Innovation through Design Strategy: Case Study of SMEs in Bandung

The rise of business in the city of Bandung has caused the intensity of competition to be very high. Small-scale businesses are very difficult to survive especially facing companies that have larger economies of scale. Innovation can be one way for SMEs to compete. Previous research stated that implementing a design strategy can trigger opportunities to create innovation in the company. This study examines how design is used by Soca companies to produce innovation as a strategy to survive in competition. Soca is an SME in Bandung that produces glasses with wood materials. As a startup, Soca is considered successful in penetrating the market amid intense competition. This study uses a qualitative method with a descriptive case study approach. Primary data is obtained through document review, in-depth interviews and observations. The results of this study are expected to be a reference for how design strategies are used by SMEs to generate innovation Keywords Innovations, SMEs, Design Strateg

BUILDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH MARKETING, MANUFACTURING AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT STRATEGY: A CASE STUDY OF METAL PRODUCT SMEs IN TEGAL

This research investigates how the marketing strategy, manufacturing strategy and environment management create SMEs competitive advantage that will improve SMEs business performance. It gives both theoretical and managerial implications about steps must be taken by SMEs to improve their business performance through the competitive advantage gained from the marketing strategy, manufacturing strategy, and the ability to manage the environment. This research includes a data set from 121 SMEs. Results show that the manufacturing and environment management strategy positively affects SMEs competitive advantage, and the competitive advantage also positively affects SMEs business performance. Marketing strategy implemented didn’t affect the competitive advantage. This research proved that for now, the competitive advantage of metal product SMEs in Tegal lay on their ability to create product in accordance with consumers want. Metal SMEs always maintain their flexibility and product quality with competitive prices. To gain the competitive advantage, SMEs must have the ability to adjust with political and economics transformation such as general election or city major and governor transformation. Because of its flexibility, metal SMEs in Tegal can easily adjust with the transformation of political and economical climate. The last thing that must be noted from this research is that metal SMEs in Tegal didn’t implement the marketing strategy well because of the job-order system. The competitive advantage will be more perfect if the company also have superb marketing strategy

A technology framework for the East Midlands 2008-2011

This provides a framework for targeting support for technology development by focusing on a limited number of priority areas and demonstrates a clear understanding of the region's technology strengths to investors, collaborators and policymakers

Review of EU, national and regional innovation drivers

A policy review of innovation drivers in support of the development of the Regional Innovation Strategy

Lisbon Agenda, Regional Innovation System and the New EU Cohesion Policy

The EU’s cohesion policy should now be confluent with the goals of the Lisbon strategy by promoting growth and employment. In this context, the promotion of a concept called regional innovation system has recently become important in the EU for guaranteeing long-term regional economic growth. This paper attempts to explain the determinants of the varying degrees of innovation promotion by the EU from one region to another. Since regional-policy strategies should have been subject to a new orientation towards more innovation promotion, we are particularly interested in whether the EU’s co-financing policy of innovation projects changed for the 2007-2013 program period compared with the 2000-2006 period. According to our empirical analysis, which controls for various determinants of innovation promotion, there has been no significant change in the EU’s regional policy strategy in general. We confirm this result when focusing on less-developed Objective 1 regions, where we would have expected the new policy strategy to show up more pronounced in particular.Lisbon Agenda, regional innovation network, EU cohesion policy

Innovation in Nigerian SMEs: types and impact

This paper seeks to explore the types of innovation that are predominant in SMEs in developing countries and to investigate the impact of these innovations on different dimensions of firm performance based on an industry-wide innovation survey carried out in Nigeria in 2007. Although innovation is important for superior firm performance, our result found that the type of innovation that SMEs pursue is not a critical consideration in their performance. While there was no difference found in the focus of SMEs on either of product or process innovations, evidence showed that SMEs would focus more on incremental product and process innovations. Incremental innovation was found to be very important for Nigerian SMEs and a significant predictor of product quality and not of revenue. The authors conclude that SMEs chooses to pursue such innovations that most fit their strategies and available resources. Such level of innovation affords Nigerian SMEs to more extensively exploit the domestic market but cannot support extensive new product development required to enter export markets.innovation; small and medium enterprises; Nigeria; impact

Strategy and small firm performance

The objective of this study is to contribute to the debate on the relationship between strategy and firm performance, especially for SMEs. The research questions are: Can different strategic groups of SMEs be identified and to what extent does the selected strategy influence the firm performance of SMEs?For the empirical analysis, data from the SME panel of EIM is used. The analysis shows that four distinct groups of companies can be identified: service differentiators, stuck-in-the-middle companies, innovation and marketing differentiators and process differentiators. Companies in the first two groups are relatively small and are less active with strategic issues like planning etc. Companies in the last two groups are relatively large and deal with strategy in a more professional way (written-down strategy, regular updates et cetera). If controlled for size, there are no significant differences in terms of turnover and profit.

The Value of Design-led Innovation in Chinese SMEs

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityThis paper focuses on understanding the role and use of design-led innovation in Chinese SMEs. The insights were gained by undertaking a pilot study, based on an applied developmental research approach involving participatory workshops, quantitative and qualitative positioning activities, in depth case studies and an individual pilot project undertaken with SMEs in the Pearl River Delta [PRD] over an 18 month period. It will discuss the findings, highlighting key areas of uncertainty that SMEs experience when attempting to make the transition from OEM to OBM, and how the findings have contributed to the development of a new design-led innovation framework.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Viewpoint: Design and Engineering Convergence Education in a Korean and Australian Context

Background - In this article, we provide two views on product design engineering education of two design educators from Korea and Australia. We argue that industrial design and engineering design need to be combined in order to support a total design philosophy that aims to improve design education. Therefore, the changing direction of design education for a total design perspective — and Korean and Australian design education — including industry situations are discussed. Product design education in Korea has focused on developing the physical appearance of a product. The concept of engineering design was recently introduced in Korea, and most design schools still belong to art schools. Nowadays, Korean industry is required to develop new businesses in the manufacturing sector, as the industry is facing the situation where ???fast follower??? strategy does not work for sustained growth and ultimately sustained success. This has grabbed the attention of product design engineers who can develop creative designs and materialize the concepts. In contrast, Australia is facing the end of a mining boom as well as a significant decline in automotive manufacturing. This has forced industry to challenge innovation in manufacturing which has generally been made up of SMEs. As such, the role of product design engineering is emphasized. We conclude that product design engineering education with industrial design and mechanical engineering can be primitive to strengthen the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry in both countries. Methods - The views provided in this article were assembled from the existing literature, and based on our current experience of running design engineering convergence education programs in undergraduate and graduate levels. In general, the arguments made in this article are not attracted from theoretical and empirical research. They are rather based on our own perspectives of design engineering education. Thus, the views can be more critically based on holistic analyses of industry situations. Results & Conclusions - In this article, we examine that how a strong and well-defined product design engineering program within a university context can add significant value to the industry. Product design engineering is a hybrid program that combines analytical engineering sciences with creative industrial design capabilities. It provides a platform that can reshape product offerings for companies that seek to diversify or expand into new markets. Product design engineering links seamlessly toward current industry needs by producing creative design engineers at the forefront of innovation and new product development.ope

The relationship between knowledge management and innovation level in Mexican SMEs: Empirical evidence

The transformation of the current society from an industry-based economy to a knowledge management and innovation-based economy is changing the design and implementation of business strategies and the nature of the competition among the organizations which are mainly small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). They struggle to survive in a market which is more demanding and competitive, so they seeknowledge management as one of the most effective strategies that may help to enable the innovation activities into the businesses. For these reasons, this research paper has as a main goal to analyze the relationship between knowledge management and innovation in Mexican SMEs. The empirical analysis used 125 manufacturing SMEs (each SME having from 20 to 250 employees) as a sample to be carried out. The obtained results indicate that knowledge management has a positive impact in products, process, and management systems innovation