Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

Dr. Kimberly Anthony

Abstract

Caribbean Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represent 95% of Caribbean businesses and contribute 40% to the region’s GDP; however, they rank lowest at 4% for organization innovation. The general problem addressed in this study was that leaders of SMEs of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean did not have a system in place to lead and promote strategic knowledge sharing to increase open innovation. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the lived experiences of leaders of innovative SMEs in the Windward Islands to manage and lead their organizations to drive organization open innovation in a developing economy context. The dynamic capability was applied as the conceptual framework to understand how leaders sensed strategic information, seized, and transformed information into innovative products and processes. A qualitative research design was used to obtain data from SMEs owners and managers in the Windward Islands, including data obtained from an interview questionnaire, existing literature, and a set of semi-structured interviews from a sample of 15 participants. The key findings indicated that SMEs drive open innovation through flexible leadership styles and a continuous flow of internal and external knowledge sharing. The study may lead to positive social change because it may offer knowledge and best management and leadership practices that all organizations regardless of their sizes could emulate and improve SMEs performance and operations.

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