Innovation Leadership in Danish SMEs

The survivability of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been debated heavily for past decades.   Several growth theories have been introduced and have been doing well in guiding SMEs towards achieving their goals, until now. Globalization has rendered these theories moot, as they lack to reflect upon today's developments in innovation.  For this, we propose SMEs to "lead" innovation, i.e. innovation leadership, in order to succeed in today's volatile business environment.  Innovation leadership is a strategic way of thinking and practice innovation that is applicable to all organizations, but especially in SMEs. This is because SMEs are flexible, lightly-structured and thus can adapt to the requirements of the innovation leadership model. Unfortunately SMEs also lack multiple resources that are needed in order to lead innovation. This paper discusses the potential of innovation leadership in SMEs, and how SMEs can persevere despite their small size.