Emerging and deliberate product innovation strategies in SMEs: Results from a longitudinal study

The paper studies innovation strategy formation and its impact on firm performance. Strategy formation was captured by an analysis of strategic intentions and corresponding actions in two surveys carried out in 1995 and 2003. We found no direct association between emergent and deliberate innovation strategies and performance. Taking into account industry dynamics shows that environmental dynamics did not moderate the strategy performance link either. However, contrary to our expectations, emergent strategists used less often information from employees for strategy development and assessed their communication capabilities weaker as deliberate strategists.