中小企业技术创新战略选择

中小企业是技术创新积极活跃的推动者，与大企业相比，他们既具有明显的优势也面临着极大风险和困难。中小企业应根据自身的实际情况和外在环境的变化，选择合适的技术创新战略。     

关于吉林省中小企业技术创新体系与外部环境建设的探索

一、吉林省中小企业技术创新体系的构建 １．构建吉林省中小企业技术创新体系的重要性和迫 切性 中共中央、国务院召开的国家技术创新大会，发布了 《关于加强技术创新，发展高科技、实现产业化的决定》，特 别强调要加强企业技术创新工作。 随着中国加入 ＷＴＯ，中小企业面临的挑战尤为严峻， 由于外资直接投资企业的大举进入，其产品进入国内市场 的份额不断增加，买方市场的需求约束将对全省以传统产 业为主的中小企业产生较大的影响．要经受住入世的冲击 和压力，变被动为主动，中小企业的根本出路在于大力推进 技术创新和发展高科技并…     

基于DEA的中小企业技术创新绩效评价实证研究

中小企业在我国国民经济及社会发展中占有相当重要的地位与作用。对中小企业进行技术创新绩效评价是提高其技术创新成功率的有效手段。本文构建了技术创新绩效评价指标,利用DEA计算所调研的中小企业技术创新资源投入产出的效率,并通过分别去掉DEA计算中的每项输入或输出指标来分析各项指标对总效率值的影响程度,最后提出了若干提高中小企业技术创新绩效的建议。     

资讯

宏观视点中央财政35.1亿元支持中小企业财政部相关负责人8月19日表示,为帮助解决中小企业发展面临的困难和问题,中央财政将进一步加大支持力度,今年中央财政安排中小企业专项资金35.1亿元人民币。据财政部介绍,中央财政近年来先后设立了科技型中小企业技术创新基金、中小企业国际市场     

中小企业技术创新的公司治理环境调查研究

公司治理结构与机制决定着中小企业技术创新行为。文章设计并发放包括中小企业公司章程、股权结构、三会状况、经营者、利益相关者五个方面内容的调查问卷,分析了中小企业技术创新的治理环境及其存在的主要问题,并为进一步提高中小企业公司治理水平提出政策建议,以更好地指导中小企业公司治理实践,进而提高中小企业技术创新的能力,培育持久竞争优势。     

中国出台4大举措促进中小企业发展

在亚太经合组织中小企业工商论坛，国家经贸委副主任张志刚在题为“创新与中小企业的发展”的主题演讲中说，中国正通过４大举措以促进中小企业快速发展。张志刚在演讲中称，与世界其他国家的情况相似，中国中小企业在市场竞争中也面临不少困难，其中一个突出的问题就是技术创新能力弱。针对广大中小企业技术落后、技术创新能力弱、技术开发投入不足、技术人员短缺等困难，中国政府将进一步采取积极有效的措施，帮助中小企业解决这些问题。一是积极推动主要为中小企业提供技术支持的服务体系建设。如建立区域性、专业性技术中心。二是加大企…     

基于DEA的中小企业技术创新绩效评价实证研究

中 小企业在我国国民经济及社会发展中占有相当重要的地位与作用。对中小企业进行技术创新 绩效评价是提高其技术创新成功率的有效手段。本文构建了技术创新绩效评价指标,利用DE A计算所调研的中小企业技术创新资源投入产出的效率,并通过分别去掉DEA计算中的每项输 入或输出指标来分析各项指标对总效率值的影响程度,最后提出了若干提高中小企业技术创 新绩效的建议。     

基于动态能力的中小企业技术创新战略选择

中小企业是我国经济发展的中坚力量,中小企业不仅在创造GDP、增加就业等方面发挥着重要作用,而且也是推动技术创新的活跃力量.如何针对中小企业的特点,选择适当的技术创新战略,使得中小企业实现集约型、内涵式发展就是一个具有重大理论意义和实践价值的课题.本文以企业的动态能力理论、技术创新战略理论和企业的生命周期理论为理论基础,结合中小企业技术创新的特点,对中小企业技术创新的战略选择问题进行了分析,并提出解决方案.     

中小企业技术创新的战略分析

伴随着我国市场经济的不断发展,中小企业在中国经济社会发展的地位和作用越来越重要。这也和世界各国中小企业的发展是一致的。在当今世界上,不管是发达国家、新兴工业化国家、还是发展中国家,都把发展中小企业作为振兴经济的战略措施,已形成了中小企业发展的世界性大潮。本文首先阐述中小企业技术创新的意义,然后分析中小企业技术创新的研究现状,在此基础上着重剖析技术创新的影响因素,最后提出提升技术创新的途径。     

中小企业技术创新支持体系研究综述

本文通过对国内外中小企业技术创新支持体系的系统研究,提出了完善我国中小企业技术创新支持体系的对策.同时本文也指出了研究中存在的不足,最后分析了中小企业技术创新支持体系的发展趋势,为更深入的研究提供有益的参考.     

Managing 'green' product innovation in small firms

The growing social and regulatory concern for the environment is leading an increasing number of companies to considering 'green' issues as a major source of strategic change. In particular, this trend has major and complex implications on the technological strategy of a company and on its product innovations. Indeed, most authors acknowledge that eco‐efficiency will be one of the major challenges for R&D practice and theory in the next decade. Unfortunately, studies usually focus on large corporations. There is a debate as to whether this factor will affect R&D practices and product innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A superficial glimpse at the problem could lead one to think that SMEs will not be major green innovators, especially as far as product technologies are concerned, and that they will simply try to comply with environmental regulations (mainly on production processes).
This paper shows that 'green' product innovation may occur and may also have strategic implications in SMEs. Starting from the analysis of four selected case studies and using a Precursors Events methodology, this paper illustrates why 'green' product innovation cannot be considered a marginal issue for most SMEs, even for those that are not directly affected by environmental regulations. Hence, the paper suggests a contingent framework to support SMEs in the analysis of the drivers of 'green' product innovation and in the choice of a proper R&D strategy that explicitly accounts for the eco‐efficiency of product technologies.     

The impact of SME internationalization on innovation: The mediating role of market and entrepreneurial orientation

In today's highly competitive global environment, even small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to make product and process innovations in order to outperform the competition and satisfy global customers. Investigating the success factors of innovation performance has become critical for the survival and competitiveness of SMEs. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of the degree of internationalization (DoI) on innovation performance through the mediating factors of market and entrepreneurial orientation in the context of emerging-market SMEs. We tested our model and hypotheses with 235 SMEs in the United Arab Emirates, which is an emerging market. The results obtained from partial least squares estimates indicate that the degree of internationalization positively affects innovation performance and, more importantly, that this relationship is indirect and fully mediated by market and entrepreneurial orientation for SMEs. These results shed light on the mechanism of the effect of DoI on innovation performance in the emerging-market SME context.     

Does R&D offshoring lead to SME growth? Different governance modes and the mediating role of innovation

Research summary : In this article, we address the role of R&D offshoring strategies in the sales growth of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). We propose that different governance modes of R&D offshoring—insourcing versus outsourcing—may lead to growth, but that they differ in their effects. In turn, we argue that innovation mediates the relation between international R&D sourcing strategies and sales growth. Based on a large database of SME manufacturing enterprises in Spain, we find that offshore outsourcing positively affects sales growth both directly and indirectly, while offshore insourcing only affects sales growth indirectly via innovation results. The analysis reveals different contributions of each governance mode to sales growth and the mediating role of innovation in the relation between R&D offshoring and firm growth. Managerial summary : We analyze how different governance modes of international R&D sourcing—offshore insourcing and outsourcing—may contribute to growth in SMEs. Modes of offshore R&D outsourcing positively affect the growth of sales in two ways. One effect is direct, produced by improved efficiency, flexibility, enhanced resources, and access to new markets. And the other effect is indirect as offshore R&D outsourcing favors the achievement of innovations, and this in turn, positively affects firm growth. For their part, captive modes only exert an indirect effect. Offshore R&D insourcing contributes to the achievement of innovations, and thus, ultimately to firm growth in so far as these innovations enable SMEs to increase sales. Therefore, innovation results perform a mediating role in the relation between R&D offshoring and sales growth. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teleworking practice in small and medium-sized firms: management style and worker autonomy

In an empirical study of teleworking practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in west London, organisational factors such as management attitudes, worker autonomy and employment flexibility were found to be more critical than technological provision in facilitating successful implementation. Consequently, we argue that telework in most SMEs appears as a marginal activity performed mainly by managers and specialist mobile workers.     

Patenting Activities and Firm Performance: Does Firm Size Matter?

Whereas prior research has provided valuable insights into the willingness of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms to engage in patenting, a comparison of the performance implications of patenting activities across small and large firms is still lacking. This gap is important because SMEs and large firms, having different resources and capabilities, might benefit from patenting activities in different ways. In particular, SMEs can be expected to benefit less from patenting activities in terms of protection against imitators than large firms. On the other hand, the propensity and ability of SMEs to license out their patents and generate additional revenue streams might be relatively higher than that of their large counterparts. This paper studies the impact of patenting on licensing, innovation, and financial performance for both SMEs and large firms, using multiple‐group path analyses on a sample of 358 manufacturing firms. Contrary to expectations, this study demonstrates that not only large firms, but also SMEs benefit from patenting in terms of commercializing product innovations. Moreover, for both SMEs and large firms, such increased innovation performance in turn contributes to higher profit margins. Patenting activities also increase the ability of SMEs and large firms to license out knowledge to external parties, and this positive effect is significantly stronger for large firms. However, neither in SMEs nor in large firms, these outward licensing activities generate short‐term financial benefits. Finally, the study demonstrates that patenting activities do not trigger significant cost disadvantages for either SMEs or large firms. Jointly, these findings provide unique insights in the value‐generating and cost‐increasing effects of patenting, suggesting that not only large firms, but also SMEs should consider patenting as a viable strategy to fully reap commercial benefits from their innovation activities. At the same time, they temper open innovation scholars’ expectations regarding the financial benefits of licensing out knowledge. Overall, these findings point to opportunities for optimizing the intellectual property management of both SMEs and large firms.     

The moderating role of competence specialization in the effect of external R&D on innovative performance

This paper studies the functional specialization of SMEs’ technological competence and its moderating role in the effect of external R&D on their innovative performance. Technological competence consists of many functional dimensions such as basic research, product architecture, process construction, testing, and evaluation, which constitute a sequence of innovation tasks. The specialization of technological competence allows SMEs to utilize economies of specialization in R&D, enhance their bargaining power and appropriability conditions in the process of external R&D, and attract promising R&D partners. However, competence specialization may hamper SMEs’ capabilities to coordinate and integrate diverse external R&D projects. Using a sample of SMEs in Korean manufacturing industries, we find the following results. First, competence specialization positively moderates the effect of external R&D on SMEs’ innovative performance. Second, the positive moderating effect of competence specialization diminishes as the share of external R&D increases. Third, the moderating effect of competence specialization differs across industries depending on the degree of market dominance by a few large firms (i.e., market concentration) and the novelty of technologies pursued by SMEs in each industry.     

Determinants and impacts of environmental performance in SMEs

The paper analyzes empirical evidence from 368 environmentally responsive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in four industries. The results demonstrate that firms' environmental performance cannot be viewed as a one-dimensional concept and that determinants of firms' environmental performance depend on the dimension retained. The impacts of firms' environmental performance on their innovativeness and competitiveness vary according to the industry within which they operate. However, impacts on product and process innovations as well as on managerial innovations are positive and significant in all four industries.     

Incapability of Technological Capability: A Case Study on Product Innovation in the Japanese Facsimile Machine Industry

Technological leadership in an industry certainly seems like a ticket to ongoing success. However, overemphasis on existing technological capabilities may produce a form of myopia in product development. In other words, by focusing primarily on developing and improving their core technologies, organizations miss opportunities to exploit new technologies and thus create breakthrough products. Ken Kusunoki proposes that problem-solving approaches in a technologically leading firm paradoxically may impede radical product innovation. Suggesting that such firms are inherently oriented toward incremental innovation, he presents a conceptual framework of the dynamic interaction between technological and product development problem-solving in the context of product innovation. He then illustrates this conceptual framework by examining a case of radical innovation in the Japanese facsimile industry. For a technological leader, product innovation typically is driven by technology development. In other words, such a firm quite reasonably relies on the technological advantage it holds over competitors as the basis for its product developments. By refining and enhancing its industry-leading technological capabilities, the firm can successfully introduce incremental innovations in its products. Because of this strong emphasis on exploiting existing technological capabilities, however, the technological leader may fail to capitalize on new technologies that can produce radical innovations. In the race to develop high-speed, digital facsimile equipment during the early 1970s, for example, Matsushita held a decided technological advantage over competitors such as Ricoh. Notwithstanding Matsushita's technological edge, however, Ricoh brought this radical innovation to market two years before Matsushita introduced its first digital machine, causing a serious decline in Matsushita's market share. Ricoh's approach to technological and product problem-solving—an autonomous team structure, with a strong project manager and frequent transfers of engineers among interdependent units—contrasts dramatically with Matsushita's functional structure and strong emphasis on technological problem-solving. Interestingly, Matsushita regained its technological advantage by 1976, thanks to a rapid series of incremental innovations in its product technologies.     

How business methods accompany technological innovations – a case study using semantic patent analysis and a novel informetric measure

Usually, the development of a technology interacts with the development of business methods, which are needed to enter the application fields. For some years now, it is possible to analyse their interaction as, next to technological innovations, business method innovations can be patented. To investigate this interplay, we select the case of radio frequency identification devices (RFID) – a technology that first emerged many years ago, but is still undergoing further development. We analyse approximately 37,000 patents related to RFID technology from the period between 1990 and 2014, differentiating between technological and business method patents, by means of bibliographic and semantic analyses, using one well established and one novel informetric measure. Contrary to our expectations, the results point to technological innovations that are not ensued but constantly accompanied by business methods. Furthermore, we identify two types of players, that is technology and application specialists. There is a clear distinction between these two types, though all companies of both types apply for technological as well as business method patents. As our semantic analysis reveals, RFID were successively introduced in their application fields between 1998 and 2008, starting with industrial applications, and then moving on to service applications. In future, technology managers should develop strategies based on the interaction between technological and business method patents, keeping in mind the early start and sequential development of different application fields.     

Knowledge management practices and absorptive capacity in small and medium‐sized enterprises: is there really a linkage?

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are more vulnerable to globalization and rapid technological change due to their scarcity of resources. SMEs' absorptive capacity allows them to access knowledge and plays a key role in their ability to explore and exploit opportunities in their environment. Therefore, this study aims to identify and categorize knowledge management practices which SMEs can adopt to develop absorptive capacity. From a population of 4,534 Portuguese SMEs, 260 usable completed questionnaires were returned. We concluded that Portuguese SMEs are engaged in knowledge management practices, through collaboration with business partners, favoring learning processes based on experience, knowledge transfer to employees and knowledge absorption by employees, reflecting the importance given by SMEs to the tacit nature of knowledge which helps them in efficiency improvements, strategic adaptation, and the launch of new products and services. Our study contributes to advancing theory in the fields of knowledge management and absorptive capacity. We combine and extend previous research which allows us to reconcile the sometimes contradictory findings concerning knowledge management practices which SMEs can adopt to reinforce absorptive capacity. Some theoretical and practical implications are also presented.