INNOVATION IN SMEs - FINDINGS FROM ROMANIA

The present paper has as a starting point the close relationship existing between entrepreneurial activity, innovations and the development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Most SMEs result from implementing the entrepreneurial spirit, through which the entrepreneurs' activity is conducted in different domains. One aspect of utmost importance is the innovation in SMEs as an indicator of the entrepreneurial activity, on the one hand and as a contributor to the organization's performance, on the other hand. Therefore, we will study and analyse the SMEs innovation activity over a period of time as an indication of how entrepreneurship evolved and manifested in Romania as a European country that integrated relatively recently into the European Union. The paper envisages looking at how innovations in SMEs from Romania evolved in the period 2003/2004 - 2010/2011. The innovative activities in SMEs are examined from a dynamic perspective and the analysis is based on the study of a number of aspects related to innovations, such as: types of innovative activities, investments in innovations, the intensity of renewing the existing products, the use of IT, the use of the Internet, etc. Based on these findings, the paper attempts to characterize the innovative activities in Romanian SMEs and their evolution in time with emphasis on the recent period.