Internationalization Process for an Open Innovation-Based Company

Abstract

This document provides the procedure an Open Innovation based company should follow in order to successfully open a new foreign market. With this purpose, the most relevant aspects in the literature on Open Innovation and Internationalization are briefly explained, as well as a case study on such matter is conducted: Internationalization of Atizo to Spain. During the survey, some interviews to Atizo customers and community members helped to clearly get to know the success factors of the company. Later on, the economic and sociocultural factors of both countries, Switzerland and Spain, were gathered and analyzed, in order to determine the internationalization process Atizo should adopt to enter Spain in a feasible, profitable way. Open Innovation is still a concept and not a fact in many countries around the world, even in some of the strongest economies. Few firms are currently offering such services to companies desiring to reduce costs and find a faster, more efficient solution to respond the market needs. Installing Open Innovation firms in developed regions leads to consider many factors, such as local level of education, degree of entrepreneurship, national priority concerning the expense in R&D, in addition to political stability, economic structure, trade barriers, etc. In the case study, franchising is proposed as the entry mode Atizo should adopt in order to enter Spain, and networking is regarded to be completely helpful in this internationalization process. In the first phase of Atizo’s internationalization to latin countries, the company should take advantage of the formal relationships already established in Switzerland, and should focus on firms of the tertiary sector, as well as in targeting the spanish capital cities, where the high economic activity offers more chances to service firms. In addition, Atizo should conduct a marketing campaign to run the business abroad, and for this campaign, the most common, effective information technologies in Spain, such as TV, radio and the Internet, should be used.