Management & Marketing no. 4/2006

R&D - Strategic elements for innovation and market success

prof.univ.dr. Alfred Spielkamp,
University of Applied Sciences Gelsenkirchen

Christian Rammer,
Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim

Abstract. Innovation management in SMEs means not only the operational control of processes, but also the strategic management of the company. A fundamental component of strategic innovation management is the long-term decision to innovate, which is accompanied by the need to establish structures and to provide resources for the acquisition of technology. Therefore, continuous research and development (R&D) is decisive in driving the success of the innovation process onto the market.
The empirical analyses of R&D management and innovation success in SMEs uses data from the Third and Fourth Community Innovation Survey (CIS3 and CIS4), and discusses the following topics: firstly, some descriptive statistics on R&D in European SME's, and in this context a brief discussion of R&D as a core business competence; secondly, the determining factors of R&D in SME's; finally, the influence of R&D on market success.

Keyword: Innovation Management, Small Business Strategies, Strategic Management, Research and Development (R&D)

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