Innovation In Small Companies Research Articles

PRODUCT INNOVATION IN SMALL COMPANIES: MANAGING RESOURCE SCARCITY THROUGH FINANCIAL BOOTSTRAPPING

Researchers have proposed that scarce resources are the main factor hindering product innovation in small companies. However, despite scarce resources, small companies do innovate, so the research question is: How do small companies manage resource scarcity in product innovation? To answer the research question a multiple case study of three small established companies and their product innovation was used, including interviews and observations over a period of five months. The small companies were found to use many different bootstrapping methods in combination within their product innovation. The methods can be classified into three different functional categories: bootstrapping methods for increasing resources, for using existing resources more efficiently, and those for securing a fast payback on resources put into product innovation. Due to their resource scarcity, the studied companies also favoured an innovation strategy only involving new products done with known technology and targeting existing markets. This strategy seems to avoid unsuccessful innovation but at the same time exclude technologically radical innovation.

Innovations technologiques environnementales dans les petites entreprises : proposition d'un modèle d'analyse

Résumé Si les petites entreprises semblent actuellement moins sensibles que les grandes aux enjeux du développement durable, elles pourraient pourtant, compte tenu de leur nombre, être un vecteur important d’expansion des pratiques, en particulier dans le domaine environnemental. Des outils et démarches spécifiques de plus en plus nombreuses leur sont proposés. Par ailleurs, de nouvelles technologies, dites « technologies propres » ou « écotechnologies » sont adaptées pour les petites entreprises. L’objet de ce travail est de présenter un modèle d’analyse des innovations « éco-technologiques », dans les petites entreprises. Compte tenu des particularités du développement durable, peut-on concevoir l’incorporation d’éco-technologies dans les petites entreprises comme un processus d’innovation classique ? Cette analyse s’appuie sur revue de la littérature tant théorique qu’empirique réalisée dans le domaine de la RSE des petites entreprises, en développant plus précisément les approches environnementales, et sur différentes recherches portant sur l’innovation technologique dans les petites entreprises. Nous proposerons alors un modèle intégrant toutes les dimensions identifiées à partir de ces approches. Codes JEL : M14, L21, 047, Q

Learning Entrepreneurs: Learning and Innovation in Small Companies

This article concerns agricultural entrepreneurs involved in organising their learning so as to develop innovative and learning enterprises. In hi-tech sectors, such as Dutch agriculture, this learning and innovative capacity is particularly essential for economic survival. Reviewing the literature, we conclude that innovation can be seen as informal learning processes, in which social networks play an important role. Workers learn by sharing knowledge in the working team and employers learn by creating networks of colleagues and advisers. The results of two research projects suggest that interactive learning and innovation should be analysed from a perspective of uncertainty. Learning skills for interactive innovation, as part of the entrepreneurial craft, should comprise the capability of selecting impulses and combining newly selected impulses with existing skills and routines. Paradoxically, they need new impulses from weak, unknown networks to be continuously innovative. Innovative learning involves balancing the chaos of uncertainty with the old grooves of experience. Knowing how to escape this paradox forms the core competence of innovative entrepreneurship.

Innovation management technology: experimental approach for small firms in a deprived environment

This paper deals with various possible actions to develop innovation and competitive intelligence or competitive technical intelligence within SMEs. We summarize in this paper the comments and research results and discussions arising from two aspects of the introduction of innovation in small companies. The first one is based on integrating to SMEs with innovation management technology and the second deals with the attractivity approach necessary to integrate, in the best possible way, the action of the consultants, the information system and the competitive intelligence attitude into the vision of the company.