Managing the internal processes of innovation in SME's

Innovation and technology management within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has recently become a subject of much interest to academics and managers alike. Competitive pressures and globalization of markets have provided the impetus for innovation. Apart from authors' concern with entrepreneurship, the literature on innovation and technology management in SMEs mainly deals with adapting or transferring a large company's methods and recipes to smaller firms. There are still substantial gaps in R&D knowledge. In this paper, the authors report a cross-national study of innovation processes within SMEs. The purpose is to establish differences in approach and emphasis in order to explain performance differences on innovation outcomes.