Innovative Potential and Activity of the SME-Sector in the Province of Warmia and Mazury

Abstract

SME-sector enterprises seeking to be more competitive in the domestic and foreign markets should build their competitive advantage on the basis of innovativeness. Analysis and assessment of innovative potential translates into activity (or its absence) in the field of innovation. This is important for determination of business innovativeness and represents a component of business competitiveness. This paper studied the innovativeness of SME-sector enterprises in the region of Warmia and Mazury. The results showed that as many as 62.3% of the surveyed SME-sector enterprises were innovative and that they implemented product innovations the most frequently (31.7% of all innovations). Nevertheless, the majority of innovations were local in nature and the opinions expressed by customers proved to be the most important external source of innovations, while the enterprise owner was the main source of internal innovations.