Purpose

The objective of this article is to discuss how the research on innovation in the small businesses may be operationalized. This paper discusses the field's concepts, typologies, units of analysis and the general basic assumptions pertaining to the operationalization of innovation research in small businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

The article is an essay, whose format aims to provide the reader with reflections and multiple questions, by instigating the free thinking, the research as well as the construction of different ideas and/or perceptions in a logical and scientific way (Meneghetti, 2011). Thus, a conceptual approach for the operationalization of the innovation research in small businesses is proposed and discussed.

Findings

Most of the innovation literature has ignored the small businesses, so that its core concepts and basic assumptions should be reviewed in an inclusive approach. The authors developed an analytical proposal that consists of a four-step logical approach to researching innovation in small businesses, starting from the innovation's concept as something important and then evolving to discussing how one has to try and see the small business as an object of study.

Originality/value

The value of this paper lies with the attempt to critically bring the small businesses into the spotlight, as study them has practical and theoretical implications that go beyond the field of innovation itself.

中文翻译：

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“被遗忘的业务”中的创新

目的

本文的目的是讨论如何将小企业创新研究付诸实践。本文讨论了该领域的概念、类型、分析单位以及与小企业创新研究的运作相关的一般基本假设。

设计/方法/方法

这篇文章是一篇文章，其格式旨在通过激发自由思考、研究以及以逻辑和科学的方式构建不同的想法和/或感知，为读者提供反思和多个问题（Meneghetti，2011） . 因此，提出并讨论了小企业创新研究运作的概念方法。

发现

大多数创新文献都忽略了小企业，因此应该以包容的方式审查其核心概念和基本假设。作者制定了一项分析建议，其中包括研究小型企业创新的四步逻辑方法，从作为重要事物的创新概念开始，然后演变为讨论人们如何尝试将小型企业视为研究对象.

原创性/价值

本文的价值在于尝试批判性地将小企业置于聚光灯下，因为研究它们具有超越创新本身领域的实践和理论意义。