Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Meysam Poorkavoos, Yanqing Duan and John Edwards
consisted <strong>of</strong> two parts. The first part was testing <strong>the</strong> questionnaire which interviewees were asked to
answer <strong>the</strong> questions and provide comments if <strong>the</strong>re is any problem in responding to <strong>the</strong>m. The
questions in <strong>the</strong> second part were designed in a way to understand what o<strong>the</strong>r factors contribute to
different types <strong>of</strong> innovation, what managers think about different types <strong>of</strong> innovation, its usefulness in
<strong>the</strong>ir business, <strong>the</strong> barriers for <strong>the</strong>m for being innovative, and questions about some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> social
network characteristics.
Table 1: Interviewed companies' pr<strong>of</strong>ile
Company Name Interviewee Position
Number <strong>of</strong>
Employees
Products and Services
ACU Managing Director 21-50 S<strong>of</strong>tware and market research
CGCO Production Manager 21-50
SW Managing Director 1-9
EFM Managing Director 21-50
Customized online assessments for
organizations
Design and development <strong>of</strong> bespoke
s<strong>of</strong>tware application for businesses
Financial management outsourcing
business
BBA Managing Director 1-9 Procurement for essential utilities
5. Pilot study analysis
5.1 Understanding factors affecting innovation
Thematic analysis on interview data provides rich information and in-depth understanding on several
important issues associated with <strong>the</strong> current practice and factors related to <strong>the</strong> innovation in SMEs.
Following <strong>the</strong>matic based discussions are based on <strong>the</strong> pilot interview analysis.
Barriers: One objective for pilot study is identifying o<strong>the</strong>r factors that contribute to firms’ innovation
performance. To address this objective interviewees have been asked to list <strong>the</strong> barriers and
resources for <strong>the</strong>ir innovation. All <strong>the</strong> interviewees listed cost and resource as <strong>the</strong> main barriers for
innovation in <strong>the</strong>ir company, for example:
“One is <strong>the</strong> cost <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> innovation, and <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r is <strong>the</strong> space that you need for innovation
[…] so you’ve got to create space for people to innovate. They [employees] got a busy
diary and doing lots and lots <strong>of</strong> things it requires space for <strong>the</strong>m to have <strong>the</strong> intellectual
capacity to do things”. (Interviewee 1)
“Financial I would say is <strong>the</strong> main barrier. We struggle to find <strong>the</strong> funds to invest in our
innovative ideas”. (Interviewee 3)
Resources for Innovation: Regarding to resources for innovation almost all <strong>the</strong> interviewees agreed
that partners, customers and managers’ experience are <strong>the</strong> most important resources for new ideas
and innovation in <strong>the</strong>ir company. Interviewee 2 mentioned
“We have a big partner relationship with <strong>the</strong>m. It is a global consultancy firm. So we use
some idea from <strong>the</strong>m…” (Interviewee 2)
“Can be talking to our customers, <strong>the</strong>y might have <strong>the</strong> idea want us to implement, or we
can see some opportunities for something that we can do for <strong>the</strong>m that we might also sell
to somebody else”. (Interviewee 3)
One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> managers mentioned that <strong>the</strong>ir R&D team is very important in <strong>the</strong>ir innovation and ano<strong>the</strong>r
manager pointed out using forums and online resources are important for him in finding new ideas or
making changes in <strong>the</strong>ir current processes or services. They specially have been asked about <strong>the</strong>
factors that help in radical innovation and incremental innovation. Almost all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m mentioned <strong>the</strong>
same factors are important in both radical and incremental innovation. Regarding incremental
innovation, one manager mentioned
“It is kind <strong>of</strong> similar but <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r important things with incremental innovation is to have
ways <strong>of</strong> listening to your customers to get feedback so to find out from <strong>the</strong>m what <strong>the</strong>y
would like different”. (Interviewee 4)
Regarding radical innovation, ano<strong>the</strong>r manager mentioned
“I think listening to our customers is ano<strong>the</strong>r thing that let <strong>the</strong> idea to come into <strong>the</strong>
organization and <strong>the</strong>n come up with some radical ideas”. (Interviewee 5)
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