Organisational Innovation in SMEs: The Role of Partnerships

In automotive sector, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) usually have lack of resources and all the legal and financial restrictions involved in this process are additional barriers imposed. In order to survive, SMEs in this sector can turn to the formation of partnerships with other firms and even innovate organisationally. Given the shortage of studies showing the role of inter-firm partnerships in the implementation of organisational innovation activities within the SME sector, this paper seeks to contribute to the field of SME management. In this way, the central question to be answered is: Will the formation of partnerships have an influence on the organisational innovation process? To achieve this objective, quantitative cross-section research was adopted, resorting to a questionnaire directed to owners-managers of a sample of SMEs in the automotive sector in Portugal. Based on the empirical evidence, the study concludes that the motives for partnership formation influence the implementation of organisational innovation activities, but only partially, as of the four factors of motives for partnership formation (efficiency, innovation and learning, market opportunities, technology and competition) only technology and competition showed a positive and significant influence on organisational innovation. In terms of theory, this study contributes to the field of research on SMEs in the automotive sector. It pursues a new approach applying variables related to partnership formation in general, and among SMEs in the automotive sector in particular. Some scales on the motives for partnership formation and the organisational innovation process were also implemented in this specific context of analysis. In practical terms, the results show the extent to which the motives for partnership implementation, such as those connected to technology and competition, have a strong influence on organisational innovation activities.