Innovation In Small And Medium Enterprises Research Articles

Go for green: green innovation through green dynamic capabilities: accessing the mediating role of green practices and green value co-creation.

Increasing business organizations are also damaging the natural infrastructure, and researchers are pressing hard on this issue since several decades. Moreover, the studies relating to business organizations only focus on the establishment, development, and success of businesses and paid less attention to the dark trade business expansions, i.e., lack of green innovation and increase in pollution and environment damages. Keeping in view these issues, this study is aimed at investigating the effect of green dynamic capabilities, green practices, and green value co-creation on green innovation in SMEs (small and medium enterprises). This study also tested the mediating role of value co-creation in the links between green practices-green innovation and green dynamic capability-green innovation. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used, and the mediation analysis was conducted through Preacher and Hayes Approach (2004, 2008) and through Soble test. Empirical results proved that green dynamic capabilities, green practices, and green value co-creation improve the mechanism of green innovation in SMEs.

Social media strategic capability, organizational unlearning, and disruptive innovation of SMEs: The moderating roles of TMT heterogeneity and environmental dynamism

This paper provides an investigation into how social media can be used to promote disruptive innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from a capability perspective. Based on the strategic capability literature, this study examines the influence of social media strategic capability (SMSC) on disruptive innovation, the mediation role of organizational unlearning, and the moderating effects of top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and environmental dynamism. The empirical results from a sample of 198 Chinese manufacturing firms, each with paired respondents, show a significant association between SMSC and disruptive innovation, which is mediated by organizational unlearning. Furthermore, the effect of SMSC on unlearning is enhanced when SMEs have heterogeneous TMTs, and the influence of unlearning on disruptive innovation is strengthened in dynamic market and regulatory environments but weakened in dynamic technological environments. These findings contribute new knowledge to the literature on both social media and disruptive innovation.

Transformational leadership and employee voice for product and process innovation in SMEs

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of transformational leadership on the innovation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through employee voice behaviors. Drawing from the upper echelon theory, it is hypothesized that employee voice is the mediating mechanism through which transformational leadership affects the process and product innovation in SMEs. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected from 169 SMEs of Pakistan through an online self-administered questionnaire. The proposed hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings Findings confirm that transformational leadership positively affects both process and product innovation in SMEs and employee voice behavior mediates between these relationships. Originality/value This research contributes to both theoretical and practical domains by providing evidence that encouraging employees to raise their voice positively impacts product and process innovation and transformational leadership is a potential organizational factor to shape employee voice and process and product innovation. To the best knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the mediating role of employee voice between transformational leadership and process and product innovation in SMEs and developing country’s context.

Technological Adaption and Open Innovation in SMEs: An Strategic Assessment for Women-Owned SMEs Sustainability in Bangladesh

Technological adaption and innovative activities foster small and medium enterprises (SMEs) growth by allowing production and process diversifications. Furthermore, open innovation practices, especially SMEs, rely on several firms’ specific attributes, and their impact varies accordingly. This study’s motivation is to explore the impact of technological adaptation and open innovation on SMEs run by women entrepreneurs and the challenges encountered in implementing open innovation. A sample of 580 questionnaires was sent to target SMEs, following the stratified random sampling technique, of which a complete 375 responses were duly received. The open innovation has been measured through eight innovative practices, reflecting the exploration and exploitation of technology in SMEs. This study found that women-owned enterprises were involved in many open innovation policies during the last five years. The result of this study indicated that there are no significant differences between manufacturing and industry regarding open innovation practices. Still, women-owned enterprises are more impressively engaged in open innovation practices. The research also identified that women-owned SMEs follow open innovation, mainly for market-related intentions, to compete with competitors and meet customers’ demands. The study contributes to the theoretical and practical implications. Further, the study is helpful for SMEs, researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers.

Learning Factories as an Opportunity for Industrialization in Africa

Rapid development in modern industrial technology require pragmatic approach in the learning environments. Practical skills need to be imparted early among learners so that they are ready for industry practice. Because of research orientation of tertiary and higher learning institutions, they are at a vantage point to be aware of modern technologies earlier than industry. Taking a strategic initiative further to be technology transfer centers, learning institutions can adopt learning factories (LFs). Modern day economies are backed by emerging small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs are mainly founded by young graduates who have superior advantages in terms of trending technologies learnt in institutions that are practical and technology orientated. Africa industrialization agenda is better promoted through a strategic initiative of learning factories. The article seeks to promote learning factories among Africa's learning institutions as a strategic initiative to spearhead industrial development, innovation, and rapid growth of SMEs.

Stanje i razvoj inovativnog sektora malih i srednjih preduzeća (MSP) u AP Vojvodini

Innovation is a fundamental factor of technological progress, economic growth, development and prosperity around the world. Continuous improvement of innovation is the focal part in the development policy of the world's leading countries and presents the key element of the development strategy of the EU - Europe 2020. The economy of AP Vojvodina is still characterized by a low level of innovation. The consequences of a company's insufficient care for technological development based on its own innovative work is a very small number of protected innovations, especially patents and petty patents in our country. The subject of this paper is the research into the current state and number of innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that started business on the basis of their innovation, especially patent or petty patent in AP Vojvodina. The main goal of the paper is to increase the number of innovative SMEs in AP Vojvodina based on the results of this research and proposed measures aimed at creating higher added value, successful market verification of innovations and better market positioning.

Social capital and business model innovation in SMEs: do organizational learning capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation really matter?

PurposeThis research aims to concentrate on the important concern that how social capital (SC) influences business model innovation (BMI) in the course of the mediating role of organizational learning capabilities (OLC) and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). In the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this study empirically tested a theoretical model of BMI to advocate a mechanism for the analysis of its significant determinants.Design/methodology/approachIn order to achieve the objective of the research, survey method was utilized, and data were collected from 521 CEOs, MDs and the owners of ICT sector SMEs. Correlation, causal step approach and regression analysis were used to test the proposed model.FindingsFinding of the research advocates that OLC mediate the relationship between SC and BMI. In addition, stronger EO augments the association between OLC and BMI.Practical implicationsThe study adds to the literature by providing insights regarding the impact of SC, OLC and EO on BMI of small firms.Originality/valueThis research enriches the existing knowledge by testing a mediating role of OLC between SC-BMI link and, therefore, makes an important addition to the existing knowledge in the context of SMEs by concentrating on the relationship between SC, OLC, BMI and EO.

Criminal Enforcement of Trade Secret Theft: Strategic Considerations for Canadian SMEs

Many innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face unique challenges in protecting their intellectual property (IP). Potential theft of trade secrets is a key feature of these challenges, which arises often in the context of disputes related to employee mobility. Despite the risks these challenges pose, SMEs often confront significant resource barriers in protecting themselves from trade secret theft. The passage of a recent criminal law by the Canadian federal government, section 391 of the Criminal Code, creates a powerful new tool for innovative SMEs to report, investigate, and prosecute theft of trade secrets. It also comes with specific considerations and risks that innovative SMEs should examine and contemplate. This article explores strategies for SMEs in Canada to use section 391 to protect their trade secrets, navigate the legal environment during theft of a trade secret, and remediate such theft.

Influence of organisational culture on pro-activeness, innovativeness and risk taking behaviour of SMEs

The business performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is influenced by their entrepreneurial orientation (EO). EO involves different dimensions like proactive behaviour, innovation, and risk-taking behaviour. It is to be noted that organisational culture (OC) plays a prominent role in achieving improved business performance. This is because SMEs that emphasise on their internal and external business environment are likely to sustain their survival in the highly competitive environment. The impact of organisational culture on innovation, proactive, and risk-taking behaviour of SMEs in UK was assessed. A quantitative method was employed to gather and analyse the primary data obtained through survey questionnaire. The analysis revealed that organisational cultures like group, rational, and developmental culture impact the proactiveness, innovativeness, as well as risk-taking behaviour of SMEs. Also, a significant correlation was observed between group, developmental, and rational culture on innovativeness of SMEs. Thus, it is inferred that organisational culture tends to have influence on SMEs' proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking behaviours.

Formal Finance Usage and Innovative SMEs: Evidence from ASEAN Countries

This paper provides evidence on the likelihood of formal finance usage among innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in ASEAN countries. To this end, the SMEs are classified into four categories, namely non-innovators and product, process, and product-and-process innovator SMEs. Subsequently, a propensity score weighting (PSW) analysis is performed to adjust for diversity existing across innovative SMEs. The resulting propensity scores are further used to perform the causal effect analysis based on the average treatment effect (ATE) approach, which measures the likelihood of formal finance usage among different types of innovative SMEs. Our ATE results reveal that SMEs simultaneously engaged in product and process innovation show a higher likelihood of using formal finance than non-innovators. However, formal finance usage of SMEs perusing only product/service or process innovation is not any different from non-innovators. Furthermore, our pairwise analysis shows that product and process innovators also exhibit a higher likelihood of formal finance usage than product/service or process innovators. Besides, younger and medium-size product and process innovating SMEs are more likely to use formal finance. These results are robust for different subsamples and firm- and country-level controls.

Product innovation and performance in SME’s: the role of the creative process and risk taking

ABSTRACT Creativity is an essential source of innovation for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, one challenge in SMEs is to transform the novel and useful ideas that arise from creativity into innovation, hence the interest of researchers in advancing knowledge in this area. This study analyses: (a) how the creative process influences the results of creativity, (b) the role that risk-taking plays as a mediator in the relationship between creativity and product innovation, and (c) the impact of innovation on the performance of SMEs. The research model is validated with data from 139 Chilean industrial SMEs, using the Partial Least Square (PLS) method. The results show the importance of the creative process is different stages in SMEs. It also shows that risk-taking serves as an enabler in SMEs’ ability to turn creativity into product innovation. We conclude our findings by illustrating the positive effect of product innovation on SMEs’ performance, a crucial issue in their competitiveness. These findings allow managers to verify that creativity is not a random result but an intentional process.

Managers’ Open Innovation and Business Performance in SMEs: A Moderated Mediation Model of Job Crafting and Gender

There is growing acceptability in redesigning jobs to achieve goals and objectives nowadays. Employees who indulge in exploiting and exploring opportunities for the business tend to craft their jobs, which can help to enhance business performance. This study aims to examine that how ambidextrous managers in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) craft their tasks as a strategy for open innovation to enhance business performance. This study also attempts to assess the moderating role of gender in evaluating the relationship. Simple random sampling is used to administer a structured questionnaire to 650 operations managers employed in service-sector SMEs. The findings reveal that, when male managers involve in explorative and exploitative activities, they tend to craft their jobs more as compared to females. In turn, when jobs are redesigned, it brings a positive impact on business performance as perceived by the managers. The study provides implications for the policy makers with regard to device measures to enhance the job crafting capacity of managers with specific attention to female managers in the case of small and medium enterprises. The present study provides a novel explanation of the relationship between manager ambidextrous behavior and business performance through the mediation of job crafting among top managers working in small and medium organizations, with an overarching view of gender.

Does Industry 4.0 really matter for SME innovation?

ABSTRACT This research, grounded on the organizational information processing theory, studies whether the digital enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) impact innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and what role innovation strategies play in promoting I4.0 in SMEs. We consider two types of enablers, information and communication digital enabling technologies (IDETs) and advanced robotics and integration digital enabling technologies (ADETs), according to their nature, to demonstrate that different I4.0 enabling technologies play different roles in SME innovations. Results from 109 SMEs show that strategic planning fosters I4.0, and innovation is promoted more intensively by IDETs than by ADETs, with both technologies exerting mediating effects in the relationship between strategy and innovation. Finally, innovation has positive effects on performance.

Enriching SME Learning and Innovation Through Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are today considered a driving force in several nations' economies. Inter-organizational knowledge transfer (IOKT) enables organizations including SMEs to improve operational and strategic performance. To enhance SMEs' competitive advantages, they need external knowledge to enrich learning capabilities. This study uses qualitative methodology to examine the values that can be generated from the IOKT process in SMEs. Participants were 10 Omani SMEs from the ICT sector, a knowledge-intensive sector. Based on face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, the results confirmed that inter-organizational knowledge transfer is considered important to SMEs. Results indicated that learning benefits are gained from informal IOKT activities at those SMEs, but they do not yet show a strong impact on the innovation performance of organizations. Thus, this study provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners interested in the SME domain to use as a basis for their investigations.

Waste to energy and circular economy: the case of anaerobic digestion

PurposeThis paper highlights how biological waste materials can be used for generating the much needed energy and obtaining nutrient-rich compost for agriculture through anaerobic digestion (AD). The paper further highlights the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in using AD for converting waste to energy (WTE), leading to many environmental benefits as well as clean energy generation. It would help to reduce pollution, water acidification and carbon emissions that eventually lead to climate change.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers undertook an in-depth study to highlight the role played by an SME in converting WTE and helping towards achieving circularity. An exploratory case-based approach was used to understand value leakage for an AD plant operating on WTE principles in the UK. The plant is still currently active, and it is located in the Midlands, England. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were undertaken with different stakeholders.FindingsThis paper reveals the importance of WTE and the significant role played by AD in converting food waste into useful matter. It reports further into the value leakage issue faced in the AD plants. It demonstrates the importance of technological innovation in SME to capture value leakages in a circular model. Most importantly, it demonstrates how SMEs gain competitive advantage and generate value proposition, while they aim for zero waste to landfill objective.Research limitations/implicationsThe research involves a case study based on an SME, operating on a circular business model. It will be worth investigating how other businesses could gain competitive advantage. For SMEs interested in AD for WTE, this paper introduces further technological innovation to the AD process to leverage further potential for reuse of waste liquid. Any SMEs entering WTE market ought to take into consideration such design implications.Practical implicationsThe paper reveals how the use of waste by SMEs would lead to many environmental benefits as well as clean energy generation. It would help to reduce pollution, water acidification and carbon emissions that eventually lead to climate change. It is useful for addressing the needs of waste food producers and is a cheap raw material for generating energy. The benefits to the public are that it reduces the need for landfill and increases recycling.Social implicationsThe WTE is an effective way of making use of last-stage waste.Originality/valueDespite SMEs being the powerhouse of the European economies, there is limited research investigating how circular economy (CE) could unlock their potential. Moreover, development of AD in the UK has lagged behind other EU countries. We highlight value leakages and argue how technological innovation should be used to close the value chain loop in the WTE production process. This paper, therefore, demonstrates the important role of an AD process, which involves decomposition of biodegradable materials. It shows that AD is an economically viable and environmentally friendly process of obtaining clean energy at low cost.

PENGARUH EXPERIENTIAL SHARING TERHADAP KINERJA BISNIS MELALUI INOVASI PRODUK SEBAGAI VARIABEL INTERVENING

Abstract- Internal problems of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been extensively studied, especially those related to low level of knowledge and skills of their workforce, thus impacting company's business performance. This study aims to examine whether experiential sharing can improve business performance of SMEs through product innovation as an intervening variable. This research develops a concept of experiential sharing or sharing experiences as a process that can improve a company's business performance through product innovation variables. This study show that experiential sharing will have a stronger influence on company's business performance if it is mediated by product innovation. Samples taken in this study were 173 managers and / or metal casting SME owners in Central Java. To test research hypothesis, data is processed by using Smart PLS. Experiential sharing can directly influence product innovation and business performance of SMEs. Similarly, product innovation can directly affect business performance and can partially mediate relationship between experiential sharing and business performance. SMEs can improve business performance by increasing experiential sharing as a antecendent factor. In addition, experiential sharing can improve product innovation which can then improve the performance of SME businesses.
 Keywords: experiential sharing, innovation, business performance, partial least square

Pure Biologics – From a Bootstrapped Boutique CRO to an Integrated Drug Discovery Public Company

The present article is a case study of a Polish biopharmaceutical company, “Pure Biologics”. The company was founded in 2010 by a group of scientists and, over the last nine years, grew substantially from just a few individuals to nearly one hundred professionals. Initially, a privately-funded civil partnership, Pure Biologics, has been transformed into a publicly-traded company. Such a transformation has been possible not only because of the expertise and growing experience of corporate management, but also the specific economic environment and substantial public funding dedicated to innovative Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Does the Nation Innovation System in China Support the Sustainability of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Innovation?

To maintain sustainable economic growth, China has created a national innovation system (NIS) and strengthened the central status of firms. Our data show that the effect of turnover growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on China’s aggregate Gross Domestic Product (GDP)growth is significant, but the status of SMEs in the NIS and related policies is not significant. To determine whether there is a correspondence between the sustainability of innovation in SMEs and the support of China’s NIS, we developed a framework for China’s innovation policy under the NIS framework, taking into account its transition characteristics, to examine the texts of SME innovation policies and reveal the sustainability of SMEs’ innovation. The relevant national government policy texts were collected from the yearbooks of Chinese SMEs between 1999 and 2017 and government notices between 1994 and 2017. On this basis, we also compared with some other countries’ innovation systems. The findings indicate that China’s NIS pays little attention to the sustainability of SMEs’ innovation activities for two reasons. First, the scope of the NIS is very narrowly defined. Second, the top-down, government-oriented Research and Development (R&D) system that focuses on large state-owned firms leaves little room for innovation policies in SMEs.

Dealing with the tensions between innovation and internationalization in SMEs: A dynamic capability view

ABSTRACT Previous literature disagrees on the fact that innovation and internationalization are decisions with a complementary effect on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. We reconcile the contrasting views on this topic by using a dynamic capability perspective. We show that the simultaneous involvement in research and development (R&D) and export activities positively impacts SMEs’ profitability when such firms collaborate with universities and research centers, or when their international experience involves a diverse set of geographical markets. The magnitude of these moderations is different for low and high performers, thereby showing the lack of a “one best way” to successfully achieve complementarity between R&D and internationalization decisions.

The Impact of Social Media on Knowledge Creation, Innovation, and Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises

In the globalization era, social media is widely used by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to promote and market their products. However, there is still a limited objective of this study the effectiveness of social media in improving the business performance of SMEs. This study analyzes the effect of social media on knowledge creation, innovation, and performance in SMEs in Jabodetabek (Indonesia). This study combines online and offline methods to collect data from a sample of 384 SMEs. Data was analyzed SEM-PLS. The variables are social media, knowledge creation, innovation, and performance. The result is that social media does not havea direct impact on performance. However, social media has a significant influence on business performance, moderating knowledge creation, and innovation. Effectiveness of social media on improving business will the partner use for knowledge creation and innovation. Keywords: social media, knowledge creation, innovation, performance, SMEs