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CompaniesFRANK JANSSEN (UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN)The Majority of SMEs InnovateNewsflash: themajority of SMEs areinnovating! Every twoyears, researchershold a conference totake a better look atthis phenomenon.Recently, the eventwas hosted inLouvain-la-Neuve.Dynamisme went tofind out more.by Madeleine DEMBOURWallonia is a land of SMEs but equally aland of innovation, as we have learntfrom the special report (see pages 22)in this international issue focusing on40 innovative products.To place these innovations within an academiccontext, we went to look around the Universityof Louvain, where the InternationalFrancophone Conference on Entrepreneurshipand SMEs was held at the end of October2008. Every two years, this Conference bringstogether almost 250 researchers andprofessionals of more than 15 differentnationalities. This is a special occasionbringing together mainly the academic world,but also consultants, government officialsand, of course, entrepreneurs.For the 2008 edition, the Louvain School ofManagement proposed the following theme :“The Entrepreneur and the SME: Vectors ofChange and Innovation”.What were the reasons behind the choice of thistopic? As the organizers explain, the economistJoseph Schumpeter had already pointed outthat the majority of innovations come fromSMEs: “the majority of SMEs are innovating.Innovation depends upon both internal andexternal resources, and the entrepreneur, theinternal resource par excellence, plays a centralrole in this process.”With more than ninety different scientificcontributions, the conference revealed thestate of the art in terms of our understandingof these issues. In addition to the centraltheme, academics and professionals alsopresented contributions focusing on SMEs andentrepreneurship in general.SMEs as vectors of changeAt this university of over 21,000 students,over 20% of whom come from overseas, wemet with Professor Frank Janssen, whoteaches entrepreneurship at the LouvainSchool of Management and was President ofthe organizing committee of the 2008conference.“Innovation is an old topic for researchers!” heexplains. “In particular, we have beenaddressing the issue of whether mostinnovations come from SMEs or from a largecompanies for some time. Thereis really nounanimous answer to this question. In theend, we think that SMEs are more productivein terms of innovations, i.e. more efficient pereuro invested. And there is no doubt thatinnovation has its source on the ground, whichfavors SMEs where the way from the bottomto the top is shorter.”In concrete terms, we should remember thatit can be difficult to capture innovation inaccounting terms. Should we look at R&DIT CAN BE DIFFICULTTO CAPTUREINNOVATION INACCOUNTING TERMS.SHOULD WE LOOK ATR&D EXPENDITURE?THE NUMBER OFPATENTS FILED? THENUMBER OF PEOPLEWORKING ONRESEARCHPROJECTS?Franck Janssen(Louvain School of Management)14. Dynamisme December 2008