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In today’s economy, intangibles have become more important than physical assets for firm success. In particular, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) registered an increasing trend in patenting, exceeding large firms in the number of patent registrations. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between patents and SME sales performance, taking into consideration also patent quality.

The approach uses panel regression model to investigate the relationship between patenting and sales, controlling for firm size and firm age. The authors adopt a purposive sampling technique focusing on a sample of Italian SMEs in the mechanical industry.

The results show that the count of patents do not have any effect on sales performance, while the number of jurisdictions where the protection is extended produces a positive and significant result.

The main implication for SME entrepreneurs and managers is that relying on a large number of patents does not automatically lead to higher performance; instead, filing those patents which protect particularly valuable innovations could be more productive in terms of SME sales performance Moreover, the results suggest that a longer time lag between patent filing and SME sales performance might be possible.

This paper is one of first attempts to shed light on the issue regarding SMEs patent quality. It is notable that the quality of patents in terms of geographical scope is positively associated to SME sales performance.

THE Government, through the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is setting up a special organization to carry out scientific research in Mechanical Engineering to meet, and still more to anticipate, the needs of industry and government departments. The eventual annual expenditure will be in the region of £250,000 to £350,000, although it is unlikely that this figure can be reached for some years because of the present difficulties in obtaining suitably qualified staff and buildings. The research is intended mainly to supplement the research carried on in other research organizations in this country, and will largely be confined to those fundamental problems which underlie all mechanical engineering. Thus the subjects in which research is expected to be carried out are:

This paper aims to expand the understanding of the design thinking (DT) field and provides evidence that DT as an innovation mindset centered on user/human needs is able to lead enterprises to the development of radical product innovation.

The study is based on an illustrative case analysis of four eras of radical innovations in the watch industry, from the mechanical wristwatches to smartwatches.

The findings from the watch industry substantiate the developed DT triangle framework for designers, managers and executives, enabling the development of radical product innovation.

The study provides evidence for the claim that human-centered approach (rather than design-driven, meaning-changing approach) in DT can successfully lead to radical product innovations. For this, this paper distinguishes between “need” and “meaning” in the DT field and reemphasize the role of creating empathy with users to be able to identify their newly shaped needs. Fulfilling these newly shaped needs would ultimately result in the development of radically new products.

Attempts to provide a better explanation of differences in diverse export behaviour among similar operating firms in the same country. Wishes to compensate for deficiencies by analysing determinants of behaviour of exporting firms by: controlling for country‐specific; and industry‐specific influences on them. Tests the hypothesis and chosen research approaches which are based on earlier results. Discusses the use of a four‐part questionnaire designed with 194 independent variables and how this was sent to 1,500 managing directors of British and German food‐processing and mechanical engineering firms ‐ there were, by June 1982, 310 replies. Compares extracted sets of discriminating variables to validate by test established hypothesis. Identifies six key influences on export behaviour and concludes that the chosen research approach is an important step towards model building. Finally, states that future researchers will find scope to refine results further, and in more detail and uses a Likert scale with nine concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role intermediaries can play in an small to medium‐sized enterprise's (SME's) pursuit for corporate sustainability with a focus on eco‐innovation. The research identifies drivers and barriers for eco‐innovation, and highlights effects induced through collaboration between SMEs and local authorities, on the one hand, and consultancies, on the other.

This paper is based on an exploratory qualitative interview study among German SMEs of the metal and mechanical engineering industry that have participated in “Ecoprofit”, an intermediary based program that aims at introducing organizations to the concept of sustainable development through implementation of eco‐innovations.

The key findings are that first, the proactive approach by a public intermediary (here local authority) is one essential push factor to trigger eco‐innovations in SMEs with low absorptive capacity. Second, it is found that SMEs may need facilitation for eco‐innovation from different types of intermediaries (public and private) with different levels of support, which can range from customized and individual to more loosely held support, such as networks.

This study discusses the challenges of corporate sustainability with a focus on eco‐innovations for SMEs and proposes a “complex intermediary” consisting of a local authority and consultancies as one means to engage SMEs in sustainability. Moreover, it focuses on SMEs in the B2B context, organizations that are often overlooked despite their vast impact. Furthermore, by using a single industry approach, in‐depth findings for the metal and mechanical engineering industry are presented.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate the supplier's view on supplier‐initiated relationship dissolution due to lack of customer profitability. Design/methodology/approach – The research is focused on inter‐organisational buyer‐seller relationships. An exploratory study in the German mechanical engineering industry was conducted to provide insights into the usage of customer valuation techniques and the preponderance of unprofitable customer relationships, and to identify various ways of managing unprofitable customer relationships by means of cluster analysis. Findings – The study shows that many companies in the industry lack knowledge and use of customer valuation techniques. Three clusters of supplying firms are identified that differ in their willingness to end unprofitable customer relationships. Research limitations/implications – Provides an exploratory study into a neglected aspect of relationship marketing characterised by a low response rate. The sample contained companies from one major German industry, limiting the applicability of its findings. The main implications are that unprofitable customer relationships are a common feature of industrial markets, which merits further investigation. Respondents were shown to have a range of different views and approaches to such relationships. Research on customer valuation needs to focus on the implementation barriers of valuation methods. Practical implications – Study results stress the importance of developing and implementing customer valuation methods, the relevance of unprofitable relationships, and suppliers' decision making concerning such precarious relationships. It is a useful source of information and impartial advice for managers involved with customer management. Originality/value – The paper leads to a more thorough understanding of relationship marketing and provides empirical data on a neglected field of marketing research, as prior work did not consider the supplier's view on dissolution management in detail.

The new powerful large scale general purpose finite element programme system SESAM‐80, is designed to meet the challenges of numerical analysis in engineering in the 1980s. The capabilities include linear and non‐linear static and dynamic analysis, field problems including heat transfer, hydroelasticity electro‐magnetism, etc. The programme is specifically adapted for application of the multi‐level super‐element technique which gives efficient means of modelling and analysis of large and complex structures. Special emphasis is placed in the development of efficient and user oriented batch and interactive pre‐ and post‐processors. In order to meet the requirements of different industries, the SESAM‐80 programmes are adapted in turn key packages for the offshore industry, the ship industry, mechanical industry, etc.

In the competitive global market, firms have to keep profit from innovation activities. A firm makes profits by offering products or services at a lower cost than its competitors or by offering differentiated products at premium prices that more than compensate for the extra cost of differentiation. The IC Package and Testing technology industries were the first high technological industry to build in Taiwan. The Package and Testing industries in Taiwan adopted competitive innovation activities to become stronger. In our study, we want to know how innovation activities influence a firm operating in the IC Package and Testing industries. Our study used a questionnaire and Likert five‐point scale to survey the innovation activities, customer and feedback in innovation performance in the IC Package and Testing industry. The wafer level chip size packing technology in our study indicates the innovation activities. Because we need to compare the difference between the wafer level chip size packing technology and wire bonding technology to recognize innovation and how the innovator and customer were influenced. Our conclusions are described below: (1) When the innovator adopts innovation activities that can be maintained using experiments and knowledge, using machine and decision variables more quickly will produce success; (2) Innovators should adopt innovation activities that focus on customers that use knowledge and experimentation, training time and cost. If an innovation forces customers to spend much time and cost to learn new technology or applications, the innovation will not be adopted; (3) Innovators that create innovation performance higher than his customers must also consider the impact upon their customers. We have to remind innovator to focus on why their customers have a different level of evolution in the same innovation activities.

The Manpower Services Commission (MSC) has recently issued a consultative document in which it sets down the three propositions or aims for its new initiative on training. The document attempts not to be too controversial and gives all points of view, but it does stress that the three objectives:

The work described in this paper is part of a large study of the barriers to acceptance of production management techniques in UK manufacturing industry. The first part of this study is described, it:(i) establishes the use being made of proven traditional techniques of production management and operational research/statistical techiques by British production managers; and (ii) begins to investigate the barriers to acceptance of the techniques. The results reveal that in industry in the UK there is low usage of many of the techniques, particularly the highly quantitative techniques. The major barrier preventing usage of the techniques is lack of knowledge; training in production management has been found to be an extremely important factor in the usage of all the techniques examined.