Abstract: “Innovation is the driving force of competitiveness. At the same time, services are a significant contributor to GDP in all developed economies. Therefore, it is interesting to map out innovative activities in this area. Our interest focuses on a specific area – open innovation, problems and trends in innovation. The paper and further research describe comprehensive view on innovation activities of small and medium-sized companies in the Czech Republic. The research was divided into two parts - quantitative research and qualitative research. The results of quantitative research provide an analysis of a questionnaire survey among 1,701 service companies. The main findings describe where companies find their ideas for innovation, who is involved in the innovation process and who is involved in testing. Qualitative research complements these findings by in-depth interviews with experts on the topic of innovation problems and trends.”

Keywords: innovation, services, service innovation, open innovation, SMEs, Czech Republic, problems, data