Organizational innovation and outcomes in SMEs

This study examines organizational innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and develops an extensive framework of how innovation occurs, its end results in terms of positive, negative outcomes, and its impacts on business financial performance; using grounded methodology; interviews with entrepreneurs and executive experts from across industries. The study aims to fill gaps in the literature. Despite extensive research conducted on innovation, most focus on factors behind innovation and a company's innovativeness. The framework is useful to SMEs considering company-wide innovation. Transparent inputs and outputs enable companies to understand innovation processes, and its outcomes better as well as help monitor and implement individual innovation activities. The framework has a wide application, particularly, in an industry where innovation is hard to capture and understand. Using the model, we can determine innovation drivers, practices, and barriers as well as innovation inputs/outputs in different industries, thus promoting better management of innovation across a wide range of applications. Governments also require a better understanding of innovation, productivity, and operational efficiency to plan their policies in the promotion of innovation.