The innovation practices of manufacturing companies in a period of economic turbulence: the Greek case

The purpose of the study is to validate the factorial structure of innovation practices identified in the literature and evaluate their implementation level in manufacturing companies operating in circumstances of economic downturn and financial crisis. A research study was carried out in a sample of 233 Greek manufacturing companies operating in a business environment where a financial crisis has dominated for at least four years now. Data were obtained from the Chief Executive Officer of the companies through a structured questionnaire. Exploratory Factor Analysis is applied in order to extract the latent factors of innovation practices, while their validity is confirmed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The level of the innovation practices implemented by the companies is determined through descriptive statistics. The analysis of the empirical data from small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises strongly confirms the conceptual structure of company innovation which consists of four dimensions, namely product, process, marketing and organisational innovation. The level of adoption of the four dimensions of innovation by the sample companies is deemed high, though not, however, excellent. Thus, the sample companies can put additional emphasis on innovation. In doing so, innovation may be a key factor in a company's efforts to overcome the negative effects of the current economic downturn and financial crisis.