Innovation and enhancement of enterprise capabilities : a survey of assessment approaches

Multiple internal and external factors shape the innovative capacity and practices of enterprises. An enterprise wishing to enhance its innovation capabilities would need to start by making an assessment of its position. Different approaches to such an assessment are put forward in this paper. Enterprises would also need to make strategic decisions about where they intend to be in the future and what course of action they would need to follow to get there. A recently developed approach that can be used to search out and identify potential faults in the innovation process is outlined. Given that innovation is a long-term process, enterprises bent on enhancing their innovative capaility need to adopt business behaviour that is given less to short-term-based ad hoc practices and more to sustainable growth objectives. This paper explores assessment approaches that business enterprises could consider for enhancing their long-term competitive and growth performance through innovation.