Average life span I e Number of employees of the firm x E Maximum number of employees (according to SME definition) i F Sales (or Turnover) i C3 Total costs of production
Firstly, my special gratitude goes to my supervisor Magnus Klofsten. He has been of great help
Studies related to the 1 SMES are defined as firms with less than 250 employees (NUTEK 2004, p. 15) 14 performance of SMES with a central focus on innovation capacity are limited (Siqueira and Cosh 2008).
and employee turnover, which are expressed differently in the intended model than the existing ones. The existing models are complex tools
the number of employees, the maximum number of employees distinguishing the different categories of enterprises, firm age,
The word size expresses either the number of employees or the amount of turnover. It is a misleading term,
such as firm managers, SME consultants, and individual researchers. The second group consists of individuals who hold key-positions
Empirical evidence shows that countries with higher R&d activities per employee have higher levels of total factor productivity growth (Coe and Helpman 1995.
Companies with larger numbers of employees have a higher survival probability (Mansfield 1962. According to Caves (1998), firm failure rates decline with size, given age.
and how the employees are related 44 to the functions of the firm. The four lines of thinking show the progression of the way organizations have been viewed by scholars over time.
According to Taylor's (1911) approach, each worker is trained specially to perform a single movement or subtask in the manufacturing process.
In the manufacturing sectors, SMES tend to have greater numbers of employees, while in consultancy and other service sectors;
SMES tend to have fewer employees. An alternative approach is to talk about smaller firms and larger firms in a relative sense;
expressed as the number of employees, to the average size of firms in the sector at that point in time.
The first two of these parameters are the number of employees and the firm's age.
maximum number of employees distinguishing the different categories of enterprises (for the firm size parameter)
Same as in (d). 3 The firms studied have less than 250 employees; the data was taken directly from the accounting reports of the firm
it had less than 250 employees; the data was delivered from the firm management for the period of the analysis;
as it had less than 250 employees, 60 and the data was taken directly from the accounting reports of the firm for the period of the analysis. Also,
as it had less than 250 employees; the data was delivered from the firm's management for the period of the analysis;
Contribution of paper 3 to the purpose of the thesis The analysis was performed on a small Swedish fishery that had 6 12 employees.
We used a maximum limit of 50 employees to define a small firm in the case study. The firm's relative size figure varied between 0. 12 and 0. 24.
The company had a work force range of 49 90 employees through the years. Summary of paper 7 This paper is a case study wherein the model is implemented, with the innovation aspects playing a major role in the evaluation of the firm's performance.
The first is case was that of a small fishery firm based in Gothenburg, Sweden, with 6 to 12 employees.
the number of employees, the maximum number of employees distinguishing the different categories of enterprise, firm age,
These expenditures are allocated for costs of material and other accessories as well as costs of manpower involved in developing new products and services at the firm.
The functions of the executive. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard university Press. Baum, J. A c. 1998. Disciplinary roots of strategic management.
Paper prepared for the OECD Directorate for Social affairs, Manpower and Education GERI. IUI w. p. 350b, Stockholm.
Why do some countries produce so much output per worker than others? Quarterly Journal of Economics 114 (1), 83 116.
Productivity, supervision and morale among railroad workers. Ann arbor, Michigan: Institute for Social Research, University of michigan. Katz, J. A.,Safranski, S. R. and Khan, O. 2003.
Management and the worker. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard university Press. Romano, C a. 1999. Identifying factors which influence product innovation:
as well as with the goods market and the labour market (Le Bas, 1995). This process is therefore uncertain,
October 2014 INTERREG IVC analysis report Innovation capacity of SMES Credits Experts for thematic capitalisation on the innovation capacity of SMES Year 1 Eurico Neves
He is one of the most experienced European experts in research exploitation and innovation policy
Séverine Ouvry inno TSD France Séverine Ouvry is an expert in innovation. Her background as a researcher in the United states, where she obtained a Phd in Pharmacology
She joined inno as a consultant in economic development and policy evaluation. http://www. inno-group. com/)The contents of this work reflect the views of the author (s)
The programme therefore asked 12 teams of experts covering 12 different fields of policy to analyse the achievements of its projects
87 4 Executive Summary The innovation capacity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) is a key issue for Europe's competitiveness and growth.
In terms of regional policy, the SME concept is taken generally to mean everything from micro-companies (of only 1 employee) to large companies employing several hundred people
which defines small companies as those with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover below €10 Million,
and medium-sized companies as those with fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover below 50 million.
The same recommendation defines micro-companies as those with fewer than 10 employees and a turnover below €2 million.
'a Policy Brief of the Knowledge for Growth Expert Group advising the then Commissioner for Research,
and business partners Develop strategies for the marketing of innovative ideas Improve the capacities of employees in SMES for RTD
and innovation management through training and the support of experts Weaknesses in networking Lack of internal research capabilities Insufficient marketing of innovation Shortage in innovation management skills Innohubs Address the problem
The European central bank Consultation (2011) 21 of 7 532 firms, 6 941 of which had fewer than 250 employees in
They typically facilitate liaison between private enterprises (notably SMES) and external knowledge/research providers (universities, R&d service providers or private consultants),
Each local design project costs €75 000 for the cost of the office, material, phones, cars, documentation, including salaries for Project manager, Supervisor,
o I-CREO, brings an expert within each SMES'network to seek new business opportunities o RURCED,
insofar as it introduces an expert directly to the supported SMES network to help them find new business opportunities
through the hiring of innovation experts in order to seek, propose and bring new business opportunities to fruition,
The goal of I-CREO was to create a think tank and a network of debate formed by a group of experts for each of the main industrial sectors of the Valencia Region.
Finally, at operational level, support in the management of projects can be provided via the network of IVEX delegations abroad and in Spain and experts in international public procurement.
Fabrica Ethica hinges on the respect for workers, consumer rights and the environment. It encourages an approach based on continuous improvements
Similarly to Innovation assistant, it aims at promoting the employment of recently graduated staff in SMES with no or little experience with graduate employees.
o Accompanied monitoring/evaluation of project by an external consultant. Innovation Assistant is now a key tool in the regional innovation system
This GP draws on a pool of one hundred advisers (technological or generalist) to visit SMES
Innovation Circles and Parenthood (ERIK ACTION), coaching activities through external experts, such as in Innovation Stockholm (INNOHUBS) and Tameside Business Family (MINI-EUROPE) or through the incorporation of new staff in SMES,
) Mercia Fund Mgmt (public-private VC) Fondo Toscana (public VC) Expert Panel (public grants) Lw Sil Trust fund (public VC) R&d
Fabrica Ethica hinges on the respect for workers, consumer rights and the environment. It encourages an approach that is based on continuous improvements
advising and mentoring resource staffed by local experts from the academia and business environment, available for private individuals as well as businessmen and other entrepreneurs,
Finally, at operational level, support in the management of projects can be provided via the network of IVEX delegations abroad and in Spain and experts in international public procurement.
Each local design project costs 75 000 euros for the cost of the office, material, phones, cars, documentation, including salaries for Project manager, Supervisor,
through the hiring of innovation experts in order to seek, propose and bring new business opportunities to fruition,
These recommendations were evaluated then by regional experts for their: Financial burden Organizational efforts Expected effects in increasing regional innovativeness Regional applicability The most applicable policy recommendations were highlighted:
and internationalisation-region or with common needs), allowing them to overcome their limited resources through the contribution of those of the regional intermediary's (either internal or external, e g. through external consultants).
Smart Specialisation the Concept, Knowledge Economists Policy Brief n°9. Knowledge f or Growth Expert Group advising the then Commissioner for Research, Janez Potocnik. 2009.
and Mario Cervantes) and national experts who authored the case studies. Dominique Guellec, Head of the Country Studies and Outlook Division, provided overall guidance and support for the project
Technopolis Group (Patries Boekholt) and the comments received by experts, including Dominique Foray, Philip Mccann, Raquel Ortega, Claire Nauwelaers, Alessandro Rosiello and Michele Mastroeni and Dimitrios Pontikakis.
THE ROLE OF SMART SPECIALISATION 4 OECD 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I SYNTHESIS...10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...
THE ROLE OF SMART SPECIALISATION OECD 2013 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction: From concept to policy framework In November 2009, the European commission published the report Knowledge for Growth,
the results of an expert advisory group to the EU. Tasked with finding an alternative to public policies that were seen to spread public investments in knowledge and innovation research, education, public support to business R&d,
They also point out that smart specialisation depends on good general framework policies (e g. competition, trade policy, labour market policy and education and skills) and horizontal innovation policies (e g.
and rigidities (e g. labour market barriers) that prevent shifts in specialisation patterns. Smart specialisation also draws on the broad economic research on industrial development e g.
While most government response to the ex-post distributional effects of globalisation-driven specialisation focus on social policies such as unemployment and increased worker (retraining,
The quality of institutions such as government institutions (e g. rule of law, competition, security), social institutions (labour-employer relations) also affect factor endowments.
Imperfect competition, product market and labour market conditions can influence the degree of market integration. Industrial policies (e g. taxes and subsidies) can also play a role in shaping the production structure, for good or bad.
In Flanders (Belgium) in the case of FISCH (Sustainable Chemistry) the employers federation Essenscia Flanders developed a business plan for the FISCH initiative,
Industry representatives in Estonia have highlighted that the lack of educated and skilled workers as an important challenge for future growth.
ii) the participation of highly skilled workers in the process, given the increasingly cross-sectoral, cross-technology and cross-border dimension of activities,
including number of employees, number of newly established enterprises, Gross domestic product, and export data per economic sector.
The most appropriate data appear to be OECD's regional labour market statistics. By comparing specialisation indicators over time, changes in scientific, technological or economic specialisations can be analysed.
with a possibility for other industry experts to participate as appropriate. The National Panel is composed of the chairs of the three regional panels, the Managing director and the GRDC's Executive Managers.
Online Delphis with regional and international experts and stakeholders to identify emerging issues and trends, Systemic Foresight Methodology).
or a national level rests with the EU Member states. 2 See also (EC 2011) Final Report on High Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies.
For example, developing labour markets or innovation in a city or in a rural area may not entail the same type of instruments
and experts to work directly on regional development priorities. The role of Universities as a critical'asset'of the region may be even higher in the less developed regions,
with provision for other industry experts to participate as appropriate. The National Panel is composed of the chairs of the three regional panels
as well as a highly skilled labour force. The external connectivity of the cluster is relatively high, for a number of reasons.
Since the inauguration of the photonics industry promotion in Gwangju, the average annual growth rate of production, number of employees and companies are 19.2%,9. 6%and 5. 0%respectively.
The number of employees has jumped also to 8 270 at 377 companies in 2010. Regional and national policies that have been decisive for prioritisation of domains Government action has been decisive for prioritisation of industrial domains.
Producing circa 98%of the 1. 6 million vehicles (2011 findings) produced in Turkey and providing employment opportunities for approximately 45 000 people,
If United kingdom firms and workers can adapt to the shift in production to ultra-low carbon vehicles,
and attracting leading management and research staff workers to the region through lifestyle benefits such as quality education, healthcare and recreational facilities.
Its manufacturing sector is characterised by small firms (e g. less than 200 employees) in comparison to other industrial areas.
7 Start-up centres in Amstetten, Berndorf, Hollabrunn, Krems, Ternitz, Waidhofen/Ybbs and Wiener Neustadt and 17 business parks with about 776 companies and 18 300 employees.
%)In Lower Austria especially small companies(>9 employees) were engaged largely in innovation activities. Still below average are innovation activities in the service sector.
politics and society involved in the strategy setting process, in respect of the overall system by means of communication with experts and STI implementers and via ex-post evaluations.
A large number of the agents participating in the program development (e g. as promoters of power, experts, agents responsible for the process, etc.
closed down their manufacturing facilities and left thousands workers unemployed. The incentive system was adjusted subsequently to target FDI involved in higher value added operations (high-tech manufacturing, R&d, strategic services etc..
Each start-up has its own consultant, who OECD 2013 115 can connect the new entrepreneurs with growing network of mentors and coaches either nationally or from abroad;
As science, technology and labour market for world class experts became global, only global ambitions can lead to sustainable success that makes a region attractive
and skilled workers being a challenge for growth, and underlined that in some key areas in within the IT field there might be as little as two new Phd graduates per year.
including experts and citizens. At the moment all regional policy strategic documents are being updated to be in line with the superior the Development Strategy of the Malopolska Region 2011-2020.
business and government experts to prepare RIS 2013-2020 (the group has been supported by national government experts).
the Malopolska Innovation Council (advisory body for innovation policy) the Malopolska Economic Council (representation of high-level regional experts from business), Joint Commission of INNOVATION-DRIVEN
and iv) Labour market and Education Observatory of Malopolska which focuses on gathering information and improving knowledge of the regional labour market and education.
i) GVA per worker; ii) Employment rate; and iii) Happiness and Health. The PCTI has selected 25 Performance Indicators based on its own strategic objectives of the PCTI.
share of researchers per Working population and iii) Innovation, Innovation expenditure as a share of GDP.
On the contrary, for the Lahti region the lack of skilled workers and research infrastructures is a main bottleneck for its smart specialisation strategy.
The most appropriate data appear to be OECD's regional labour market statistics (e g. number of establishments or number of employees per TL2 region),
An example Figure 3 below shows the RCANS for an anonymous region in 32 industries according to OECD's regional labour market statistics.
OECD regional labour market statistics Combining baseline indicators for specialisations in science, innovation, and economic development By comparing specialisation indicators over time, changes in scientific, technological or economic specialisations can be analysed.
The identified topics can then validated by experts and further analysed using bibliometric methods such as indicators of publication activity
THE ROLE OF SMART SPECIALISATION OECD 2013 169 SMART GOVERNANCE FOR SMART SPECIALISATION STRATEGIES Claire Nauwelaers, independent consultant, Belgium Smart policies need smart governance.
Independent expert assessments are frequent too, and regions indulge more than countries in international benchmarking practices.
and individual offices organize panel brainstorming on future insights with external experts. The results are used as the basis for the strategic choices;
Here the mingling between insights from enlightened entrepreneurs able to spot weak signals, external experts,
or do need regional employers to look abroad for qualified personnel? How do you assess the climate for entrepreneurship in your region?
Does current academic education fit to the needs of the regional economy do regional employers absorb graduates
and participative or rather driven by experts)? Do you have an evaluation system for your regional growth
and resources or would you have to involve external experts? Who is addressing innovation policy in your region (i e. the EU, your national government, the regional government?
and employ 54 per cent of all formal private sector employees (informal employment). According to Terziovski (2010) Small and Medium enterprises (SMES) in the manufacturing sector make a significant contribution to economic growth,
and they use fundamental bases such as number of employees, financial position or annual turnover. However in Zimbabwe, according to Small and Medium Enterprises Institute, SMES are defined as a registered enterprise with employment levels ranging from 30 to 70 depending on the types of industry.
It went on to state that enterprises that are formalized not through a legal structure such as registration in terms of the Companies Act
In a study by Machipisa (1998) he defined an SME as a registered company with a maximum of 100 employees and an annual turnover in sales of a maximum of 830
According to Gaither and Frazier (1999), SMES constantly experience shortages in capital to employee skills to improve production capacity,
1988) for instance, suggested that the smallest firms (20 employees) had the benefit of individualism, the larger firms (50 employees) had the benefit of more resources and systems,
while the intermediate group (20-49 employees) lacked the best of either world. Ettlie and Rubenstein (1987) in support stated that for radical innovations they required additional funds for technical work, capital investment for plant and equipment, marketing and promotions.
They went on to clarify that larger size have a key enabling condition because of access to key resources and addressing these key issues.
Pavitt (1991) raised issues such as flexibility, short communication lines, close relations with customers, motivation of management and labour force, less bureaucracy, little filtering of proposals with strong interest
The initial educational background and prior working experience of the founder (s)/ manager (s) The professional qualifications of the workforce.
At individual level, the capacity included employee empowerment and engagement, trust, training, job rotation, and the extent and range of individual networks.
This was in line with the findings done by Pavitt (1991) he raised issues such as flexibility, short communication lines, close relations with customers, motivation of management and labour force
and culture 3%53%24%0 20%f) incentives for innovative workers 33%40%12%10%0 Results were aggregated in the agreeing
At individual level, the capacity included employee empowerment and engagement, trust, training, job rotation, and the extent and range of individual networks.
Hence innovation in SMES required more than just having the professional qualifications of the workforce. The results also suggest that on the job training is required equally for innovation to succeed in SMES.
and tools for policy makers and transport experts. www. eltis. org to boost the development and wide-scale application of smart technologies in cities by pooling innovations in energy, transport and ICT.
the European commission has set up the Urban Transport Security Expert Working group with a mandate to facilitate cooperation and exchange of experience between national authorities and transport operators.
The emergence of knowledge-intensive services (engineering firms, software houses, knowledge-intensive consultants) plays an important role in this respect.
finally, business administration experts and organisational sociologists discuss the question of how to interpret the far more open business strategies demanded by the network economy in their models 58,59.
experts and laymen; producers and the users of knowledge; different (scientific disciplines; policy and science. 878 R. Smits/Technological Forecasting & Social Change 69 (2002) 861 883 scenario workshops, electronic boardroom systems,
In France, from 1990 to 1992,30. 5%of firms with a number of employees ranging from 20 to 49
and 93%of those with more than 2000 employees were engaged in this process (SESSI, 1996). These results do not mean that SMES are less efficient than big firms. 5 The absence of hierarchical levels
They know that the success of their company is based on the quality of their employees and on their commitments to networks of innovators In this prospect,
In France, about 5%of firms with more than 500 employees benefited from the financial aid. 740 F. Bougrain, B. Haudeville/Research Policy 31 (2002) 735 747 regression model, with the dependant variable,
ownership status and the sectors of production of the innovations (NAF 16) Size and status of firms Employees Regional group Subsidiary of group Totala Sectors 1 9 10
(1 9 employees)- 0. 9152*(-1. 938)- 1. 2468**(2. 536)- 1. 1226**(2. 936) Very small enterprises (10 19
employees) 0. 240 (0. 487) 0. 216 (0. 415) SME (20 49 employees) 0. 1231 (0. 296)- 0. 2114(-0
. 485) SME (50 99 employees) 0. 9406*(2. 002) 0. 7647 (1. 551) 0. 8808*(2. 304) SME (100 250
employees)- 0. 1773(-0. 395)- 0. 3186(-0. 667) SME (251 499 employees)- 0. 4788(-0. 763)- 0. 9574(-1
This 9 The size affects negatively the results of the innovative projects only for very small enterprises (less than 10 employees.
the number of executives employed by the firm; and the existence of a design office.
We decided not to take into account the percentage of executives to employees for SMES with less than 10 employees.
176) Size (number of employees)- 0. 00018 (0. 861) Executives(%)1. 3198(-0. 431) Design office 0. 045+(0. 088) n
F. Bougrain, B. Haudeville/Research Policy 31 (2002) 735 747 745 Table 6 Influence of executives presence on success rate of cooperative projectsa
Project result(%of executives to employees) Success Success rate Failures Failure rate Number of projects From 0 to 5 9 42.9 12 57.1 21 From 5
and the percentages of executives to employees. 5. 3. The contribution of executives to successful collaborative relationships The presence of executives indicates that the entrepreneurial manager delegates part of his power to its subordinates.
Consequently, the presence of executives should increase the success rate of innovation. Our empirical results invalidate
According to regression 2 (Table 4) and to the 2-test (Table 6), there is not a direct link between the result of a cooperative project and the percentages of executives to employees.
when the percentage of executives to employees is larger. This category is heterogeneous. Research and production managers are often at the heart of the innovation process.
Conversely, accountants and other administrative executives do not play a key role during the innovative activity.
In other words, the percentage of executives is only quantitative. It does not give any information on the organisational efficiency of the firms (Perrin, 1991.
We would also need information about executives'educational qualification. This lack of qualitative information is problematic.
Indeed, the level of education influences the receptiveness of executives to external sources and their approach to innovation problems to a considerable extent (Gibbons and Johnston, 1974.
When executives with a high level of education are confronted to a complex problem they recognise if the firm can rely on its own competencies to resolve this problem.
but they contribute to incremental innovations as well as executives. 5. 4. The contribution of design office to successful collaborative relationships The activity of a design office is not as formal as in a R&d department.
We also assume that qualified employees working there are more able to understand information flowing through industrial networks.
One way to achieve this goal is to hire technically qualified manpower. Indeed, our results show that a design office facilitates the use of extensive information networks.
The firms with between 1 and 9, 10 and 19,20 and 49,50 and 99,100 and 250,251 and 499 employees were all independent.
We distinguish regional groups with more than 500 employees whose headquarters is located in the Centre region and subsidiaries of company
whose group employment exceeds 500 employees and is located outside the Centre region. By holding concurrently two criteria, the size of the firm and the ownership status, we avoid the classification discrepancies described by Tether et al.
small firms in the US represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ over half of all private sector employees.
They make up 97.3 percent of all exports and produce 13 times more patents per employee than large firms.
These small businesses make up approximately 29.6 million businesses with 6 million of these with employees.
Thus, it can be seen that small business and SMES are a critical factor in the economic fabric of nations and regions.
This open model has been gaining support due to several factors, such as worker mobility, short product life cycles, globalization and increased competition (Rahman & Ramos, 2010.
small is considered to be fewer than 100 employees, and medium-sized is under 500 employees (Headd & Saade, 2008).
A. Innovation Early research has examined the important role of innovation within entrepreneurship (Schumpeter, 1947. Therefore, in order to measure innovation, several dimensions were included in a twelve-item Likert scale.
B. Performance Frequently used measures of performance criteria include profitability, ROI, number of employees, revenues.
All businesses are under 50 employees, with a majority in both samples of fewer than 10 employees.
TABLE 2 FIRM CHARACTERISTICS SIZE (NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES) Characteristic Range Australian Businesses%(n=201) U s. Businesses%(n=229) Number of Employees Less than 10 From 10 to 20
in order to impact society has significant implications for SME owners/managers, SME employees and the economies in
play an important role in innovation and provide alternative employment opportunities for many subsets of the adult population 2. Innovation in small firms is essential for the continued dynamism of modern economies (Klapper
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