the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2020-06, Joint Research Centre.
    7. Igor Calzada, 2020. "Platform and Data Co-Operatives amidst European Pandemic Citizenship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-22, October.
    8. Daniel Nepelski, 2020. "Market Creating Innovations in the EU Framework Programme. Methodology behind the Innovation Radar’s Market Creation Potential Indicator," JRC Research Reports JRC121066, Joint Research Centre.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Satish Nambisan & Shaker A. Zahra & Yadong Luo, 2019. "Global platforms and ecosystems: Implications for international business theories," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1464-1486, December.
    2. Dirk Czarnitzki & Katrin Hussinger & Bart Leten, 2020. "How Valuable are Patent Blocking Strategies?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 56(3), pages 409-434, May.
    3. Insu Cho & Heejun Park & Joseph Kim, 2012. "The moderating effect of innovation protection mechanisms on the competitiveness of service firms," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 6(3), pages 369-386, September.
    4. Barirani, Ahmad & Beaudry, Catherine & Agard, Bruno, 2017. "Can universities profit from general purpose inventions? The case of Canadian nanotechnology patents," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 271-283.
    5. Bryan, Kevin A. & Ozcan, Yasin & Sampat, Bhaven, 2020. "In-text patent citations: A user's guide," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    6. Leone, Maria Isabella & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Natalicchio, Angelo, 2022. "Boundary spanning through external technology acquisition: The moderating role of star scientists and upstream alliances," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    7. Liu, Yihui & Wu, Aiqi & Song, Di, 2022. "Exploring the Impact of Cross-side Network Interaction on Digital Platforms on Internationalization of Manufacturing Firms," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4).
    8. Carolina Castaldi, 2021. "Sustainable innovation and intellectual property rights: friends, foes or perfect strangers?," LEM Papers Series 2021/11, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    9. de Rassenfosse, Gaétan & Pellegrino, Gabriele & Raiteri, Emilio, 2024. "Do patents enable disclosure? Evidence from the invention secrecy act," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Jorge Luis Juliao Rossi & Fernando Barrios Aguirre & Jana Schmutzler & Iván Darío Sánchez Manchola, 2013. "Relación entre la estrategia de innovación de la firma y su decisión de patentar: evidencia de empresas pertenecientes al sector manufacturero colombiano," Estudios Gerenciales, Universidad Icesi, September.
    11. Chigu Kim & Chul Lee & Jina Kang, 2018. "Determinants Of Firm’S Innovation-Related External Knowledge Search Strategy: The Role Of Potential Absorptive Capacity And Appropriability Regime," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(06), pages 1-33, August.
    12. Hakan Ozalp & Carmelo Cennamo & Annabelle Gawer, 2018. "Disruption in Platform‐Based Ecosystems," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(7), pages 1203-1241, November.
    13. Gaétan de Rassenfosse & Adam B. Jaffe, 2017. "Econometric Evidence on the R&D Depreciation Rate," NBER Working Papers 23072, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Guo Bai & S. Ramakrishna Velamuri, 2021. "Contextualizing the Sharing Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 977-1001, June.
    15. Miric, Milan & Boudreau, Kevin J. & Jeppesen, Lars Bo, 2019. "Protecting their digital assets: The use of formal & informal appropriability strategies by App developers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    16. Holger Graf, 2013. "Inventor Networks in Emerging Key Technologies: Information Technology vs. Semiconductors," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Guido Buenstorf & Uwe Cantner & Horst Hanusch & Michael Hutter & Hans-Walter Lorenz & Fritz Rahmeyer (ed.), The Two Sides of Innovation, edition 127, pages 55-76, Springer.
    17. Nicolas van Zeebroeck & Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, 2011. "Filing strategies and patent value," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 539-561, February.
    18. de Faria, Pedro & Sofka, Wolfgang, 2010. "Knowledge protection strategies of multinational firms--A cross-country comparison," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 956-968, September.
    19. Wu, Howei & Lin, Jia & Wu, Ho-Mou, 2022. "Investigating the real effect of China’s patent surge: New evidence from firm-level patent quality data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 422-442.
    20. Michael G. Jacobides & Carmelo Cennamo & Annabelle Gawer, 2018. "Towards a theory of ecosystems," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(8), pages 2255-2276, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    digital platform; innovation; SME; H2020; SME Instrument; Europe;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc115240. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Publication Officer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipjrces.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.