Chance of Success at Hungarian Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century it can be seen that social-economic and environmental problems have become so complex that to solve or handle them a more efficient and global knowledge is needed. Due to of this situation - and pressure of social – economic development – in developed societies the unfolding knowledge industry (knowledge business) has become separated and a dynamic growing production – supply sector. Traditional management concentrates on tangible tools, but knowledge management prefers intangible areas, such as learning and knowledge. This shows that to measure and analyze intellectual resources efficiently is not a trivial task. Globalization, decreasing life cycles, the role of knowledge in R&D (research and development) result in continuously changing demands of products, suppliers and processes which all demand to renew application procedures (for example demand of innovation). On the basis of these ideas further questions can be put. How can Hungarian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) meet the demands of the new economy? How is knowledge creation, sharing, altogether knowledge management, used in everyday life? How can a company help individual and organizational learning? This two - year research has tried to find answers to these questions. In the research qualitative and quantitative techniques were used. In the course of investigations of the possibilities of SMEs breaking free, organizational knowledge was examined from 3 different viewpoints: intellectual capital, knowledge investigation, knowledge strategy. The results were verified from the view of secondary innovation. There are very important roles of SMEs, especially the ones based on knowledge and on human capital. This paper shows a small but stressed segment of the results. Key words: innovation, knowledge, knowledge management, SME, strategy.