SME Innovation – practice and needs, lessons from the PrISMS programme

Innovation management is widely recognised as an integral part of strategic thinking in firms, and has become an area of rapidly growing interest within academia and industry. However, amid calls for practical approaches to support implementation of innovation in smaller manufacturing firms, there is a lack of practice-based knowledge about innovation management in such companies and how it is related to and influenced by their operational strengths and constraints. This paper reviews the innovation practices and needs of seven manufacturing SMEs by drawing on data from outputs of the PrISMS project, a European-funded manufacturing development programme, in the context of the SME innovation literature. Using data from the PrISMS programme we explore how this small group of SMEs approach innovation drawing upon their operational context, looking at their current practices and where they require further support to grow their businesses sustainably