Open Innovation in Exporting SMEs: The Role of Trust and Communication among Business Partners

In their quest for international success, exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) heavily rely on their importer to succeed in the risky challenges of launching new products abroad. Drawing on the relational paradigm and the resource-based view, this study examines the effects of relational antecedents on open innovation with importers, as well as the impact of this type of innovation on export performance. Based on a survey of 205 French exporting SMEs and 15 semi-structured interviews with export managers, we highlight the crucial role of trust and communication in shaping open innovation with importers. Our analyses also reveal that open innovation with importers is key for ensuring the export performance of new products and, more broadly, the overall SMEs export performance.