Innovation and Export. Manon Enjolras

initiative of the PIA2⁷, Lorraine Regional Council, etc.). This book presents the results of this work in order to promote a joint vision of innovation and export, as well as the exploitation of the resulting synergies among both SMEs and institutional support actors. Through the design of a multi-criteria decision support tool aimed at highlighting these synergies, this work proposes a concrete application of this joint vision and its contributions, particularly in terms of resource optimization, which is a particularly crucial issue for SMEs.

The book is composed of five chapters divided into two complementary parts. The first part exposes and justifies the scientific positioning of the research. It, therefore, approaches the problem of innovation and export in SMEs from a theoretical point of view. Chapter 1 aims to introduce and relate the main concepts mobilized in order to arrive at a robust theoretical framework. This chapter thus proposes an original vision of the innovation–export relationship by applying the complexity paradigm. The main result of this chapter is the identification of a common innovation–export space at the origin of synergies. Chapter 2 aims to define and characterize the common innovation–export space through the identification of joint activities. It, therefore, presents the process of identifying activities specific to innovation and those specific to export before describing the identification and characterization of joint innovation–export activities that enable SMEs to simultaneously improve their ability to innovate and export.

      The second part adopts a more operational stance by seeking to transform the theoretical common space into a repository of joint practices at the origin of a functional decision support tool. The aim is to exploit the conceptual results of Part 1 to give them substance through the development of an evaluation tool (Chapter 3), and then applied through six case studies (Chapter 4). The tool, called “PE2I” (Potential Export and Innovation Index), was thus designed and tested with six French SMEs, from manufacturing or process sectors, of different sizes and technological intensity. This section provides feedback on the evaluation tool, its implementation and the performance of its results in order to identify prospects for improvement (Chapter 5).

      1 1 As defined by the OECD TEC (Trade by Enterprise Characteristics) database: microenterprises: <10 employees; small enterprises: 10–49 employees; medium enterprises: 50–249 employees; large enterprises: >250 employees.

      2 2 The gap between micro and small enterprises is explained by the fact that the majority of microenterprises are not export-oriented, due to their specific activities (local services, for example).

      3 3 In this book, we use the definition of innovation supported by ISO 56002 (2019): a new or changed product, service, process, business model or organization.

      4 4 Union des industries et métiers de la métallurgie, French Union of Metallurgical Industries and Trades.

      5 5 Fond pour l’innovation dans l’industrie, Fund for innovation in industry.

      6 6 Primary Support Exploratory Projects (Projets exploratoires premier soutien, PEPS) to foster interdisciplinary exploratory research.

      7 7 Plan d’investissement d’avenir 2 de l’ANR Lorraine université d’excellence, reference ANR-15-IDEX-04-LUE.

PART 1 The Relationship between Innovation and Export in SMEs