CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SMES DURING THE SEARCH FOR DISCONTINUOUS INNOVATIONS

The present paper illustrates, through three Danish/Dutch case studies, how several of the characteristics connected with SMEs entail significant reasons to make use of corporate entrepreneurship as a search strategy for discontinuous innovation. Characteristic dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship are researched, and pro-activity, risk-taking and autonomy are in particular found to be significant elements of the approach applied. The way these dimensions are implemented, counterbalances the resources constraints in terms of human, social and financial capital found in the SME setting. Competitive aggressiveness is found to be only indirectly influential as a way for the case firms to stay ahead of other firms by knowing what developments are made on shared technologies or part components