A symbiosis of quality and innovation in SMEs: amultiple case study analysis

Small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are coming under increasing market pressures due to larger more agile companies encroaching on their markets and increasing integration in the supply chain. Thus SMEs need to increase their innovativeness to improve and survive. The aim of this paper is to see how quality practices can be used to instill innovation within SMEs. The research methodology involved a statistical analysis of over 60 SMEs to determine their approach to quality and innovation. This approach was followed up with ten in‐depth case studies to determine deep rich data. The case study data, presented in this paper, show that quality is an essential foundation for progressing to large scale innovation and also continues to act as a catalyst for innovation.