Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of business improvement methods (BIM/TQM) in contributing to innovation implementation in SMEs within peripheral regions. Design/methodology/approach – A survey with responses from 606 SMEs in the North West European...

This study considers the role of national differences, derived from structural characteristics in each country, and how they impact on companies’ innovation. To do this we include in a firm-level empirical model of innovation traditional factors impacting on innovation, and measure any...