The process of innovation in small and medium enterprises

Abstract

The goal of my master thesis is to introduce the innovation process for small and medium sized companies focusing on the local differences for the CEE region especially for Hungarian SME-s. Motor of this is that the subject and meaning of innovation is often misinterpreted in Hungarian companies that are involved in innovation, there are examples, where even the simple subject of innovation is misinterpreted. This makes the eventual innovations or small steps in this direction worth less, not as valuable as they could be or these might even end up with no appreciation at all on the bottom of some drawer. Result is a solution that in many cases is not as good as it should or could be or that is of very high value but not used effectively enough to create further values for the given company. My believe is that with proper consultation or trainings for the employees or the involved managers working on innovations in the Hungarian companies would cause much more effective, conscious, better organized results of innovation with much more created value. My intension was to work on my master thesis in a way that once it is done it is of educational value for those who had no further education in this subject but are still interested or are involved in innovation processes in their professional life. The thesis itself should be the theoretical fundament of trainings and presentations and shows the broad overview and steps of innovation. These steps are complemented with "spotlights" that show differences between the general approach and the approach for SME-s in the CEE region. These also tell about their challenges, and those differences that might change the general view of the given step. When writing the thesis I used textbooks of Hungarian economics universities and some international literature given much attention to visualization through charts and figures that make the explanation even more understandable. Goal of this thesis would be to introduce the process of innovation in a way that everyone gets to understand it; in a professional way but on an understandable language.