Global Economic and Financial Crisis: A Threat for Innovative SMEs

The current crisis is the first of this severity to hit developed countries, since they have shifted to knowledge-based service economies where investment in intangible assets, is of equal importance as investment in machinery, equipment and buildings. SMEs are usually the innovative catalysts of the economy however, as even the big players (states and multinationals) are having trouble tackling with all changes and events - how do small players manage all this confusion? We are all aware of the fact that in many cases governments stepped in the “scene” in order to assist the big players through different measures. They were just “too big” and they could have taken along all others. What about the small players – SMEs in the time of global crisis and their innovative potential? We therefore analysed the impact of the crisis on SMEs and calculated the interconnection (correlation) it had on their innovation potential due to the credit crunch in developed countries.