Abstract
The major purpose of this paper is to determine the opportunities and challenges relating to successful innovation management in SMEs in German and Slovakia. The objective and the subjective stances to research comprise three interlinking philosophies: epistemology, ontology and axiology. For this study the major design elements are the explanatory and the exploratory approaches and a case study is the selected research strategy. In order to answer the research problem, numerical and textual data is gathered. The empirical research studies revealed significant cultural influence on innovation management and related organisational change associated with it. It also highlighted substantial differences between success and failure factors in SMEs and large companies and there were implications that formal innovation management was less important from SMEs than for large companies. This research identified key innovation management success factors for SMEs and made three new findings, which add to the current knowledge: innovation circles were an effective innovation management approach to generating and developing ideas and getting innovation to market quickly; government agencies that encourage firms to collaborate effectively enhance the level and success of innovation; SMEs and large companies have distinctly different rankings of barriers to innovation and small and micro firms are more effective in original product innovation and speed to market than medium sized companies.
Highlights
Businesses thrive in a dynamic environment and in the contemporary global marketplace, organisations aim to survive by gaining competitive edge to increase their market share
Each of the themes is interpreted by the research with the purpose of expressing the meaning that the author associated with the words in the text
The published studies on Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) tend to be very sparse compared to those focusing on innovation and change management, and this paper provides the opportunity to evaluate research conducted in a range of countries, in respect to the established theories and concepts
Summary
Businesses thrive in a dynamic environment and in the contemporary global marketplace, organisations aim to survive by gaining competitive edge to increase their market share. Whilst large companies become more rigid, smaller organisations gain market share because of their ability to innovate and adapt to new technologies, new market situations and customer needs [1]. The introduction of new technologies with appropriate strategies may generate sustainable competitive advantage, this is not merely a consequence of adapting to change and the ability to innovate. Large companies tend to react more slowly to changes in the market owing to their size and relatively bureaucratic structure, but they possess the resources to increase innovation. Closed innovation represented by internal R&D is becoming obsolete and organisational preference is for an open innovation framework
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