Managers’ accounts of innovation processes in small and medium‐sized enterprises
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
ISSN: 1462-6004
Article publication date: 1 December 2000
Abstract
Fifty managers from five highly innovative medium‐sized enterprises were interviewed in depth about their experience of innovation. In order to deepen and enrich our understanding of these experiences, respondents were asked to reconstruct their insights in narrative form. Following a careful analysis of the transcripts, it was found that three interlocking themes recurred in each of the cases. First, each of the firms had creatively configured their customer relationships in order to secure long‐term resourcing in both financial and knowledge terms. Secondly, they saw innovation as part of their long‐term organisational evolution. Thirdly, they gave priority to human resource development issues, and they viewed this stance as necessary in order to underpin the other two elements.
Keywords
Citation
Barnett, E. and Storey, J. (2000), "Managers’ accounts of innovation processes in small and medium‐sized enterprises", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 315-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006848
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited