ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the question of how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) approach innovation, and examines the nature of the innovation process, in particular identifying practices and behaviours that support innovation that is specifically environmentally oriented. Traditionally, technological innovations have sprung from the hands of large and multinational companies rather than SMEs, since it is within these large organisations that resources reside—financial investment in research and development, technological expertise, human resources and the space in which to take risks. It points to overt environmental innovation—as opposed to minimal defensive strategy—as a way of meeting the challenges that face SMEs. Whereas innovation per se is triggered by a combination of market pull or technology push, environmental innovation is usually triggered by regulation and the responsibility placed on the SME to minimise its environmental impacts. Research within industrially active SMEs stresses the importance of perception of the environmental challenge.
