Provided by:
EIM Business & Policy Research
Topic:
SMBs
Format:
PDF
Innovative high-tech Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) are thought to be drivers of economic renewal and growth. However, due to their limited size, SMEs face two fundamental innovation barriers: the risk that other organizations appropriate the returns to the newly created knowledge by SMEs (knowledge leakage), and a lack of understanding and recognition of their business on the part of potential stakeholders (legitimacy deficits). Based on a panel study of 196 SMEs this paper shows that biotech, ICT and clean tech firms choose different strategies to deal with knowledge leakage and legitimacy deficits.
