Abstract
Innovation is a topic that has been widely analyzed and discussed in the literature of business and management sciences and there a far and wide consensus among scholars, researchers and professionals that innovation activities should be considered not only as a business strategy but also as a daily activity in enterprises, especially in small and medium-sized ones. However, a high percentage of theoretical and empirical published investigations have focused in the innovation activities of big enterprises while only a small percentage has analyzed this construct in small and medium-sized enterprises. Only a few of them have focused in small, family-owned enterprises even when this type of business is the most representative of the economy and society in country around the world. Therefore, the main goal of this empirical research is the analysis of adopting innovation activities in small, family-owned businesses in an emerging country, as it is the case of Mexico. The results obtained show that there is a clear adoption of innovation in products, processes and management systems from small family businesses.
Highlights
There is an extensive publication of theoretical and empirical researches in the current literature of business and management sciences that has analyzed and discussed at length the characteristics and return of enterprises regarding innovation activities (Lodh, Nandy & Chen, 2014)
A few of them have focused in countries with emerging economies even when the globalization of the economy and markets provide several opportunities for family businesses to adopt and implement innovation activities
There is theoretical and empirical evidence in the current literature of business and management sciences that establishes the presence of significant differences in the adoption of innovation activities between family businesses and those who are not family-owned (Kraus et al, 2012) and these differences are emphasized even more when a comparison is made between small family businesses and bigger family businesses (Brines et al, 2013).This is why Sharma and Salvato (2011: 1200) made the following question: “What factors are the ones that influence more in family businesses so they adopt and implement as soon as possible the innovation activities?”
Summary
There is an extensive publication of theoretical and empirical researches in the current literature of business and management sciences that has analyzed and discussed at length the characteristics and return of enterprises regarding innovation activities (Lodh, Nandy & Chen, 2014). A few of them have focused in countries with emerging economies (as it is the case of Mexico) even when the globalization of the economy and markets provide several opportunities for family businesses to adopt and implement innovation activities. Such activities allow them to improve their level of competitiveness and to survive in the long run (Aghion, Burgess, Redding & Ziliboti, 2005). The scarce research studies have found positive and significant results in both developed countries (Kim, Kim & Lee, 2008; Chen & Hsu, 2009) as well as countries with an emerging economy and developing ones (Sirmon, Arregle, Hitt & Webb, 2008; Block, 2012)
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