COMPETING INTERNATIONALLY THROUGH MULTIPLE INNOVATIVE EFFORTS

Increasingly, small firms will be required to compete on international markets in order to grow and survive. This paper reports on a study o f 86 small manufacturing firms operating in the metal sector. All firm s had adopted one or more advanced manufacturing technology and were c onsidered by the Canadian Association of Manufacturers as process inno vative. The basic premise of this research was that in order to compet e internationally, a small firm had to develop certain innovative capa bilities. These capabilities were not only associated to traditional i nnovative efforts in R&D and process innovation, but also in supportiv e organizational capabilities in the form of strategic orientation, te chnological policy, and technological scanning. Results show that, for these small firms, process innovativeness remains an important compet itive factor for international competition and that it is often linked to an aggressive strategic orientation coupled to a short term emphas is on efficiency.