Leadership and innovations in small and medium enterprises

Abstract

Leadership has always been connected to innovations and innovative behavior. Making right decisions, coming up with novel concepts and conquering the market niches has been the key element of successful entrepreneurship since the times of the inception of the ideas of Schumpeter and the "Blue Ocean" Strategy. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often become the hub of the innovations. Most recently, there are startups, like the ones that constitute the essence of Silicon Valley innovational space, that push forward progress and novel approaches in business and economics. This paper focuses on leadership and innovations using the case study of small and medium enterprises. It revises some relevant literature and makes several important implications about the role and the importance of innovations in SMEs that are being the leaders of technological progress, economic development and entrepreneurial activity worldwide. We argue that leadership in small and medium enterprises equals innovations and introducing innovations as such. The leading SMEs are often the most innovative ones.