While university-industry collaboration has received widespread attention in academic literature and policy making, there is still limited knowledge on how low-capacity SMEs engage in open innovation activities. Building on a survey conducted among Estonian SMEs with limited innovation capacity, our research focuses specifically on aspects that help low-capacity SMEs and academic researchers to collaborate.

The sample was selected purposefully using an innovation voucher database. Our research results indicate that collaboration is fostered by the perceived symmetry of motivation between partners, or paradoxically, the perceived higher motivation of the academic partner rather than the motivation of the SME itself. Our analysis suggests that motivation symmetry between partners plays a crucial role in determining the collaboration process and outcome between low-capacity SMEs and academic researchers.

虽然大学与产业界的合作在学术文献和政策制定中受到了广泛的关注，但是关于低能力中小企业如何参与开放式创新活动的知识仍然有限。在对创新能力有限的爱沙尼亚中小企业进行的一项调查的基础上，我们的研究特别侧重于帮助低容量中小企业和学术研究人员进行协作的方面。

使用创新凭证数据库有目的地选择了样本。我们的研究结果表明，合作是由合作伙伴之间动机的对称性促进的，或者相反，是由学术合作伙伴而不是中小型企业本身的动机所感知的更高的动机促进的。我们的分析表明，合作伙伴之间的动机对称在确定低容量中小企业与学术研究人员之间的协作过程和结果方面起着至关重要的作用。