The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay
Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Marketing Planning
Part 2: Essay – Individual Assignment
The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs
Introduction
Entrepreneurial SMEs have the paramount role of recognising opportunities and issues, as well as executing, designing, and investigating innovative solutions through innovation and creativity ventures to lead, expand, and remain competitive in these ever-increasing dynamic business environments. The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay. Notably, these dynamic business environments primarily drive entrepreneurial SMEs to enhance their capacities to solve future and current issues in valuable and novel ways through innovation and creativity ventures (Lazzeretti & Vecco, 2018). Most importantly, many entrepreneurial SMEs nowadays have gradually grown their interest in exploring new, collaborative efforts to gather creative ideas access due to an ever-growing pressure to innovate (Mumford & Todd, 2020). This individual assignment will critically discuss the role innovation and creativity play in the development and success of entrepreneurial SMEs.
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According to Mazla et al. (2019), entrepreneurial SMEs, innovation, and creativity play an integral role during the launch of each innovative service and product, especially when combined with advanced technology. It is imperative to note that entrepreneurial SMEs are regarded as a major economic development factor because they play fundamental roles in the economy. Innovation and creativity have also gradually become crucial when enhancing the entrepreneurial SMEs’ value. OECD (2018) further notes that innovation is crucial because it entails making a particular process, which can eventually be utilised to gain an idea or convert an invention to become a more valuable and marketable service or product The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay. On the other hand, creativity dramatically improves an existing business practice by generating a creative idea (Mazla et al., 2019).
On the same note, entrepreneurial SMEs in today’s business world are associated with developing and researching new ideas, risk-taking, and working hard to devise or drive innovation or creativity into the business. Currently, rapid changes in numerous business world aspects require entrepreneurial SMEs to be more aware and alert regarding these changes (OECD, 2018). Notably, this dramatically assists these entrepreneurial SMEs in being abreast with these latest changes and technological advancements, ensuring they remain relevant in their different markets and industries. Hence, the competition and survival between entrepreneurial SMEs require entrepreneurs to continuously launch innovative and creative services and products to remain in the business world. Importantly, innovation and creativity are crucial strategies in entrepreneurial SMEs since these two major concepts play fundamental roles in the success and development of entrepreneurial SMEs (Markopoulos et al., 2021).
Creativity in Entrepreneurial SMEs
On the other hand, Salem & Beduk (2021) note that creativity is a human capacity or ability based on some reality presence. Thus, human behaviour relies upon a sphere of activity and existing order, whether from a philosophical or religious standpoint. Human creativity, because of this particular standpoint, can be regarded as being dependent on and derived from reality’s objective or constructed order (Asgary & Maccari, 2020). Generally, entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial SMEs should be able to bring existence, invent, or create something new or into a new form. This ability is neither natural nor inherited but requires some form of learning (Markopoulos et al., 2021). It is worth noting that creativity primarily refers to a continual or continuous process since it requires improving solutions and ideas continually and working hard. Creative individuals primarily work hard in their creativity ventures by making refinements, adjustments, and alterations to their work. Moreover, creativity in entrepreneurial SMEs also portrays that the business environment involves effective teamwork, a conducive team climate, and effective organisational management (Wu, Yuan, & Chen, 2021).
In addition, the creative process in entrepreneurial SMEs comprises seven major steps, portraying the unique creative process undertaken when creating a new venture because it is both versatile and dynamic. The first step in the creative process is known as Step 1: Preparation, portraying a basic step where the mind is prepared for creative thinking. Subsequently, this step involves identifying a specific problem or issue and searching for relevant information (Harrington, 2018). It also entails getting the mind ready by researching and studying more regarding the expertise field, as well as taking additional time to learn about the trade or professional association to gather more knowledge and experience. The second step in the creative process is Step 2: Thinking the unthinkable where the entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial SMEs are supposed to go or think outside the box and beyond their comfort zones. Notably, this step is essential because it significantly enables entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial SMEs to develop unique, creative solutions to various identified issues or problems (Salem & Beduk, 2021).
Furthermore, the third step is Step 3: Creativity is not Magic, whereby this step states that creativity refers to the ability or capacity to combine, change, reapply, or generate existing and new ideas. Moreover, this step notes that the easiest way to gain new ideas is by combining the existing elements and ideas (Asgary & Maccari, 2020). The fourth step is known as Step 4: Incubation, which involves undertaking numerous work assignments and devoting immense efforts to attain the fundamental objective of finding a solution. Notably, assessing the prevailing project greatly assists in generating potential ideas in this fourth step (Harrington, 2018). The fifth step is known as Step 5: Illumination, involving generating ideas derived from the incubation stage since it needs to be clarified. Importantly, this fifth step is paramount because the creative process results in gathering valuable practical ideas, which could be utilised to solve a particular solution (Salem & Beduk, 2021) The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay.
In addition, the sixth step is known as Step 6: Verification, which entails validating the usefulness and accuracy of a particular idea. In this step, an idea can be modified, accepted, or rejected with major or minor changes. It is imperative to note that once a particular idea has been rejected, the entire process will have to be undertaken from the first step again (Salem & Beduk, 2021). The final step is known as Step 7: Critical Thinking, which eventually is essential since it permits entrepreneurs to evaluate their individual abilities or capacities to evaluate ideas. It is worth noting that this step is also valuable to entrepreneurial SMEs because it offers numerous advantages. These advantages include assisting them in exploring new ideas, solutions, or horizons and helping them to formulate and implement the best solutions, horizons, or ideas (Wu, Yuan, & Chen, 2021).
Innovation in Entrepreneurial SMEs
Most importantly, many scholars have defined innovation as the utilisation of new knowledge to provide a new service or product that consumers, clients, or customers require. According to many research findings, the future success of entrepreneurial SMEs is heavily dependent on innovation (Plucker, 2022). Thus, innovation greatly assists creative individuals in entrepreneurial SMEs to remain relevant in their markets and industries and stay competitive. Innovation in the current competitive world is essential to the prosperity and survival of inventive entrepreneurial SMEs and creative individuals (Mumford & Todd, 2020). It is imperative to note that entrepreneurial SMEs are destined for destruction and degradation when innovation is lost because of the rapid pace of limited supply, high demand, and global economic growth. Notably, the entrepreneurial SMEs process depends heavily on innovation. On the other hand, entrepreneurial SMEs innovation refers to a unique method where entrepreneurs expand a pool of resources or generate new CSP to improve their wealth-generating potential. Research has shown that many entrepreneurial SMEs transform their ideas into different commercial services or products through the innovation process (Mumford & Todd, 2020).
Importantly, innovation in entrepreneurial SMEs can take various forms, including innovation in work organisations and management, where innovation is undertaken as a combined and equal effort to generate potential and viable ideas to become more competitive. The other form of innovation includes innovation in services or products, leading to effective demand increases, eventually increasing employment and investment opportunities (Carayannis, 2020). The other form of innovation includes innovation that directly affects and enhances improvements and changes to methods, contributing to an enormous activity increase, increases in demand, and cost reduction (Mazzarol & Reboud, 2020).
Roles of Innovation and Creativity in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs
In principle, innovation and creativity play fundamental roles in the development and success of entrepreneurial SMEs since they boost the business reputation, act as major sources of business survival, spur entrepreneurial quality, and create new ideas for competitive edges. Innovation and creativity also enable entrepreneurial SMEs to implement novel ways to develop their products and enhance their business operations, find similar patterns in various areas, and develop valuable solutions in their problem-solving processes (Mumford & Todd, 2020). Notably, innovation and creativity significantly boost business reputations because, in the current competitive market, entrepreneurial SMEs with unique products always have a competitive advantage over others that sell similar services or products. Hence, entrepreneurial SMEs should add value to their services and products to make them unique and attract new customers than dealing with similar services or products offered in the market. Notably, entrepreneurial SMEs should continue maintaining their business reputation by being innovative and creative continually while maintaining originality and not losing touch (Mazzarol & Reboud, 2020).
On the other hand, innovation and creativity provide entrepreneurial SMEs with valuable sources of business survival since it enables them to be creative with innovative services and products, as well as remain relevant in their markets or industries. Numerous recent authoritative findings by renowned business scholars have shown that entrepreneurial SMEs that heavily invest in innovation and creativity have high survival ratings than those that rely on the regular services and products in the market (Mumford & Todd, 2020). Notably, the world has dramatically transformed into a global village, and many customers know what they want, meaning they are ready to purchase their services and products from global entrepreneurial SMEs. Thus, entrepreneurial SMEs should invest heavily in innovation and creativity to survive in the current competitive market (Gay & Szostak, 2019).
On the same note, it is paramount to note that both innovation and creativity are similar to twins since none can exist without the other. Notably, creativity in entrepreneurial SMEs provides them with the ability or capability to produce unique and new ideas. In contrast, innovation enables them to implement their creativity by introducing a new product, process, solution, or idea (Carayannis, 2020). Moreover, innovation and creativity also play a pivotal role in entrepreneurial SMEs since it significantly increases their productivity The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay. Innovation and creativity also encourage employees working in entrepreneurial SMEs to explore new innovative solutions or ideas, develop and implement cost-effective business solutions, and think widely. Subsequently, innovation and creativity significantly improve the problem-solving processes, ensuring that entrepreneurial SMEs develop new innovative solutions or strategies and attain a competitive edge (Gay & Szostak, 2019).
In particular, innovation and creativity also play a fundamental role in entrepreneurial SMEs because they lead to higher organisational success since problems are solved creatively (Khanka, 2021). Innovation and creativity also encourage employees in entrepreneurial SMEs to grow their thinking capacities and enhance their expertise because they explore several unconventional possible solutions and divergent thinking. Innovation and creativity also greatly assist entrepreneurial SMEs in reaching new horizons or heights in their internal harmony, marketing activities, productivity, process improvement, and product value (Management Association, 2017).
Notably, when entrepreneurial SMEs utilise the creative process, especially the seven steps, it leads to novel concepts and ideas. Furthermore, decision-making plays an integral role in the innovation and creativity process, where entrepreneurial SMEs learn from their previous experiences and need to think widely, as well as assess their decisions to agree on the best possible ideas or solutions (Khanka, 2021). Ideally, this also enables entrepreneurial SMEs to attain competitive advantages over their competitors. Research has also shown that innovation and creativity also enable entrepreneurial SMEs to soar to greater heights and horizons with increased profitability and improved financial earnings. Commendably, innovation and creativity provide entrepreneurial SMEs with new perspectives on solving various operational or financial problems (Gay & Szostak, 2019).
Conclusion
In summation, innovation and creativity play numerous fundamental roles in the development and success of entrepreneurial SMEs. Some of these roles that innovation and creativity play in entrepreneurial SMEs include boosting business reputations, providing valuable sources of business survival, and spurring entrepreneurial quality. Moreover, innovation and creativity also greatly assist entrepreneurial SMEs in developing new ideas, products, or solutions to attain competitive advantages, providing novel ways to develop their products and enhance their business operations, and providing creativity during the problem-solving processes. The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay.
References
Asgary, N. H. & Maccari, E. A. (2020). Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Sustainable Growth: Opportunities and Challenges. Washington: Routledge.
Carayannis, E. G. (2020). Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. New York: Springer International Publishing.
Gay, C. & Szostak, B. L. (2019). Innovation and Creativity in SMEs: Challenges, Evolutions, and Prospects. London, UK: ISTE LTD.
Harrington, H. J. (2018). Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: The only way to renew your organization. Boca Raton: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis.
Khanka, S. S. (2021). Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship. Washington: Sultan Chand & Sons.
Lazzeretti, L., & Vecco, M. (2018). Creative Industries and Entrepreneurship: Paradigms in transition from a global perspective. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Pub.
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Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R. S., Ho, A. G, & Luximon, Y. (2021). Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Communication of Design. New York: Springer Nature.
Mazla, M. I. S., Jabor, M. K., Tufail, K., Yakim, A. F. N., & Zainal, H. (2019). The Roles of Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 470. https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125944672.pdf
Mazzarol, T. & Reboud, S. (2020). Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Theory, Practice, and Context. Singapore: Springer.
Mumford, M. D. & Todd, E. M. (2020). Creativity and Innovation in Organizations. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
OECD. (2018). Promoting innovation in established SMEs. https://www.oecd.org/cfe/smes/ministerial/documents/2018-SME-Ministerial-Conference-Parallel-Session-4.pdf
Plucker, J. A. (2022). Creativity and Innovation: Theory, Research, and Practice. Washington: Routledge The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay.
Salem, S. & Beduk, A. (2021). The Effect of Creativity and Innovation on Entrepreneurship. International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354209690_The_Effect_of_Creativity_and_Innovation_on_Entrepreneurship
Wu, Y. J, Yuan, C., & Chen, M. (2021). From Thinker to Doer: Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Maker, and Venture Capital. Johannesberg: Frontiers Media SA The Role Innovation and Creativity play in the Development and Success of Entrepreneurial SMEs Essay.
