STRATEGIC AWARENESS AND THE PROCESS OF INNOVATION

Abstract

Inherent to enterprising behaviour is the exercise of strategic awareness, a process of understanding and learning from the environment in which the entrepreneur and the small business operate. This paper notes that a growing recognition of high levels of change and uncertainty in the environment infers a need to increase small business understanding of what is changing and why. Strategic awareness is an individual and organisational capability, tailored to contextual needs and contingencies, that describes processes for identifying, understanding, interpreting and acting on events and influences. It also contributes to the process of innovation. Research in the UK, and later in Western Australia, identified a customer needs-focused and outwardly-directed approach to innovation that relies on understanding the external environment. This paper concludes by stressing the relationship between strategic awareness and innovation, and suggests that the nature of these processes demands a rethink in how we support and research small businesses and entrepreneurs.