Innovation, Entrepreneurship, And Innovation

The purpose of the essay is to discuss on the constraints faced and the steps taken to sustain SMEs’ current and future prospects in Singapore economy. The essay is divided into three broad categories. Category one will cover the overview of SMEs in Singapore. Category two will examine the constraints encountered by the SMEs. The final category will look into potential solutions to address the constraints faced by SMEs.

Considerable confusion exists between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, as well as, innovation, creativity, and invention. First,

An entrepreneur envisions a company from start to finish; an intrapreneur has a much broader vision for an established company. Since an intrapreneur works on solving bigger issues within the

Intrapreneurship, also referred as corporate entrepreneurship, is a key concept in this era of fierce market competition. The start-up philosophy applied to established companies positively promotes change and

Intrapreneur’s are people who create something new but inside an existing company rather than through a new venture. intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurial skills and approaches by or within a company. An intrapreneur is a

At the same time, the Firm also established a global model to support corporate entrepreneurship in the global Level through established formal organization with significant dedicated funds or active influence over business-unit funding. This encourage cross-unit collaboration, build potentially disruptive businesses and create pathways for executives to pursue careers outside their business units. In the past 10 years or more, the firm heavily invested in Research and development and actually established several R&Ds and center of excellence worldwide. Using its dedicated budget, these R&Ds and center of excellence researched and developed innovative services using a technology driven, structured innovation process to select the emerging technologies and translate them to viable solution. The final product of these centers were then rolled-out to the market by spinning-out as a new business for the firm or absorbed by the existing service line as a new business offering to the

To prosper, small enterprises need comfortable business environment and regulations, adequate basic infrastructure services, access to short and long-term financing at reasonable rates, equity and venture capital, advisory support, and knowledge about market opportunities (Lukács, 2005). They typically suffer from weak entrepreneurial skills as well as deficiencies in accounting, production management, and business planning. As small enterprises develop, they increasingly need connectivity to export markets and the world economy (Lukács, 2005).

To understand the key differences between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs in terms of personalities, we should go over three main points which are the person risk-tolerance, personal skills, and the ability to recognize market opportunities.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) have proved to be the dynamo for the many economies of the world. SME helps in creating jobs, driving innovation, growth and economic diversification.

SMEs are a very heterogeneous group. They were in a wide range of business activities ranging from the artisanal production of agricultural products for the rural market, a coffee shop in the corner, an internet café in a small town for a small, complex engineering or software firm sales in foreign markets and medium-sized enterprises sold to multinational manufacturers in domestic and foreign markets. Owners may or may not be poor; Firms operate in a wide variety of markets (urban, rural, local, national, regional and international); the embodiment of different levels of skills, capital, sophistication and growth orientation, and may be in the formal or informal economy. The acronym "SMEs" is used by international organizations like World Bank, WTO and the United Nations. Small enterprises are largely dominated by large companies, as well as many more people. In addition, SMEs are motivated for managing innovation and competition in different sectors of the economy

A simple definition of innovation is the application of new forms or ideas to elaborate different process, products, services or in a broader level changing an entire organization, aiming to increase as well to attribute value to the business. In a competitive industry this value can represent a large contribution to earn market share and competitive advantage, using the capacity to encounter opportunities and detect connections. Competitive advantage can be accomplished by innovation, approaching it in an ample concept, that includes new forms of doing things and technology (Porter, 1990). In other words, as per O’Sullivan and Dooley (2009), innovation is responsible for the company’s growth, which can be dimensioned by profit and turnover. For them, innovation consists in proposing changes for things already established and in this way creates something distinct. They highlight as well that although this is an important topic for various disciplines, the term is vaguely comprehended and often times confused with other topics, for example: creativity, design, invention and change. As already aforementioned in the definition, although there is a misunderstood relating innovation just to technology, the idea is more embracing them that, whereas include not just to develop novel technologies, but also enclose improvement of process, non-technological products and services as well the knowledge for whole Organization. The types of innovation are generally presented as

Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen. (2009) argued that “innovators rely on their courage to innovate, an active bias against the status quo and an unflinching willingness to take risks to transform ideas into powerful impact”. It was interesting enough to see the author’s high score in “coaching and developing people” a personal strength which builds relationships and an ingredient which fosters trust and growth in business because when you invest in people, they become engaged in innovation and entrepreneurship as well as identifying

It is imperative to distinguish between invention and innovation. An invention is the first appearance of an idea for a new product or process while innovation to attempt to put the new idea into practice. It is the transformation of an invention into a new product or process and its commercial and social exploitation. Thus, to turn an invention into an innovation, a firm, requires combining numerous types of knowledge, skills, capabilities, market knowledge, a properly functioning distribution system and sufficient finances. In a firm the sources of innovation can be both internal and external. The former includes research and development, design, tooling up and marketing while the later are capital goods and equipment, consultancy, licences and acquisition of patents and scientific literature

As entrepreneurs, we are expected to transform, motivate, and thrive. We are seen as the movers and shakers of multibillion pound industries. However, one question always remains, how? The answer is innovation. According Joseph Schumpeter, an entrepreneur creates innovation; not only through invention but by competition to improve technology, finance and organization. Innovation in its simplest form is the generation of a new idea and this idea’s implementation into a concrete form. Innovation can appear in the form of an idea, practice, service, or product. In order to characterize anything as innovative, it must be perceived as adoptively original or new within a market. As a principle, innovation is change or the creation of market

Entrepreneurs establish Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), which are playing an increasingly significant role in the global economy. According to the recent statistics of UK, of all private sector businesses, SMEs accounted for 99.3% at the start of 2015; 60% employment at 15.6 million; and 47% annual turnover at £1.8 trillion (FSB.org, 2015). Thus, it is of vital importance to understand how to formulate and operate an SME.