Innovations and Other Processes as Identifiers of Contemporary Trends in the Sustainable Development of SMEs: The Case of Emerging Regional Economies

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the biggest group of enterprises in the European Union (EU); they are also characteristic of emerging economies. Given this situation, there is a need to provide instruments such as processes that allow them to realize a model of sustainable development. The ability to classify processes and the occurrences within these processes often affects the state of the enterprises. The implementation of innovations, as identified processes, facilities sustainable development for SMEs. The purpose of this article is to find out whether the identification of processes such as innovations has any influence on the competitiveness and sustainable development of SMEs. This study was based on pilot research that examined small and medium enterprises regionally based on the example of an emerging economic region of Poland. The research focused on the identification of the processes and changes happening inside enterprises in terms of understanding the sustainable development concept. The research composition allows the presentation of how SMEs understand the problems analyzed. The study features a new questionnaire, a new definition of sustainable development, and matches those processes identified by the enterprises analyzed with the particular sustainable development dimensions suggested by the authors. In light of the analysis of the literature and the results of this research, the study offers some important contributions in terms of understanding and offering practical meaning to the identification of various processes. The most important finding was that there is a need to raise awareness among entrepreneurs of the fact that innovations are also processes in themselves, which often constitute the sum of other supporting processes occurring within the enterprise. Support in the form of knowledge transfer from experts to SMEs would also be recommended.

Impact of Innovation Culture, Organization Size and Technological Capability on the Performance of SMEs: The Case of China

“…Sustainable development has been defined as an approach that aims to achieve continuous growth [12][13][14]. Most studies indicate that the main driving force behind sustainable development of SMEs is company specific parameters, such as organization size [15], innovation capacity [16], and technological capability [14]. For example, some studies have found that organization size impacts SME growth [17,18], while innovation has increasingly become an integral component of successful companies around the world.…”

The Best Practice of CRM Implementation for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

“…As the availability of goods expands, the independence on product localization increases, and marketing has an ever-increasing impact at a global level. In this environment, companies struggle to find a competitive advantage and sustainable development (Malik and Jasińska-Biliczak 2018). All companies' business activities, either multinational corporations or small-and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, are affected by sustainability issues.…”

Endogenous Innovation Potential: Regional SMEs’ Perspective in Emerging Economies

“…The emergence of new solutions is considered a gradual process of continuous adaptation (Thalassinos, 2007) and improvement of production methods and cycles, while the differences in innovativeness between industries, sectors of the economy (Malik and Jasińska-Biliczak, 2018) and finally the enterprises themselves reflect the unevenness of technological absorption in earlier periods (Ratanawaraha and Polenske, 2007;Younis and Nor'Aini, 2010). The effect of further development of research on innovations was the concept of technology accumulation, in which systemic and institutional factors are the most important.…”