Understanding innovation activities of enterprises and their sources is de- finitely easier while being conscious of the specificity of particular innovations as well as their development. According to Tidd, both technological and com- mercial innovation is central to the policy debate of the future of Europe (Tidd, 2006). The above conclusion can be widened onto the micro level where under- standing of why some enterprises are more innovative than the others and what are the crucial factors responsible for this process. The cited author emphasizes also that most innovations are ‘messy’(Tidd, 2006) – this can to some extent explain the fact why it is so difficult to manage innovations in a successful way and, why this process is very much variable – depending, among others, on the type of innovations implemented and the external conditions for this process. In the table below an attempt has been made to group particular sources for inno- vation activities of companies.
Selected determinants and their influence over business innovativeness 97 Table 1 Selected elements influencing business innovativeness
Group of factors Factors Potential influence Enterprise related Business specificity
Development strategy of an enterprise Managers approach towards innova-
tion management
This group of factors seems to be relatively easily influence by the
company
Its impact is to an extent dependent on the managerial approach to- wards development by innovations Technological
development
Depending on the type of innovations implemented
Opportunities for financing R&D works within the enterprise
Of strong influence in case of technological innovations (product
and process) requiring constant R&D works
Strong need for financing R&D activities
Sector/market related
Competition in the market Influence of business environment
Bargaining power of custom- er/suppliers
Threat of new entrants/substitute products
Location and its influence over the enterprise
Apart from the impact of factors such as: new entrants, suppliers and
competitive companies offering new products or substitutes, the influence of a location over inno- vative activities is worth consider-
ing
Economy related Legal/social/cultural constraints State policy towards innovation R&D financing by the government
and business sector
Business having no influence over them
Source: own study based on: (Tidd, 2006).
Study of the factors listed in the table above may lead to asking the ques- tion about the relation between activity within innovation and: 1. the size of a company; 2. the specificity of a region where the enterprise is located. At this point, the thesis initially set by J. Quinn is worth citing. The author initially claimed that small companies have often been observed as more innovative than the big ones (Quinn, 1986, p. 2). However, based on the study conducted (Quinn, 1986), the main barriers for innovation implementation have been iden- tified (Table 2).
98 Joanna Sadkowska
Table 2. Selected barriers to innovation – case of big and small companies
Barrier Existence and impact in case of
big companies small companies Top management
isolation
Rather than in small companies where there are direct ‘links’ between top man-
agement and the operational level Intolerance of
fanatics Rather to appear in big companies Short time hori-
zons
Seem to appear and be dependent rather on the top management strategy than the type of company- more ‘person’ than ‘company’ typical factor Accounting
practices
May be more formalised in case of these enterprises
Excessive bu- reaucracy
The stepladder system may be a serious barrier in the implementation of innova-
tions
The barrier can be the lack of consciousness of companies
managers Inappropriate
incentives
As innovation is regarded as a chaos bringing, this factors seems to be de- pendent on the business strategy, especially approach towards risk and its
management
Financial con- straints
Definitely can block innova- tion implementation in small firms- due to lack of sufficient
financial resources and also opportunities to get proper
financing. Consciousness
regarding innova- tion
Depending on the knowledge and consciousness of top managers and their approach towards management by innovations, rather than on the size of
a company
Development strategy
Also, like the factor above, is to a high extent correlated with the develop- ment strategy – however due to financial resources that can be dedicated to implementing innovative projects, most probably easier to introduce in big
firms.
Lack of external resources
Lack of sufficient resources, including financial one, is, in most cases, typical of small
businesses – and for this reason being one of the most serious barrier to innovations. Source: own study based on: (Quinn, 1986, pp. 7–8).
Selected determinants and their influence over business innovativeness 99
Studying information from table 2, one of the potential barriers – financial constraints – is worth paying attention to. The influence of this factor is remark- able especially in case of small and medium companies, which, very often, can- not implement valuable new solutions, due to limitations within financing. On the other hand, this particular element, causes that small enterprises more and more often concentrate on the implementation of non-technological innova- tions, which are, either, closer to their activities profile, or, require less expendi- tures – on the contrary to technological product and process innovations which are most capital – intensive.
2. POLISH INNOVATIVE ENTERPRISES – A BROAD LOOK AT THEIR