Determinants of innovativeness in SMEs: disentangling core innovation and technology adoption capabilities

Abstract

This paper studies innovativeness in SMEs from a set of innovation indicators at the firm level, capturing various types of innovation (product, process, organisational, and marketing innovations) and the level of innovativeness in these firm's developments. The article identifies two separate dimensions in the innovativeness of Spanish SMEs, using factor analysis techniques. One dimension is associated with the capabilities for core/internal innovation and the other with the capabilities for the adoption of technology.The paper shows that significant differences exist in the personal and organisational factors that favour these two dimensions. The entrepreneur's motivation, business planning, and cooperation in R&D activities constitute significant factors when considering the core dimension of a firm's innovativeness, but have no effect on the firm's capabilities for technology adoption. However, the use of external consultancy services seems to have no significant effect on the core dimension of the innovativeness of an SME, whereas it is a relevant factor for its technology adoption. Furthermore, it is shown that the entrepreneur's education plays a more significant role in the core dimension of a firm's innovativeness than in its capabilities for technology adoption. Depending on the policy objectives, these differences should lead to the application of specific policy approaches when an attempt to stimulate innovation in SMEs is made.

Individual, Organizational, and Institutional Determinants of Formal and Informal Inter‐Firm Cooperation in SMEs

“…The second organizational factor we analyze refers to investment in innovation. The literature shows that firms develop inter‐firm agreements to become more innovative and enhance the outcomes of R&D investments (Baum, Calabrese, and Silverman ; Martínez‐Román and Romero ; Powell, Koput, and Smith‐Doerr ). Through cooperation, firms can access knowledge and technologies, share resources, and accelerate the innovation process.…”

Conditions of Marketing and Organizational Innovation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

“…The external environment plays an important role in the functioning of enterprises (Furman et al, 2002;Özsomer et al, 1997;Ramanathan et al, 2018), including small and medium-sized enterprises (Martinez-Roman and Romero, 2017;Romero and Martinez-Roman, 2012;Yam et al, 2011). It is a source of both opportunities and threats to their current and future activities.…”

“…The most commonly used include the size of the enterprise (Guan and Ma, 2003;Hurley and Hult, 1998;Martinez-Roman et al, 2011). Other relevant contextual factors include the industry or sector of operation, and the type of market (domestic or foreign) (Alves et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2017;Martinez-Roman and Romero, 2017;Yam et al, 2011).…”

Communication Barrier, Spillover Effect and Industrial-Technological Innovation

“…Scholars firstly pay attention to the impact of Universities on innovation. Juan [35] and Broekel [36] found that higher education also plays an important role in the process of innovation, and universities and innovation ability have an obvious direct or indirect correlation. Hojin [37] studies the impact of Technological Exploration on industrial technology development from the perspective of demand.…”