The Impact Of Open Innovation On Hospitality SMEs Performance In Ghana

Small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)are the key drivers and focal carriers of Ghana's economy.SMEs represent a larger part of businesses in Ghana.Previous studies have reported that SMEs account for approximately 92% of Ghanaian companies and add approximately 70% to Ghana's GDP and over 80% to jobs.Throughout the years,therefore,Ghana's small and medium-sized enterprises have encountered a range of obstacles,including unskilled workers,financial as well as other resource constraints.All these are placing small and medium-sized enterprises at the edge of the global marketplace with fewer sales revenue.Innovation prowess,both in contexts of theory and practice,has now become indispensable to promote small and medium-sized enterprises.In 2003,Henry Chesbrough,a professor of Harvard Business School,developed the concept of open innovation,which was defined as “a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas,and internal and external paths to market,as the firms look to advance their technology”.It is obvious that the theory of open innovation provides new approach for SMEs to overcome resource bottleneck and improve their innovation capabilities.The main contents of this dissertation are as follows:Firstly,we described open innovation,detailing both the mechanism of open innovation,as well as its global dissemination,based on literature both at home and abroad.We have indeed addressed theories of innovation,resource-based view,knowledge-based view,dynamic capabilities,and network theories available to SMEs and discussed theoretical gaps in recent open innovation studies and suggested future research directions.The literature and theoretical analysis submitted provided the foundation for following research of open innovation in small and mediumsized enterprises.Secondly,we research factors influencing the adoption of open innovation,these factors including managerial style,competition,cost factors,cultural factors,human skills and ICT infrastructure.Then we construct the conceptual model of relationship between open innovation and hospitality SMEs performance.We also considered the role of social media marketing capabilities,social capital,entrepreneurial orientation in model of open innovation impacting SMEs performance.We discussed the theoretical relationship between each two variables and proposed the hypothesis.Thirdly,in terms of empirical analysis,we choose 530 managers and owners in the hotel industry from five regions of Ghana(including the Greater Accra,Ashanti,Western,Eastern and Central regions)to collect information.In the data collection stage,questionnaires were used and a multi-stage sampling method was employed.We employed the SmartPLS software 3.2.8 to analyze primary data.The research result indicated:(1)all six determining factors have a significant influence on open innovation adoption in the hospitality industry.In particular,there are positive and significant correlations between competition,human skills,management style,and IT infrastructure with open innovation adoption.However,the cost factors and cultural factors have had a negative but statistically significant impact on the adoption of open innovation.In Ghana's hospitality SMEs,the ICT infrastructure has been shown to moderate the positive relationship between competition and open innovation adoption.In the same token,the relationship between managerial style and open innovation adoption is moderated by ICT infrastructure.Moreover,ICT infrastructure again moderates the positive relationship between human skills and open innovation adoption in the hospitality SMEs in Ghana.(2)open innovation has a positive and direct connection with the performance of hospitality SMEs in Ghana.The findings show that the relationships between open innovation and social capital and social media marketing capability are moderated by entrepreneurial orientation.The research found a significant positive relationship between open innovation and hospitality SMEs' performance.The findings also show that social media marketing capabilities have a significant effect on the performance of hospitality SMEs.The findings again indicate that social media marketing capabilities positively mediate the connection between open innovation and hospitality SMEs' performance.The thesis provides the following scholarly contributions:(1)in the area of innovative research,the introduction of the open innovation(OI)has been centered mainly on large high-tech firms,including IBM and Procter & Gamble,this thesis addresses the void in literature concerning lack of studies in the area of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)especially in the hospitality industry.European,Chinese,Korean researchers have produced a number of interesting studies of open innovation.Research from and throughout emerging economies such as Ghana are practically non-existent.(2)this thesis shows the broad internal firm factors and key external factors that determine open innovation in the hospitality SMEs.Especially Ghana has a strong power distance and to be aware that cultural factors may have a context-specific impact on open innovation adoption and those cultural aspects can affect open innovation directly or indirectly.Based on theoretical analysis,we offered the following suggestions:(1)in order to open innovation in the hospitality SMEs,the results show that external and internal firm conditions such as cultural factors,cost factors managerial style,human skills,competition and ICT infrastructure must be aligned with the innovation strategy to bring about complementarity of strategic assets.(2)in order to produce superior firm performance for hospitality SMEs,the results show that external and internal firm conditions such as social media marketing capabilities and social capital as mediators that should be harnessed and must be aligned with the open innovation strategy to bring about complementarity of strategic advantage.(3)The thesis indicates,first and foremost,that management teams searching for innovation will ensure that the company meets the appropriate levels of factors such as the managerial style that favors open innovation.(4)small business managers should develop and enhance their human and social capital to ensure that their organizations or network members continue to have exposure to resources in order to remain competitive.