IMPROVING INNOVATION CAPABILITIES OF SMALL ENTERPRISES: CLUSTER STRATEGY AS A TOOL

What is it about?

This study focuses on innovation capabilities in small enterprises and how their development can be supported by regional strategies. The study utilizes multiple case studies. The empirical evidence is based on data from four regions in Finland. Each of them has adopted an industrial cluster approach as the basis of regional development. The study draws a common framework for assessing how regional development efforts meet the needs of innovation development in small enterprises. The findings demonstrate that most of the efforts for improving innovation capabilities of small enterprises are appropriate for innovation generation in the front-end phase. Instead, there were no significant efforts to support innovation adoption. Further, the highly conceptualised development services provided by a variety of public organizations meet the needs of large companies. However, these services match poorly with the nature of innovation development in small enterprises.

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Why is it important?

In recent years, innovation process has been a common research subject, the majority of it focusing on the successful new product development process in large and medium-sized enterprises. Literature on successful innovation in small business context is scarce and the study of the innovation capabilities necessary for fostering the innovation process in small enterprises is an almost virgin research field. This study focuses on innovation capabilities in small enterprises and on how the development of them can be supported by regional policies and strategies.