Towards the Innovation of High-tech Small-medium Enterprises (SMEs): The Interview Approach

With the intensive global market competition, the Chinese central government is paying more attention to the innovation of SMEs, especially for high-tech SMEs. This paper conducts the interview approach to investigate the status of innovation and its importance to SMEs in Suzhou. R&D development requires innovation as a key element. Findings from interviewees are positive towards innovation. Innovation has been used throughout the SMEs - from strategies, marketing, products to services. This implementation makes SMEs in Suzhou more competitive than most other cities of China by offering positive thinking and dynamic inputs to produce more creative products and services. However, problems have been identified. Although SMEs are the main body of technological innovation, but it is difficult for them to survive. We plan to propose a framework that contains all factors influencing R&D and carefully set hypotheses. With our mixed-method approach in our future work, we present more results and analysis based on our findings.