SMEs and the Innovation Management Process: A multi-level process conceptual framework

Innovation management in small businesses has been of interest to researchers for many years. One of the reasons is that innovation in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) occurs in a different way than in large companies. Small businesses face a resource challenge that differs from large companies. The ability to successfully manage the innovation process can be a particularly challenge for small businesses in high technology industries that need to innovate in order to survive. In the software industry, for example, research on innovation in small businesses tends to focus mainly on identifying resources (Romijn et al., 2002; Cho & Linderman, 2020; Harel et al., 2020), and seems to consider the process as a “black box” that ignores how the type, needs, and availability of resources arise throughout the innovation process (Pustovrh et al., 2017; McDowell et al., 2018). Interest in conceptualizing the innovation process has received attention by researchers from multiple disciplines such as technology management, engineering, and strategy. However, the focus tends to be on the process of new product development, with the majority of works focused on identifying organizational and strategic success factors (Dunne et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2018; Bailetti et al., 2020).