Innovation, Creativity and Small Firm Organisation

Abstract

Professor Tom Cannon is head of the Department of Business Studies at Stirling University and director of the Scottish Enterprise Foundation. This paper examines aspects of the ability of small firms to perform the type of role in industrial innovation often ascribed to them. All the firms in the study were in a constant process of adaption to their changing conditions and the corollary of these adaptations was innovation. Many innovations were not dramatic or major but the overall pace and scale was significant. In arriving at innovations relatively little use was made of external relationships, the sole exceptions being trading partners suppliers or buyers. The firms appeared to be highly adept at identifying internal innovations. The role adopted by the chief executive was critical in determining the nature of the organisational environment.