Abstract

the aim of the expertise is to analyze the actual demand of smes from the baltic sea region for innovation support. the results of the conducted study can help formulate recommendations designed to increase innovation and competitiveness of smes in the baltic sea region in the future. research activities of this study include: the evaluation of innovation level of the baltic sea region enterprises (type and intensity of implemented innovation changes, innovation climate, barriers in innovation implementation in enterprises), the study of smes cooperation with scientific subjects, r&d sphere; and the identification of the needs of enterprises to do with the increase of their innovation capacities (demand for training, consulting, cooperation with universities and r&d sphere, or cooperation in a cluster).the sample of the analyzed smes consisted of 542 companies from 9 baltic region countries and had a large overrepresentation of commercial and service companies as well as mature small and medium-size enterprises (which have been on the market for over 10 years). on account of the fact that the sample of the enterprises used in the study was not representative, the results are not representative either.in the study, the baltic sea region entrepreneurs have been asked to specify a kind and a degree of intensity of innovation changes implemented in their companies. it turns out that marketing and product innovations are most frequent. moreover, an innovation climate based on openness in organization culture in these companies has proved to be an important factor in innovation implementation in the majority of the analyzed smes. smes in general have a bad opinion about the innovation climate in the country in which they operate. a difficult access to financing innovation activities by financial institutions is a common problem with building a friendly innovation climate in all the analyzed countries. major problems which smes struggle with in innovation implementation are: lack of financial resources, complicated legal procedures, and a deficiency of adequately qualified staff.a cooperation with scientific and r&d circles and other institutions designed to increase smes innovation level is vital on the account of the specificity of smes, which generally have limited human resources and a low financial potential. the results of the analysis indicate that local authorities including chambers of crafts and commerce and entrepreneurs associations are major partners in innovation cooperation for smes.as far as an smes cooperation with r&d institutions is concerned, a leader-role is generally played by universities. moreover, the intensity of this cooperation is quite high. the percentage of smes cooperating with r&d centers amounts to 50% in the germany, 64% in norway, 75% in lithuania and 90,9% in russia. only the polish smes declare a very low intensity of contacts with r&d sphere (only 16,37% of the polish smes can boast of such contacts). the intensity of cooperation with r&d institutions does not translate into r&d projects in the baltic sea region smes, however.in the majority of the polish, german and norwegian smes, there have not been any r&d activities, when this study was conducted. the russian and lithuanian smes are exceptions to this rule, because 9 out of 10 analyzed enterprises have been involved in r&d projects. a predominant type of r&d activities present in the baltic sea region smes are product and service enhancements.moreover, the study has shown that about 90% of the analyzed smes can see barriers impeding cooperation with scientific institutions. the major barrier smes encounter is insufficient proper funds to finance r&d and difficulties with access to external financing. however, according to the smes, the reasons for low intensity of cooperation with r&d sphere are scientific institutions themselves - smes report difficulties with initiating a cooperation with scientific institutions, a lack of interest of these institutions to involve in such a cooperation, and ignorance of the economic subject matter on behalf of these institutions' representatives.an attempt has been made to assess the demand for innovation in smes when analyzing the baltic sea region smes' innovation potential and their cooperation with r&d sphere.it turns out that smes from all the countries indicate a high demand for r&d activities. polish smes are an exception in this respect, because only 1 in 3 of the analyzed enterprises shows interest in r&d activities. unfortunately, a high demand for r&d is not accompanied by smes' intentions to conduct such research in the future. the study shows a high degree of uncertainty among smes as to satisfaction of their r&d needs. the authors of the study have intended to assess smes needs for innovation support from scientific institutions. the demand for specific types of support from universities has been much lower than the analyzed above demand for periodical r&d. the entrepreneurs have been mostly interested in periodical trainings and workshops for enterprises which were preparing or which were involved in innovative projects, as well as information meetings on specific types of and kinds of innovations. such a low level of demand for support from universities is due to the fact that most analyzed smes cannot see any potential benefits resulting from a cooperation with scientific institutions.the only positive effect of such a cooperation, which a majority of the analyzed smes from all the countries have agreed upon is ''launching new products and services''. however, the analyzed smes have declared a very high demand for trainings and consulting services from scientific environment. services, products and new technologies are desired fields of a possible cooperationfinally, cluster involvement in innovative projects of the baltic sea region smes as well as their intentions to engage in future cluster cooperation have been analyzed. it turns out that the majority of the analyzed companies have not been involved in a cluster so far. unfortunately, the majority of the analyzed smes do not have any intention to start a cooperation with any cluster.the above results show that it is necessary to start intense activities destined to increase the baltic sea region smes' understanding of benefits resulting from a cooperation with scientific institutions, and the involvement in a cluster venture. moreover, abolishment of the barriers identified in this study (mainly financial barriers) limiting both innovation implementation processes and smes' cooperation with scientific sphere is recommended.

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