Making connections: innovation and collective learning in small businesses

Abstract

Investigates the learning process in innovation and, in particular, the collective learning which underlines different types of innovation within the context of smallto medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Argues that innovation is often the result of interaction of various subjects, technologies, people and organisations, and that it is the learning that is derived from such interaction which underpins innovative activity. SMEs are better able to innovate when they are part of clusters because it is through the networking process and the management of externalities (key elements in clustering) that they develop new products, processes and services.

Identification the main challenges of small and medium sized enterprises in exploiting of innovative opportunities (Case study: Iran SMEs)

“…Innovation management studies in particular, often focused on hi-tech small firms (Lin and Chen, 2007), and examined in terms of process innovation (Storey and Barnett, 2000), and new product development (Mosey et al, 2002;Mosey, 2005). Recent studies also looked at the number of effective factors which might lead to an increase in company innovative performance such as benchmarking, networking (Mitra, 2000;Terziovski, 2003;Massa and Testa, 2004), R&D (Raymond and St-Pierre, 2004), and organizational learning. At the corporate level, corporate entrepreneurship (Zhara et al 2000), embodied a company's innovation and venturing was found to be influencing the company performance.…”

El papel de la educación en creación de empresas en el contexto universitario a partir de los estudios registrados en Scopus

“…Para este mismo tiempo, surgen temas investigativos que abordan la importancia de ofertar cursos de educación emprendedora, con el fin de satisfacer las necesidades empresariales de los estudiantes en cuanto a sus aspiraciones futuras (Collins, Hannon y Smith, 2004). La innovación también es un tema central en los comienzos de los estudios de la temática, los cuales se enfocan principalmente en el aprendizaje de la innovación que se puede adquirir en las universidades para la creación de empresas (Mitra, 2000). Finalmente, se muestra interés por estudios que tratan sobre el interés de los estudiantes por construir su propio negocio.…”

Manager’s Relations and Strategic Management of Small and Medium Enterprises

“…Tratando das inovações que se beneficiam da aprendizagem no contexto regional de múltiplas PME, o autor conclui que as inovações podem ser resultantes das relações simbióticas entre PME, tomadas individualmente, com o aglomerado regional de empresas do qual fazem parte. Para Mitra (2000), o enraizamento regional das PME é não só econômico, mas também social, um fato determinante para a aprendizagem entre empresas.…”