Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify the corporate functions that contribute most to the innovation success of SMEs with limited resources. After a systematic literature review, the authors used a unique primary data set of 784 SMEs from eight countries. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to show the data set peculiarities. The logistic regression targeted the presence of innovative products and services in sales by 11 dummy variables and 4 principal factors describing SMEs’ different resources and capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors developed a resource-based product innovation model that is synthesising the impact of the company resources and capabilities and of the innovation activity of the company on the actual innovation performance. The authors carry out an empirical analysis of the characteristic features of innovation activity in an international sample of SMEs.

Findings

The results show that two corporate functions play a crucial role in the effectiveness of innovation for SMEs as follows: management and research and development (R&D). In addition, although of lesser importance, the effect of the marketing function also appears significant. The binary logistic regression had 84.2% of explanatory power.

Originality/value

From a scientific point of view, the SME-focussed, complex and synthesising RBV model of innovation construction and literature review can be used as a reference point for future researches. From a practical point of view, the analysis is useful for those SMEs, which want to gain a competitive advantage through innovation. Indeed, the results show that in the case of SMEs, a company wishing to innovate must invest in three corporate functions for innovation to be effective as follows: management, R&D and marketing.

中文翻译：

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中小企业创新活动基于资源的观点：基于全球竞争力项目的实证分析

目的

这项研究的目的是确定对资源有限的中小企业创新成功贡献最大的公司职能。经过系统的文献综述，作者使用了来自八个国家的784家中小企业的独特原始数据集。描述性统计和二元逻辑回归用于显示数据集的特殊性。逻辑回归的目标是通过11个虚拟变量和描述中小企业不同资源和能力的4个主要因素来确定销售中是否存在创新产品和服务。

设计/方法/方法

作者开发了一种基于资源的产品创新模型，该模型综合了公司资源和能力以及公司创新活动对实际创新绩效的影响。作者对国际中小企业样本中创新活动的特征进行了实证分析。

发现

结果表明，以下两个公司职能在中小企业创新有效性中起着至关重要的作用：管理和研发。另外，尽管重要性较低，但营销功能的效果也很明显。二元逻辑回归具有解释力的84.2％。

创意/价值

从科学的角度来看，以中小企业为中心的，复杂的，综合性的创新建设和文献综述的RBV模型可以作为未来研究的参考点。从实践的角度来看，该分析对于希望通过创新获得竞争优势的中小企业很有用。的确，结果表明，对于中小型企业而言，希望创新的公司必须投资于三个公司职能部门，以使创新如以下所示有效：管理，研发和营销。