dissertation in pdf-format - Aalto-yliopisto

Author
Tomi Heimonen
Name of the doctoral dissertation
Characteristics of
innovative, high growth and highly successful SMEs
Publisher School of Business
Unit Department of Management and International Business
Abstract
Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto www.aalto.fi
Series Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 26/2013
Field of research Entrepreneurship
Abstract
This dissertation is based on a series of studies that examine characteristics of innovative,
high growth and highly successful small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Previous
analyses emphasise that innovation and growth are the very essence of successful
entrepreneurship. However, despite major investments in attempts to foster innovation, and
intensive investigation of relevant factors, the proportions of SMEs that are innovative, rapidly
growing and highly successful are marginal. Many entrepreneurs fail, and an examination of
relationships between variables, e.g. growth and success, should consider how they are related
across their ranges rather than merely at one end of the ranges of the variables. Moreover, very
few studies have examined simultaneously the influential factors and relationships among
innovation, growth and success.
The dissertation consists of anoverview and four appendedarticles that address two key
questions. Firstly, what are the relationships (if any) between innovation, growth and the
success of firms? Secondly, how could high, innovation-driven growth been supported? These
questions were addressed by applying mixed methods, including regression, discriminant
analyses, logistic regression and case studies. The data were collected using a purposeful
sampling strategy and came from the following sources: 1) the Voitto+ CD-ROM database, from
which 567 growing businesses in Finland were identified – 466 in urban and 101 in rural
areas; 2) a refined sample from these sets of 348 SMEs, 262 located in urban and 86 in rural
areas; 3) a survey of 213 small knowledge-intensive business service firms, 4) detailed
examination of five selected HGS SMEs and 5) interviews with key informants of 12 small
technology-based knowledge intensive business service firms.
The results confirm that there is a positive relationship between innovation and growth, but
negative relationships were found between financial success and both growth and innovation.
Thus, the concepts of growth and success do not appearto be surrogates.The results also show
that successful ventures have no discernible typical characteristics, and HGS firms follow
diverse development paths. However, focused strategies and critical events that trigger
strategic changes generally precede HGS periods of SMEs. Furthermore, the type of ownership
may affect the relative attention paid to maximizing growth and increasing profitability or
other parameters of financial success. The results also indicate that current innovation support
services are insufficiently flexible to provide the support firms need to meet the challenges that
growing innovative firms may face during commercialisation of their technologies and
inventions. The investigations also identified several methodological problems that arise when
analysing characteristics of HGS SMEs, and possible ways to address them.
Keywords Innovation, high growth, high success, SMEs, Finland
ISBN (printed) 978-952-60-5020-1 ISBN (pdf) 978-952-60-5019-5
ISSN-L 1799-4934 ISSN (printed) 1799-4934 ISSN (pdf) 1799-4942
Location of publisher Espoo Location of printing Helsinki Year 2013
Pages 202