Abstract
Research background: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in European economic. They are very important for the stability of national economy and for development of innovation. SMEs significantly contribute to innovation because they are under permanent pressure of competitors at the market. On the other hand, innovation in SMEs is hampered by many factors, such as lack of finance, lack of personnel, no experiences, insufficient public policy, etc. Purpose of the article: The main goal of the article is examining the impact of business size on innovation activity and thus confirm the irreplaceable importance of SMEs in the innovation ecosystem, compare innovation activity of Slovak SMEs with EU average. Methods: Several methods were used to achieve the goals. Demonstrating the close relationship between innovation and SMEs is realized through VOSviewer software. Comparison of innovation activity of Slovak SMEs with European Union average is realized through an in-depth analysis of selected indicators of Summary Innovation Index. Findings & Value added: SMEs are indeed the creator of innovation. Based on the results of bibliometric analysis, this fact can be confirmed. The innovation activity of SMEs in the Slovak Republic is below the EU average. This fact is caused by several limitation and problems that SMEs in the Slovakia have to face.
Highlights
Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play very important role in European economic
The main goal of the article is examining the impact of business size on innovation activity and confirm the irreplaceable importance of SMEs in the innovation ecosystem, compare innovation activity of Slovak SMEs with EU average
To identify the top 10 innovation-related keywords, the VOS Viewer was used. Aim of this part of research was to determine whether SMEs belong to the most important keywords related to innovation
Summary
Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play very important role in European economic. SMEs are very important for the stability of economic environment and for development of innovation. SMEs are important players in the innovation ecosystem, because they significantly contribute to innovation, jobs and growth creation [1, 2] as well as in the process towards sustainable development [3]. The ability to compete in innovations plays important role as a factor of their competitiveness [4], especially in environmental innovation [5]. For these reasons, innovation, innovation activities, innovation performance, innovation potential etc. Innovation, innovation activities, innovation performance, innovation potential etc. in smalland medium-sized enterprises are constantly point of interest by many scholars [6,7,8,9]
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