This paper explores links between developed innovations and business performance in small enterprises with fewer than 50 employees. It also examines how performance has changed over time during a period of five years. The empirical evidence is based on two quantitative datasets describing innovation and business performance in 145 small enterprises in 2005–2009. The study makes a contribution to academic literature by providing a detailed view of the differences in performance across innovation types. The results suggest that during the period of five years, non-innovators have been the best performing enterprises in terms of operating earnings and return on investments while radical innovations can be connected with sales growth. During the recession, the less vulnerable enterprises have been non-innovators and innovators characterised by the high diversity of developed innovations. Applying these results helps small business owners to consider what is the nature and timescale for getting return on innovations.

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Purpose The purpose of this conceptual paper is to name and categorize risks related to emerging technological innovations and to propose a number of countermeasures. The emphasis is placed on knowledge risks that are grouped under human, organizational and technological spheres and are presented from a small business perspective. Design/methodology/approach The presented paper takes into account the prior literature and the authors’ thoughts and experiences to identify potential knowledge risks and countermeasures. Findings Having a better overview of possible knowledge risks that may emerge in conjunction with the adoption and application of emerging technological innovations can help small businesses to better assess these new developments and their possible upsides and downsides. The proposed risks and countermeasures can also help policymakers as well as other organizations working for or together with smaller businesses to help them maintain and even increase their competitiveness. Practical implications Different implications are suggested for not only managers and employees in small businesses but also other stakeholders working for or with small businesses. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one that focuses on how small businesses can improve their decision-making regarding the adoption of new emerging technological innovation from a knowledge risk perspective.

The importance of collaboration has been one of the main issues in innovation studies. Despite many different findings on collaboration and its impact on innovation performance, the impact of different types of collaboration on different types of innovation is still inconclusive. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of openness on the performance of the innovation process in a leading emerging economy. Cooperation with partners and their effects on innovation propensity unveil that process, marketing and organisational innovations are determinants of product and service innovation, thus confirming that the various innovation types are intertwined and mutually supporting each other. From a geographical perspective, cooperating with external parties from the same country plays a dominant role in determining the innovation outcome. Cooperating with consultants and private labs on the other hand seems to negatively affect innovation performance. Surprisingly, the role of foreign cooperation remains ambiguous as results were not statistically significant.

University technology transfer has been receiving significant government funding since 2012. Results of this major investment are now expected by the Turkish government and society, not only in terms of better teaching and research performance, but also of new jobs, new products and services, enhanced regional development and contribution to economic growth. This article examines the technology transfer capacity of Turkish universities and provides several policy recommendations for further improvement. The analysis uses the dataset of a recent project funded by the European Patent Office and managed by Ege University Science and Technology Centre (EU.EBILTEM‐TTO) and the Turkish Patent Institute. This was the first large‐scale national assessment of IPR activities in Turkish universities. The findings reveal an early‐stage university technology transfer capacity, facing many challenges caused by low technology‐ and market‐oriented research capacity, institutional obstacles to patenting, licensing and spin‐offs, low IPR awareness and spread of IPR policies, and the current IPR regime. University‐industry cooperation activities, such as contract research, joint projects and publications, consultancy, etc. that have been present for three decades in Turkey continue to be the major paradigm and tend to be considered as a separate strand from technology transfer activities, such as patenting, licensing and spin‐off formation that are less developed. Systemic policy intervention expanded to the broader national innovation ecosystem to improve technology absorption capacity and interest in technology‐driven innovation, together with a combined top‐down/bottom‐up transformative action that can accelerate the change of deeply‐rooted old perceptions and practice.