Abstract
Opening the innovation process represents a new opportunity for SMEs to increase the internal innovative capacity and to raise their overall innovation performances. Until today, open innovation in SMEs has been poorly studied, as certified by the high number of papers presenting case studies in large and multinational firms. This paper is aimed at adding a new step in the knowledge about the constraints and barriers that hinders SMEs in the adoption of open innovation practices. Based on preliminary results from a web-based survey realized in Italy, this study reveals how communication skills, internal resources availability, intellectual property management capabilities and trust among partners are the main elements that obstruct the SMEs in the acquisition and use of externally generated knowledge, and that the role played by intermediaries in innovation is still not good enough to help SMEs in the adoption of open innovation approaches.