Bridging the Innovation Gap by Daniel Huber Heiner Kaufmann & Martin Steinmann

Author:Daniel Huber, Heiner Kaufmann & Martin Steinmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

5.6 The Organization of Innovation in Small Enterprises

We have so far presented our organizational considerations from the perspective of a corporate environment. There are two reasons for this. First, our findings are especially relevant to large enterprises. Second, the organizational consequences can be vividly illustrated in the case of larger enterprises. This is because major changes in large enterprises always go hand in hand with changes in their organizational structures and in their (often sharply defined) processes. Such changes are therefore easy to represent.

The question now arises as to how our results can also be applied to small or medium-sized enterprises. Smaller enterprises have comparatively streamlined organizational structures and the smaller they are, the more general and the more informal their processes tend to be. While one-person businesses at the lower end of the size scale have exactly one organizational unit, namely, the head of the company, and no formal processes, they still need to execute all of the functions of an enterprise, including production, sales and bookkeeping. And given that this naturally also applies to innovation, we’re left to consider what structure is to be adopted. This structure is achieved via time management (in contrast to large enterprises where the structure is achieved via employee roles). In one-person enterprises, the organizational structure is achieved via time management only. Specifically, it is important to ensure that enough time is available to address such a non-operational subject as is innovation. The result can be generalized for all smaller and larger enterprises alike. As illustrated in Fig. 5.25, the smaller an enterprise is, the more likely it will be that structure is achieved via time management. And the larger an enterprise is, the more likely it will be that structure is achieved via employee roles.

Fig. 5.25Organizational structure based on time management and employee roles

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