SME innovation and the crucial role of the entrepreneur

In this paper we examine the perceptions of entrepreneurs and other concerned individuals: which factors do they consider critical for success in the innovation process? From the perspective of the respondents, the entrepreneur is the most important factor in the innovation process. Internal aspects dominate not only the list of success factors but also the top of the list. Extemal aspects appear only in the third and even the fourth clusters. A few aspects are believed to be more important for the manufacturing sector than for the service sector. These are unique product advantages, marketing activities, pre-development, competition and collaboration. The subgroups of responding entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs revealed hardly any differences. Nor were there many significant scale differences. Statistically, we may conclude that the entrepreneurs do not consider external circumstances very important aspects of innovation success. They have a rather egocentric point of view, in that they place themselves and the internal process on top (which they are in a position to influence). External aspects follow much later. This attitude obviously entails a considerable risk of over-estimation.