Autor: Dirk Sackmann

Despite the fact that SME innovation is critical to a country’s economic success, SMEs spend less than 50 % of their budget on R&D when compared to large companies. “Open innovation”is seen as helping SMEs to improve their competitive position. For regions dominated by SMEs it is important to develop an ecosystem that supports open innovation processes. Universities can be key enablers within these ecosystems. They support SMEs with their expertise in science and engineering as well as in innovation and project management. In this article we present a case study to demonstrate the role of a university of applied sciences in an open innovation ecosystem.

A supply chain is a worldwide network of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, distribution centres and retailers through which raw materials are procured, transformed and delivered to customers. In recent years, a new systems approach to supply chain management has emerged at both tactical and operational levels. It views a supply chain as an interaction of intelligent (software) agents that are responsible for one or more activities and interact with other related agents in planning and executing tasks. In this article two application examples of so-called multi-agent systems for supply chain management are presented.

Digitisation offers enormous possibilities but also holds entrepreneurial risks such as data security aspects and misinvestments. Especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are facing problems by trying to keep pace with digital progress. A helpful tool would be a classification scheme specifically designed for SMEs that shows to which degree the company has already implemented digitisation technologies. Therefore we discuss why such a model is crucial, conduct a comprehensive literature survey and outline a new model.