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Purpose -There are not many answers to the question of how the development projects launched to improve business performance in SMEs have succeeded. This study focuses on business development success in SMEs. The main objective is to structure and model the success dimensions that contribute to and can be used in evaluating the business development success in SMEs. Design/methodology/approach -The study utilises multiple case study methodology, following the replication approach. The empirical evidence is based on data from four SMEs that have implemented a business development project. Two of the projects were perceived as successful and the other two as unsuccessful.Findings -This study builds a framework for a business development project success in a SME context. In the SME context the business development project success seems to be dependent on several interrelated dimensions. Success in one area leads to success in other areas, and so creates an upward success spiral. Failure in one area seems to lead to failure in other areas, too, thus creating a downward failure spiral. Practical implications -The results provide a basis for benchmarking one's business and evaluate how well one's own firm meets the success dimensions and its focus areas. Originality/value -The framework for success dimensions has been developed providing a systematic way to analyse the business development project and its impact on the performing company. A setting for analysing the project success from different time perspectives in a SME context has been produced.

The aim of this paper is to examine the links between developed environmental innovations and the competitiveness of firms. It seeks answers to the question: Are the developed environmental innovations associated with the improved or impaired competitiveness of firms? In addition, it explores how competitive advantage is created along the innovation process. This will be done by comparing the successful and unsuccessful green innovators. The empirical evidence is based on the longitudinal dataset gathered from 128 Finnish firms which have developed one or more environmental innovations. The data covers nine years from 2002 to 2010. This study provides two contributions to academic literature. First, it deepens the existing knowledge of how environmental innovations are associated with competitive advantage. It identifies the types of competitive advantages as well as potential disadvantages along the innovation process. Second, this study demonstrates how the competitive advantage was enhanced along the successful innovation process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

This paper explores links between developed innovations and business performance in small enterprises with fewer than 50 employees. It also examines how performance has changed over time during a period of five years. The empirical evidence is based on two quantitative datasets describing innovation and business performance in 145 small enterprises in 2005–2009. The study makes a contribution to academic literature by providing a detailed view of the differences in performance across innovation types. The results suggest that during the period of five years, non-innovators have been the best performing enterprises in terms of operating earnings and return on investments while radical innovations can be connected with sales growth. During the recession, the less vulnerable enterprises have been non-innovators and innovators characterised by the high diversity of developed innovations. Applying these results helps small business owners to consider what is the nature and timescale for getting return on innovations.

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.