Contextualisation Method for Measuring the Degree of Innovation in Micro and Small Enterprises

Abstract

The methodologies proposed for measuring the degree of corporate innovation require a relevant selection of indicators. Nowadays, there is a growing number of indicators that can be used to describe innovation management and measure the degree of innovation. However, these indicators only provide a partial outlook of the degree of innovation, being often incomplete. Therefore, it is important to create compound indexes comprising different indicators, weighting factors and coefficients able to contextualise the conditions and characteristics of the elements analysed. This enables an assessment of the importance of contextualising indicators for measuring the degree of innovation based on the influence of different weighting factors and coefficients directly related to the context analysed. In this regard, the present work was aimed at contextualising the tool used for measuring the impact of innovation – INOVA-tec – and draw a comparison with the Innovation Radar for measuring the degree of innovation of a Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE). In addition, the present work developed a new methodological approach focused on contextualising the process for measuring the degree of innovation of business organisations based on the analysis of two MSEs. Both methodologies were applied for the measurement of the degree of innovation of 2 different retail companies from the textile and clothing sector. The results obtained concluded that the adapted version of INOVA-tec allows to contextualise the process of measuring the degree of innovation in MSEs by considering different perspectives and particularities taking into account the context of the companies analysed and the innovation actions implemented. Moreover, it enabled to assess the relevance of the indicators with regards to the value chain or type of service provided, considering different time frames and geographical scopes of the actions and their respective impacts. The adapted version of INOVA-tec also provides a greater range of analysis of the results, with a wider scope of categories which are directly proportional to the weighting criteria, weight ranges and correction factors adopted in the indicators considered. The Innovation Radar, which provided a contextualisation of the indicators analysed, showed an overlap of the degree of innovation between the different profiles of business innovation.