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1、Postgraduate Research MethodsAssignment Two - Research ProposalName:Wei XiongStudent Number: 089170959Programme:Innovation, Creativity and EntrepreneurshipIndicative subject area: Technological innovationShowcase:Huaguang Electronics Co. LtdWorking Title: Study on the evaluation of technological inn
2、ovation capability of small and medium enterprises1. IntroductionWith the rapid development of the modern society, small and medium enterprises (SME) have played an important role in promoting economic growth and expanding employment. It is estimated by the research of China Briefing (2019) that cur
3、rently there are approximately 42 million SMEs in China. While they are separately accounting for the proportion of the whole industrial enterprises as following: households accounted for 98.5%; employment accounted for 69.5%; total assets accounted for 4.85%; sales accounting for 57.1%; industrial
4、and commercial taxes accounted for 43.2%. Therefore according to the figures it can be seen that SMEs not only have played a significant role in increasing economic incomes and expanding employment of China, but also they are forces of promoting the market economy and nurturing a large number of ent
5、repreneurs. In fact, most of worlds leading companies become developed from the growth of small business through technological innovation. Such as Hitachi Company in Japan only began with engaging in import of electrical repair work for small electrical repair factory, they rapidly grow into world-c
6、lass enterprise through technological innovation in video and telecommunication equipment. (Hitachi, ltd, 2019) Furthermore, the British tableware industry was impacted by imports tableware and cutlery industries almost wiped out in 70s of 20th century, but. Richardson Sheffield has benefited from t
7、he product innovation and process innovation in a long-term objective that the tableware in key technological areas had set up an enterprise core competency. (Cope, 1994) Therefore it has grown from a small tool business growth to the leaders of tableware industry There is no doubt that the success
8、of these enterprises can be attributed to technological innovation, which is the most important driving force for the development of SMEs although firm size, assets and other factors are parts of competitive advantage in the market economy. Thus more and more entrepreneurs of SMEs have realized that
9、 the improvement of technological innovation abilities is a crucial factor for enterprise survival as well as their own rapid development. Unfortunately, many SMEs deemed that introducing high-tech talents and investing funds on Research and Development is an effective way to improve technological i
10、nnovation capability without focusing on their own specific situation. (Kumar, 2019) As a result, it may lead to a waste of resources. Therefore it is necessary to correctly evaluate technological innovation capabilities in different companies by identifying key success factors and weaknesses which
11、targeted responses to those problems. At this time, technological innovation capacity assessment is not just a simple collection of information but an evaluation of promoting capabilities of technological innovation in SMEs. In view of above reasons, this proposed research will hope to make some use
12、ful exploration by the evaluation of technological innovation capability in SMEs.2. Literature review2.1. The origin of technological innovation theoryAdam Smiths Wealth of Nations can be a masterpiece on the relationship between technological progress and economic growth. (Smith, 2019) His central
13、idea is: the countrys wealth depends on the division of labour, which may be benefit for certain mechanical inventions. In that case, it will reduce labour input in the production for the sake of productivity. Consequently, technological progress is another important factor in promoting economic gro
14、wth other than capital and labour force.J.A. Schumpeter had established his innovation theory on the status of economic development as the prerequisite. He understood that economic development is a change which is not imposed by external forces of economic system, but generated from its inner econom
15、ic system within a spontaneous and discontinuous change, which is technological innovation. (Gedam, 1989) Specifically, its essence is that entrepreneurs re-combine factors of production in order to obtain the potential profit. But the profit can be acquired only through the innovative activities of
16、 enterprise or entrepreneur. In Schumpeters view, the capitalist economy will be developed due to innovation. When innovations appeared, it would inevitably lead to a wide range of social imitation resulting in innovate waves and clusters, which may raise economic development and prosperity. Further
17、more, the economic development caused by innovation is discontinuous and unbalanced. As a result, it embodied the alternation of booms and busts. At this point, the development of the capitalist economy is based on cyclical fluctuations.According to an idea that innovation is a process of involving
18、a new combination of production factors that it never existed before. Meanwhile, it is an introduction of production systems in order to obtain excess profits. (Siegel, 2019) Schumpeter summarized innovative combination as following five methods: (1) introducing new products or improving quality of
19、current products; (2) the adoption of new production methods or producing processes; (3) opening up a new market; (4) developing and using new raw materials or semi-finished products; (5) introduction of a new organizational management. Schumpeters innovative concept includes a wide range of technol
20、ogical innovation theory in later researches.2.2. Definition of technological innovationAmerican economist Mansfield (2019) believed that technological innovation is a first practical application of invention or technology. British science and technology strategist Freeman (2019) regarded that techn
21、ological innovation means new products, processes, systems or services in the first commercial transformation. U.S. National Science Foundation noted that technological innovation is the latest and improved products, processes or services involving into the market. Therefore technological innovation
22、 will be positioned as follows: Technological innovation is an integrated process of scientific, organizational, commercial and financial activities for entrepreneurs to seize potential profit opportunities of the market in order to obtain commercial interests as their goals. (Shavinia, 2019) At the
23、 same time they may re-organize production conditions for the sake of establishing more efficient and less expensive production and management systems. Then it would be easy to launch new products and production methods as well as open up new markets. Taggart (1994) suggested that technological inno
24、vation refers to new ideas which are from a practical application of technology through R&D generate economic and social benefits of the commercialization.2.3. Capability of technological innovationSome studies considered that technological innovation capability is some conditions that companies cou
25、ld process innovative activities by adequately utilizing human resource, financial supports and other material resource in business enterprises conditions, which had formed an important part of technological innovate capability of enterprises. (Uliijn, 2019) Meanwhile, the same resources of human an
26、d finance cannot guarantee the results of entrepreneurial innovation in technology because all of resources in an enterprise can only be a potential form of innovative capability. When firms use these resources for the business services with achieving business goals, they are the real technological
27、innovation.Terziovski (2019) believed that technological innovation capability of enterprises is a comprehensive range of features to facilitate business strategy of technology innovation for organizations. Moreover, it also includes allocation of available resources, understanding of the industrys
28、development and technological development as well as the management of structural, cultural and strategic conditions. In addition, technological innovation is the core ability to master professional knowledge, technical systems and managing capacity of enterprise values. 2.4. Elements of technologic
29、al innovationTechnological innovation capability of enterprises is a comprehensive system which is consisting of a number of elements to fulfil and complete technological innovation conditions. (Fritsch, 2019) From the view of organizational behaviour, it is an interaction of accessing to group orga
30、nization, adaptability, innovation and technology. In addition, it can be regarded as available resources on the understanding of competitors, environment, and organizational structure changes as well as ground-breaking strategies. From organizational resources, capability of technological innovatio
31、n can be decomposed into technological input (including research and development personnel, funds and patents) and business activities within social supports, which is for internal innovation of enterprises. (Dundar, 2019) As activities of enterprise technological innovation, the capability is a com
32、bination of senior technicians skills, technical systems, management skills and organizational values.According to specific types of technological innovation, it is an overall function of the systematic combination in product innovation and process innovation. From the process of technological innov
33、ation, it can be analyzed that the way to achieve technological innovation is divided into resource acquiring, innovative management, innovative orientation, R&D capabilities as well as products manufacturing and marketing capabilities. (Meckl, 2019) Owing to the difference in configuration and usin
34、g condition as an evaluation criterion in different organisations, innovations of technology, products and production process as economic resources can be integrated in grasping opportunity of the market, technical design and development capabilities, manufacturing capacity, scale-up production, mar
35、ket information and feedback as well as product updates.2.5. Technological innovation in SMEsCorsi (2000) not only researched the relationship between technological innovation and market structure, but also studied the internal transaction costs on innovation. Therefore compared with large enterpris
36、es, innovation advantages of small business at least can be summarized as the following: (1) To the advantages of technological innovation for SMEs. He believes that large companies are more complex than small businesses in management structure. Under normal circumstances, large enterprises tend to
37、be more conservative in decision-making compared with the small businesses. Bureaucracy in big business is not conducive to innovation and risk investment but leaders in small business are more conducive make innovative decisions for rapid changes in the market. (2) Relaxed regulatory environment en
38、ables innovation activities easy to carry out in SMEs because sometimes the administrative hierarchy in large enterprises often stifles innovation and passion of researchers. Meanwhile, the best incentives for researchers are often to being transferred to managers in large enterprises, but small bus
39、inesses may deem innovation for staffs as their core competitive strategy that SMEs might often show a higher enthusiasm in innovative activities because large enterprises paid insufficient attention to small and less important innovations.However, from the frequency distribution in innovative activ
40、ities, particular large enterprises and did not show a clear advantage. Therefore there is no relationship between the interval of application in innovation and the firm sizes and scales so that SMEs may invest less in carry out their own technological innovation with the knowledge of R & D inputs i
41、n universities and large companies. (Walsh and Niosi, 1995) In addition, innovation of enterprises tends to be declined with the increasing innovative concentration. In a not perfectly competitive market, the innovative advantages of large enterprises are obvious in the early industry growth that in
42、novation and the use of skilled labour are relatively adequate in some important industries. However in an almost perfectly competitive market, small and medium enterprises could show their advantages of technological innovation in innovation strategies, which can offset inherent disadvantages in so
43、me extent and assist SMEs enhancing their innovative vitality.3. Research question and aimsThis proposed research is going to explore a systematic evaluation to scientifically, objectively and effectively evaluate the technical innovation capability of SMEs. As far as it mentioned above, through sum
44、ming up both successful and failed experience of technological innovation enterprises could maintain and enhance their competitive advantage. Therefore this project is designed to give some ideas and feasible methods to strengthen the management of technical innovation within increasing investment f
45、or improvement of innovative mechanism while taking reasonable strategies of technological innovation with sustainable researching and developing capability of SMEs. Meanwhile, this proposed research will focus on investigating weaknesses and strengths in abilities of technological innovation within
46、 SMEs. According to a critical analysis, entrepreneurs may find out the insufficiency of their organizations and continuously improve their overall quality and efficiency as well as management mechanism, in order to survive and develop in a fiercely competitive environment.4. Proposed methodOn the b
47、asis of analyzing and summarizing the research results from international scholars, firstly the proposed research will define enterprises technological innovation ability in terms of course to analyze the composition key elements and characteristic of technological innovation ability and researches
48、the innovative characteristic of SMEs. As can be seen from the above study, the innovative in small and medium enterprises does not mean that they are able to transform their innovative capabilities into improvement of profits. From the factors which affect the profitability of SMEs, R & D investmen
49、t is not a prominent indicator in technological innovation. On the contrary, contributions made by technology managers and employees as well as product plans and marketing concerns are profitability and growth in competitiveness and marketing capabilities for SMEs. Steil (2019) had shown that the internal factors of technological innovation for SMEs are qualified scientists and engineers as well as the impact of their knowledge on employees. Another important facet is the outstanding leadership of a highly educa