Empirica successfully concluded the study “internationalisation of innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises” on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General Research and Innovation.

The study’s final report is available for download at the Commission’s Bookshop at http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/internationalisation-of-innovation-in-smes-pbKI0116175/?CatalogCategoryID=Gj0KABst5F4AAAEjsZAY4e5L.

A limited number of printed copies will also be available soon. Furthermore, the report, the single case studies and a summary of the related workshop are available at the study’s website at http://ri-policy-analysis.eu/studies/internationalisation-of-innovation-in-smes/.

This study focused on two subjects: innovation and internationalisation: which are deemed to be crucial for the European economy. The study had two main parts: (1) Twelve case studies of SMEs with insightful international innovation practice and (2) an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of European policy measures seeking to enhance such internationalisation. The case studies show that there are many different combinations of types of internationalising innovation, and no dominant scheme. Reaching a sufficient number of customers was found to be the principal driver for internationalisation. The SWOT analysis, done by study partner Dialogic from the Netherlands, suggests designing policy support measures aimed at innovation and internationalisation in conjunction.