Abstract
Benchmarking has become a useful tool for companies, enabling better decision-making and improvement of internal practices towards world-class performance. Nevertheless, concerning SMEs’ innovation capabilities from traditional sectors, benchmarking applications have been scarce. This article uses a predefined metric named the “Potential Innovation Index (PII)”, based on internal practices of the firms to compare innovation capabilities of two groups of similar SMEs from 2 different geographical, cultural and social contexts. Results were used to analyze similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses of the groups. Obtained results confirm the difficulties to innovate of this type firms, no matters the sector or country, as over 55% of the companies studied were evaluated as having a low innovative performance. However, regarding the index’s constitutive practices, significant differences were found. Which leads to infer that innovation support strategies to enhance innovation must be adapted to the local context and culture.
Highlights
It is a fact that innovation drives the firms to a superior competitive level
There is a need to understand the mechanisms driven the innovation process in order to manage it, and support a continuous growth of the companies. This is a complex process depending on several factors and stongly influenced by context and sectoral features.These last years, a body of knowledge has been developped on the understandig of the innovation drivers and metrics(Milbergs 2004; Muller, Välikangas, and Merlyn 2005; Zawislak and Marins 2008)
Within this framework is the methodology proposed by (Morel and Camargo 2006), who defines the calculation of a potential innovation index IIP based on multi-criteria evaluation of six criteria to evaluate the innovation capabilities within companies
Summary
It is a fact that innovation drives the firms to a superior competitive level. In the long run, it is technological innovation capability that constitutes a major source of competitive advantage. (Guan et al 2006). The evolution of innovation metrics aimed at measuring innovation related to the processes and practices involved in it instead to the dedicated resources (inputs) or new products (outputs) (Milbergs 2004; Muller, Välikangas, and Merlyn 2005a) Within this framework is the methodology proposed by (Morel and Camargo 2006), who defines the calculation of a potential innovation index IIP based on multi-criteria evaluation of six criteria to evaluate the innovation capabilities within companies (creativity, new product development, Human resources management, strategy, project management and knowledge management). A discussion of the potential limits and prospects of applying benchmarking in the field of innovation in the companies is presented
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