Innovation In Smes And Micro Firms

What is the role of culture in the innovation dynamic of small firms within the context of their territorial environments? How do shared values, beliefs and practices underpin the knowledge production process that leads to innovation? In what way do symbolic aspects of social life shape European SMEs’ innovation processes? This volume gives an extensive insight into the complex links between culture and innovation in one of the key agents of economic life: SMEs and micro firms. The chapters employ different analytical and methodological strategies in regions of Europe to identify dimensions of culture, especially values, norms, skills and institutions, and to scrutinize which specific components of culture are relevant to firm innovation and to the more general dynamics of regional innovation. The original research presented shows how small firms learn, interact, compete and collaborate with other key agents of the innovation system. Taken as a whole, the volume points the way towards a more comprehensive framework for understanding the nature of innovation in SMEs and micro firms. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

This book uses in-depth case studies to provide a structured analysis of open innovation practices in small and medium-sized enterprises.

This book explores how government policy can boost innovation by improving the environment for entrepreneurship and small firm development and increasing the innovative capacities of enterprises.

This book documents the distinctive experiences and challenges of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia. By assessing succession and innovation in SMEs as the two sides of a coin, this book explains how innovations are essential to SMEs in succession. With detailed case examples, the book provides generalized solutions for SMEs to answer the question of how to make succession and innovation simultaneously successful. The authors discuss the potential solutions to solve the challenges of SMEs on succession and innovation by considering the utilization of the capital market, the electronic commerce strategy, the international strategy, and angel investment to pursue portfolio entrepreneurship, and compare these Asia solutions to the experiences from Europe. The book is recommended for family business and SME owners, professionals serving these firms, and the consulting firms that work on continuity issues of SMEs in Asia.

Since the pioneering work scholars such as Joseph Schumpeter and Peter Drucker, the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship have evolved to become two separate and distinct disciplines. Schumpeter 1 focused on the contributions of entrepreneurial startups and smaller firms, whereas Schumpeter 2 emphasized the role of formal research, development and industrial innovation in larger firms. Unfortunately, the study and practice of each field has suffered as a result: entrepreneurship has become preoccupied with individual entrepreneurs and small business creation, and innovation is dominated by corporate R&D and new product development. Promoting Innovation in New Ventures and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) aims to bridge these two fields by examining innovation in new ventures and SMEs. This book identifies themes which can reunite the study and practice of entrepreneurship and innovation by examining a potentially bridging phenomenon. The focus here is on high growth, innovative SMEs, and the interactions between SMEs and larger organizations, private and public. It is organized around three overlapping themes: SME innovation performance, practices and networks. Contents: Introduction (Joe Tidd)SME Innovation and Performance: Innovation and Growth in the city Region: Microeconomic Evidence of Asymmetries (David Devins, George Lodorfos, Ioannis Kostopoulos and Don Webber)Innovation and Organizational Size in Irish SMES: An Empirical Study (Rodney McAdam, Renee S Reid and David A Gibson)Effects of Product Innovation and Organizational Capabilities on Competitive Advantage: Evidence from UK Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises (Ana Christina O Siqueira and Andy D Cosh)Intellectual Capital, Innovation and Performance: Empirical Evidence from SMEs (Karl-Heinz Leitner)Fast-Growing SMEs and the Role of Innovation (Christina Grundström, Roland Sjöström, Anders Uddenberg and Anna Öhrwall Rönnbäck)Perceived Competition and Innovative Intentions in Dutch Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Jeroen P J De Jong)The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty Dimensions on Organizational Innovativeness: An Empirical Study on SMEs (Cevahir Uzkurt, Rachna Kumar, Halil Semih Kimzan and Hanife Sert)SME Practices for Innovation: A Model of Organizational Innovation Implementation Effectiveness in Small to Medium Firms (Sukanlaya Sawang and Kerrie L Unsworth)A Study of Organizational Determinants and Innovation Practices in Dubai SMEs (Yahya Al-Ansari, Jun Xu and Simon Pervan)Perspectives on Innovation Management of Ecuadorian Companies: Empirical Evidence (Guillermo Javier Diaz-Villavicencio, Simone Didonet and Alexander Dodd)The Relationship between Top Management Team Innovation Orientation and Firm Growth: The Mediating Role of Firm Innovativeness (Nils D Kraiczy, Andreas Hack, Franz W Kellermanns)Organizational Learning, Non-Technical Innovation and Customer Satisfaction of SMEs (Dimitrios Kafetzopoulos and Evangelos Psomas)What's Small Size Got to do with it? Protection of Intellectual Assets in SMEs (Heidi Olander, Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen and Jukka Mahonen)SME Networks for Open Innovation: Governance of Innovation and Growth in SME Networks (Tove Brink)Knowledge Inflows from Market- and Science-Based Actors, Absorptive Capacity, Innovation and Performance: A Study of SMEs (Graciela Corral de Zubielqui, Janice Jones and Laurence Lester)Understanding Relationships between Universities and SMEs in Emerging High Technology Industries: The Case of Opto-Electronics (Chris Hendry, Ja

A multidimensional approach to entrepreneurship, especially in the post-COVID-19 era, will have an important influence on the state of business and government, especially when considering the effects of technological development, innovation, glocalization, and nationalization policies that need to be adopted for inclusive sustainable growth, as well as the enhanced and efficient utilization of global resources. That means there is likely to be a shift in how entrepreneurship development and entrepreneurial opportunities will be perceived, developed, and resourced. The question is how to sustain SMEs and entrepreneurial innovation in the post-COVID-19 era. Thus, comprehensive research and knowledge on designing policies and approaches to ensure the sustainability of SMEs and entrepreneurial innovation in post-pandemic times are essential to sustain, stimulate, and foster SMEs, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial innovations. The Handbook of Research on Sustaining SMEs and Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Post-COVID-19 Era provides research dedicated to entrepreneurship with a special emphasis on the sustainability of SMEs and entrepreneurial innovations in the post-COVID-19 era. It provides discussion and the exchange of information on principles, strategies, models, techniques, methodologies, and applications of entrepreneurship in the post-COVID-19 era in the field of public and private organizations. The chapters communicate the latest developments and thinking on the entrepreneurship subject worldwide by drawing on the latest developments, ideas, research, and best practice to examine the implications of the changes taking place due to COVID-19. This book is ideally intended for entrepreneurs, global organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises, managers, executives, government officials, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in learning about, designing, or implementing policies that are more effective in the post-pandemic era.

Analyzes the role of small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms in innovation and the economy, arguing for active government assistance. Small- to medium-sized firms (SMEs), defined as firms with less than 500 employees, play a crucial role in the economy, though this analysis supports Schumpeter's (1939) argument that the role of SMEs varies from industry to industry, and within an industry as it develops. Multiple general and technology policy reasons are given for support of SMEs, including that SMEs lead to a more favorable balance of economic power, mutually beneficial small/large firm relations, and a significant source of employment. Additionally, research supporting a model developed by Abernathy and Utterbach (1975) shows that in certain industry sectors, small firms contribute to a disproportionately high percentage of radical innovations. Similarly, calculations of the National Science Foundation's industrial R&D statistics (1976) show that small firms have performed better in terms of innovation measured against dollar expenditure than have large firms. The importance and effectiveness of entrepreneurship in small firms is discussed, as well as strategies for large firms to adopt small-firm entrepreneurial methods. After analyzing the differing economic roles of SMEs in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States, it is determined that SMEs play the most vital role in the United States where they are seen as the cornerstone of a free market economy -- though differences from sector to sector are to be accounted for. Thus, SMEs merit government support, which they have been receiving in many forms, including entrepreneurial education, tax concessions, technical and information services, a network of industrial research organizations, etc. Concludes that SMEs are essential to the innovative progress of the economy, especially playing highly significant roles at the early, fluid stages of development in new technological industries. (CJC).

The majority of businesses throughout the world are small firms and they play a crucial role in the economic growth of the world's economies. The authors offer a conceptual framework supported by their own original case study data to explain how and why a small firm should approach strategic planning.