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In a study of 409 Swedish SMEs, the difference between the highest growing, which can be characterized as gazelles, and the lowest growing companies were examined regarding performance change over a four year period and what contributed to the growth from an innovation perspective. It was concluded that, besides growing, the highest growing companies also showed high profitability, increased number of employees, and significantly higher markets shares locally, nationally and internationally than the lowest growing companies. Several traits were found to contribute to this. The highest growing companies had a significantly higher portion of new products as part of the turnover during the four years studied and they perceived themselves as differentiating from their competitors concerning: (1) offering better products, (2) understanding customer needs better, (3) having a higher pace or being more agile, and (4) keeping costs down. They also found it more important to take risks, reinvest any profit, and to focus on growth than the lowest growing companies, and this regardless of industry.

This paper explores the complex relationship between competition and innovation by analyzing survey data of 2,281 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Netherlands. We develop and test hypotheses on the relationships between three dimensions of perceived competition (internal rivalry, supplier power and buyer power) and firms’ intentions to engage in product and process innovation. Moreover, we analyze if firms’ strategic attention for innovation is a moderating variable. We find that specific innovative intentions relate to different perceptions of competitive forces. Intentions to engage in process innovation correlate with the perceived bargaining power of suppliers, while intended product innovation correlates with perceived buyer power and internal rivalry between incumbent firms in the market — but the correlation with internal rivalry is significant only when firms report no strategic attention for innovation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of factors of environmental uncertainty on the innovativeness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Innovativeness is widely accepted as an important characteristic for firm competitiveness and it has been studied by both researchers as well as business managers. Environmental uncertainty is a measure of the complexity of changing external forces faced by an organisation and it crucially impacts the responses of organisations in order to stay competitive. Based on approaches in existing literature, this study conceptualises environmental uncertainty comprised three separate dimensions — competitive intensity, market/demand turbulence, technological turbulence. Data for the study were collected from 156 SMEs in Turkey. SMEs are regarded as an important ingredient in the economic growth of nations and especially so in developing nations such as Turkey. The findings of the study reveal that market/demand turbulence and technological turbulence have a positive effect on the innovativeness of SMEs. Interestingly and contrary to popular belief, competitive intensity was not found to have significant effect on an SME's innovativeness. The implication of the results from this research is that the degree of organisational innovativeness for SMEs tends to increase and therefore should be supported in environments with greater technological and market/demand turbulence. This research makes an important contribution to the developing body of innovation literature and provides directions for managers and researchers in influencing innovativeness of firms.

The present study aims to validate the current best-practice model of implementation effectiveness in small and mid-size businesses. Data from 135 organizations largely confirm the original model across various types of innovation. In addition, we extended this work by highlighting the importance of human resources in implementation effectiveness and the consequences of innovation effectiveness on future adoption attitudes. We found that the availability of skilled employees was positively related to implementation effectiveness. Furthermore, organizations that perceived a high level of benefits from implemented innovations were likely to have a positive attitude towards future innovation adoption. The implications of our improvements to the original model of implementation effectiveness are discussed.

This study explores the relevance of established organisational determinants of innovation practice in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the emerging market of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Drawing upon data from 200 SMEs, the findings suggest that management orientation, technology orientation, alliance and cooperation and market orientation are important antecedents to SMEs’ innovative practices, but question the importance of organisational culture. This study is the first to examine the organisational determinants of innovation in both an SME and emerging market context. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered to both scholars and practitioners.

The aim of this article is to reveal what organising of innovation and growth can be enabled in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) networks. This is especially interesting for the governance of loosely coupled networks. The research is conducted in the Danish food industry with three food-producing firm networks. The posed hypotheses are tested in a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach with the available data of 60 SMEs.

The findings show that the governance of preferred behaviours of SMEs has a considerable significant positive impact on product and systematic innovation, which have a significant impact on growth. Governance of network connections is also found to have a significant positive impact on growth. The findings contribute to an understanding of how both governance of preferred SME behaviour and network connections enable innovation. This study provides SMEs, SME network organisations and policy bodies with an enhanced understanding of governance approaches.

It has long been recognised that the innovative and entrepreneurial capabilities of the small medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector can make an important contribution to the commercialisation of emerging technologies. In their role as centres of expertise and originators of new technical knowledge, universities are vital contributors to this process. Understanding the nature of relationships between universities and SMEs is therefore important, particularly in view of the fact that current theories on regional development suggest that concentrations of SMEs in certain regions, clustered around one or more university centres, can be effective locations for accelerating this process. As a counter to regional development theory, an alternative viewpoint is that the way emerging industries develop is affected more by the dynamics of industry life-cycles. The opto-electronics sector, which is characterised by regional clusters in the UK and USA, offers lessons for how SMEs and universities interact against a backdrop of these theories.

The open innovation approach emphasizes porous knowledge boundaries between firms and upstream suppliers, but tends to ignore questions of transformative efficiency and effectiveness once the knowledge reaches the focal organization. In this paper, we test for the significance of interaction effects between open innovation strategies and absorptive capacity, finding support for the idea that effective knowledge absorption capabilities are of vital importance in the facilitation of innovation effectiveness.

An important aspect of strategic choice is whether to pioneer or to imitate, that is, whether to be a first-mover or a follower. It has been suggested that this is particularly important for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) because of potential disadvantages of scale in design, production and marketing. However, empirical evidence suggests that many SMEs can be successful first-movers and that pioneering strategies enable them to compete against larger firms that have scale advantages and possess important downstream resources. This paper looks at the issue of timing of entry from a different perspective. It is concerned with the role of imitation as a strategy and its success when smaller firms are in competition with larger firms. Acquisition of technology through licensing is a frequently used strategy for firms of all sizes. It is also a classic ‘imitation’ strategy. The paper reports a study of imitative behaviour in a sample of UK manufacturing firms of varying sizes. A comparison of strategic motives, capabilities and outcomes is examined in the context of technology strategies involving both in-house R&D and that acquired through inward technology licensing. An important distinction is made between licensing that provides a basis for subsequent innovation and licensing for reactive imitative purposes. The study concludes that imitation is a viable policy option for smaller firms, but that complementary assets and appropriate capabilities determine whether such a policy has a major competitive impact or is merely a reaction to unsuccessful in-house innovation. The study calls into question the use of size per se as a competitive indicator, and indicates reasons underpinning imitative behaviour that may influence downstream success.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of factors of environmental uncertainty on the innovativeness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Innovativeness is widely accepted as an important characteristic for firm competitiveness and it has been studied by both researchers as well as business managers. Environmental uncertainty is a measure of the complexity of changing external forces faced by an organisation and it crucially impacts the responses of organisations in order to stay competitive. Based on approaches in existing literature, this study conceptualises environmental uncertainty comprised three separate dimensions — competitive intensity, market/demand turbulence, technological turbulence. Data for the study were collected from 156 SMEs in Turkey. SMEs are regarded as an important ingredient in the economic growth of nations and especially so in developing nations such as Turkey. The findings of the study reveal that market/demand turbulence and technological turbulence have a positive effect on the innovativeness of SMEs. Interestingly and contrary to popular belief, competitive intensity was not found to have significant effect on an SME’s innovativeness. The implication of the results from this research is that the degree of organisational innovativeness for SMEs tends to increase and therefore should be supported in environments with greater technological and market/demand turbulence. This research makes an important contribution to the developing body of innovation literature and provides directions for managers and researchers in influencing innovativeness of firms.

Innovations have acquired a key role in the growth and competition strategies of firms today. They are regarded as an essential tool for stimulating growth and enabling firms to master the competition brought about by the forces of globalization. However, in particular, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Western countries are facing insurmountable barriers to innovation. To what extent might the concept of global innovation and, more specifically, the internationalization of research and development (R&D) be an answer to deal with these problems, is discussed in this paper. Based on empirical studies conducted by the authors in Germany, the paper presents results from research-in-progress and proposes a reference model for chances and challenges of global innovation activities.