Innovation Management Practice in Irish SME

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Innovation Management Practice in Irish SMEs

• By David Mulligan, Owen OLeary, David
  OSullivan
• National University of Ireland, Galway

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Problem

• 50-80 of projects fail to impact on
  organisational goals
• Lack of propensity of SMEs to innovate
• Lack of resources available to SMEs to innovate
• Lack of planning evident in the SME sector

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Objectives of the research

• Identify the barriers of innovation within SMEs
• Identify the needs and objectives of SMEs to
  innovate more effectively
• Identify potential areas for future development.

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Research Approach
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Hypothesis

• Structures and systems that are available are to
  cumbersome for the small enterprise sector
• Innovation focuses around goals actions teams and
  results and networking.

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Findings

• Lack of goal definition
• Poor project management skills
• Poor goal action alignment
• Human resources are underutilised
• Poor collaboration for knowledge exists
• Poor monitoring of results

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Major outcomes and significance

• Collaborative software developed to support SMEs
  with innovation.
• Innovation planner developed
• Survey developed

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• Absence of best practice.
• Lack of structures and systems for the small
  business sector.
• Under performance in the small business sector
• Innovation areas tend to be predominately led by
  the customer requirements.
• Strong collaboration with knowledge centres and
  state support is needed.

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Acknowledgements

• Enterprise Ireland
• COST-WORTH