Innovation and Creativity in SMEs

Introduction

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (or SMEs) have always been part of the economy in various forms (rural, family, craft, small production units, etc.). They have even historically been the spearhead of many countries’ economies: Italy, Japan, Portugal, Argentina, France, etc. (Marché et organisations 2017). Today, they represent between 95% and 98% of companies in the world¹ (Marchesnay 2015). Although their influence should be put into perspective in view of the very large number of microenterprises within them, their overall socio-economic contribution should be highlighted. Indeed, it is an organizational form that can be considered decisive, particularly for growth, territorial development, sustainable development or the strive against unemployment (Boutillier and Uzunidis 2015). However, with few exceptions, it has long been neglected in the scientific literature, to the benefit of large companies.

Schumacher’s (1974) book, Small is beautiful, marks a first turning point. Then, it was the crisis of the 1980s that played a major role in the recognition of SMEs (Lescure 2001; Marchesnay 2015; Judet 2017). It was also necessary to rely on the influence of a few militant authors like Michel Marchesnay and, later, Olivier Torrès in France, as well Pierre-André Julien in Quebec. In the 1990s, we even witnessed a certain enthusiasm. In 1993, for example, French-speaking researchers (Quebec and France) published an overview of knowledge specific to SMEs², which ...