SMEs: carriers of innovation, the European model

Abstract

Europe is very far from representing an economic, political, cultural and social homogenousspace. A factor that unites the societies in countries of the EU is that they are characterized likenetworks of relationships between SMEs (1) and Large Enterprises (LE) (1) where the relationshipwith the market and the public is fundamental and where the intermediate subjects like theChambers of Commerce, the category associations, the municipalities, etc. play a fundamentalrole. The small and medium enterprises are important carriers of innovation. The development of theSMEs can give a determining contribution to the economic and social progress, to new economicactivities, the creation of workplaces and to the competitiveness. The hypotheses of the research concur to construct a model that can be defined "European " incontrast with the more atomized systems, (emblematic for all that Anglo-Saxon), that assumesparticular shapes, varying from country to country.In the research we propose to consider the aspects of the valorization of the innovative potentialof the relation SMEs – Large Enterprises. This should not be understood as a convergencetowards one only model, but as the ability of every model to adapt itself to the change withoutlosing its specific identity.