The paper at hand contributes to the field of proximity studies with a focus on social proximity. The paper gives an in-depth discussion of a theoretical and empirical definition of social proximity. Based on this, an argumentation follows why social proximity is of particular importance when...

In the European Union and in Hungary, the food and beverage industry is the leading manufacturing one. By contrast, food industry is seen less innovative compared to other branches of the economy, especially in the European Union. The level of the R&D spending is very low in the Hungarian food...

This study investigates the links between organizational culture, the use of open innovation sources and the performance of SMEs. The main hypothesis of the study is that a special type of organizational culture (termed innovative culture), which fosters creativity, learning and inter-employee...

To innovate, firms constitute a ‘knowledge-capital’, defined as a set of information and knowledge produced, acquired and used in the value creation process. In this paper, we focus on small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and study their ability to develop their own knowledge-capital as...

Purpose: While the value of human capital for technological innovation is well acknowledged, literature on the role of vocational training in corporate innovation is notably scarce. This study assesses the effect of government support for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) competencies on...

This study analyzes the effects of innovation and innovation characteristics on the survival of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the service industry. After analyzing around 22,300 innovative SMEs in Korea's service industry using Kaplan-Meier analysis, it is confirmed that the...

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to examine the justification for encouraging SME involvement in public procurement, as a means to stimulate innovation.Design/methodology/approach: By applying a post-positivistic/non-disciplinary approach the paper combines a narrative literature review of...

This paper attempts to deepen understanding of the relationship between open innovation (OI) and firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on survey data from 306 Korean innovative SMEs, the results of this study show that: (1) broad and intensive engagement in OI and...

Using a recent sample of hi-tech Chinese small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), we examine whether family-owned businesses (FBs) can show better innovative productivity than non-FBs. We find that family firms produce a higher level of innovative productivity, consuming less innovation input...

Hidden Champions (HCs) are small- and medium-sized global market leaders that repeatedly show superior innovation capabilities and economic performance. However, empirical evidence on how the digital transformation may affect their success story remains scarce. I argue that HCs show stronger...