Why adopt now? Multiple case studies and survey studies comparing small, medium and large firms

While a number of factors have been highlighted in the innovation adoption literature, little is known about whether different factors are related to innovation adoption in differently sized firms. We used preliminary case studies of small, medium and large firms to ground our hypotheses, which were then tested using a survey of 94 firms. We found that external stakeholder pressure and non-financial readiness were related to innovation adoption in SMEs; but that for large firms, adoption was related to the opportunity to innovate. It may be that the difficulties of adopting innovations, including both the financial cost and the effort involved, are too great for SMEs to overcome unless there is either a compelling need (external pressure) or enough in-house capability (non-financial readiness). This suggests that SMEs are more likely to have innovation “pushed” onto them while large firms are more likely to “pull” innovations when they have the opportunity.

► While a number of factors have been highlighted in the innovation adoption literature, little is known about whether different factors are related to innovation adoption in differently-sized firms.
► We found that external stakeholder pressure and non-financial readiness were related to innovation adoption in SMEs; but that for large firms, adoption was related to the opportunity to innovate.
► It may be that the difficulties of adopting innovations, including both the financial cost and the effort involved, are too great for SMEs to overcome unless there is either a compelling need (external pressure) or enough in-house capability (non-financial readiness).
► This suggests that SMEs are more likely to have innovation "pushed" onto them while large firms are more likely to "pull" innovations when they have the opportunity.