Continuous Innovation and Performance Management of SME Clusters

Abstract

Continuous innovation and performance measurement methods and tools have been applied in companies as a means to develop improvement actions related to strategic objectives and to monitor results so as to give feedback for further action. However, continuous innovation and performance measurement methods and tools can also be applied to manage performance of a cluster of firms. After a brief review of continuous innovation and the concept of collective efficiency of a cluster, this paper presents a conceptual model for managing actions for improving collective efficiency and measuring performance of an SME cluster. A research case is reported, for which the conceptual model has been applied and results discussed. The paper concludes that despite some difficulties in developing and using performance indicators in SMEs, the concepts presented by the proposed model can help to foster cooperation and maturity in continuous innovation in clusters of SMEs.

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