Managing innovation during economic changes and crisis: “How small and mid-sized enterprises react”

Abstract

This article considers the situation of small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the European Union during the economic crisis. The purpose is to characterise SMEs of the equipment industry and to localise existing potentials which they can use for new product development as well as to determine how these enterprises currently use these potentials. The analysis illuminates reactions and answers that SMEs of the equipment industry have developed to the global economic changes and crisis during the last years.