Innovation commercialisation and anticipated return: a typology of innovative SMEs

This study presents a typology of innovative small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) based on their anticipated returns to an investment in the commercialisation of an innovation. A large multi-country sample was surveyed in relation to the process of commercialisation. A discriminant analysis identified four distinct groups based on their anticipated returns from the innovation, and how systematic they were in their process of commercialisation. The findings suggest that differences exist between firms in relation to age, size, R&D intensity, preference for project financing, treatment of intellectual property and the novelty of the innovation. Younger firms were more likely to have higher anticipated innovation returns, but a less systematic commercialisation processes. Adolescent firms were more systematic and more optimistic over returns. However, as firms matured and increased in size their commercialisation process became more systematic, but their anticipated returns more subdued. Older firms were both unsystematic and anticipating low returns.