Innovation Management Practice in Irish SME’s

By: David Mulligan, Owen O’Leary, David O’Sullivan

National University of Ireland, Galway

Problem

50-80% of projects fail to impact on organisational goals

Lack of propensity of SME’s to innovate

Lack of resources available to SME’s to innovate

Lack of planning evident in the SME sector

Objectives of the research Identify the barriers of innovation

within SME’s

Identify the needs and objectives of SME’s to innovate more effectively

Identify potential areas for future development.

Research Approach

IdentifyProblem

ReviewLiterature

ShapeHypothesis

AnalyseCases

DevelopScorecard

ValidateScorecard

PHASE 1: Background PHASE 2: Induction

PHASE 3: Development

PHASE 4: Validation

IdentifyProblem

ReviewLiterature

ShapeHypothesis

AnalyseCases

DevelopScorecard

ValidateScorecard

PHASE 1: Background PHASE 2: Induction

PHASE 3: Development

PHASE 4: Validation

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.

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

012

34

5Goals

Actions

Teams

Results

Collaboration

Infrastructure

Case A

Case B

Case C

CaseD

Major outcomes and significance

Collaborative software developed to support SME’s with innovation.

Innovation planner developed

Survey developed

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.

Acknowledgements Enterprise Ireland COST-WORTH