EXAMINATION OF SMES PERFORMANCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO INNOVATIONS IN BULGARIA AND BALKAN-MEDITERRANEAN REGION

Abstract

SMEs play a very important role in each country's economy. Therefore, it is vital to participate in innovation activities and to examine the internal and external obstacles they encounter during the innovation process. This paper presents examination of some of the results from a survey, conducted with 150 companies in Bulgaria and related to their innovation culture, attitudes and perceptions, as well as their activities, including investments. The obtained results could be used for SME investors’ framework development using classification and clustering methodologies.