The case of a portuguese intermediary of open innovation: Inovamais

Abstract

Inovamais is an innovation consultant that began its activities in 1997, several years before the popularization of the Open Innovation paradigm. The founding motivation was to enable the connection of academic and entrepreneurial worlds, with focus on businesses and their needs and special emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They work with both worlds, by turning universities' intellectual assets into commercially attractive knowledge, and helping enterprises to search external resources (funding, knowledge, and partnerships) for their innovation processes. The objective of the present case is to shed some lights over the role and services of an intermediary of open innovation in the current general innovation landscape. Therefore, this case will generally present the business model of Inovamais on intermediation of open innovation. It will also discuss the cultural, managerial, and political challenges and problems that Inovamais has identified and dealt with during these thirteen years of work at the Portuguese and European levels.