Title: Types of innovation predominant in manufacturing small and medium-scale enterprises in India

Authors: P. Mubarak Rahman; V. Kavida

Addresses: Department of Commerce, Pondicherry University, India ' Department of Commerce, Pondicherry University, India

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify the types and nature of innovation predominant in manufacturing small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in India. Product, process, marketing, and organisational innovations are used as the measure of types of innovation, while the nature of innovation is measured with radical and incremental innovation. A questionnaire is administered to a sample of 390 manufacturing SMEs in India and analysed by using various statistical tools. The study found that marketing and process innovations are the most common types of innovation among SMEs in India and SMEs tend more to focus on the incremental nature of innovation than radical innovation. It also found that medium-scale firms are performing marginally better than the small-scale firms with respect to all types of innovation. The results provide some insight for entrepreneurs to integrate innovation in their business strategies.

Keywords: types of innovation; nature of innovation; small and medium-scale enterprises; SMEs; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2022.124127

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2022 Vol.28 No.3, pp.347 - 364

Received: 31 Aug 2019
Accepted: 14 Mar 2020
Published online: 14 Jul 2022 *

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